Communities near prisons get funds

Wilson signs bill: The state will help out schools and governments in areas
affected by expansion of jail staffs.

BY JAKE HENSHAW

Gannett News Service

SACRAMENTO There will be more state money going to communities near
prisons with emergency beds to accommodate expanding staffs, thanks to a
new law.

The governor has signed Assembly Bill 1378 that will provide $2 million to
help communities from Salinas to Southern California deal with the influx
of new prison staff members and their families.

``AB 1378 will provide desperately needed funding for school districts and
local governments impacted by the expansion of prisons,'' said Assemblyman
Robert Prenter, RHanford, the bill's author.

Approval of the bill represents the latest chapter in a longrunning debate
over what role the state should play in helping local communities deal with
the impact of new and expanded prisons.

Traditionally, skeptics, including state corrections officials, have
questioned the need for special state aid since the communities benefit
from the increase in taxpaying prison employees with good incomes.

Advocates of special aid readily have acknowledged the longterm economic
benefits of new prisons to communities in their legislative districts.

But they have argued that prisons often are located in rural communities
with relatively low assessed property valuation, which limits their options
to raise funds to expand schools and basic facilities like roads and sewers
to handle increased population.

After 1992, the state began providing some socalled mitigation funding,
according to a legislative analysis of AB 1378. But corrections officials
resisted such aid for the majority of the 18,000 emergency beds approved in
199596.

In opposing AB 1378, corrections officials argued that the beds were
temporarily installed in dayrooms and cafeterias and might be used on and
off, and thus didn't have a permanent impact on the community.

But advocates of mitigation funds countered that some of these beds have
been in use for a year or more and the communities are struggling to deal
with the effect.

In a letter earlier this year seeking the mitigation funds, 14 legislators
including Prenter and Assemblymen Jim Battin, RPalm Desert, Peter
Frusetta, RHollister, Brett Granlund, RYuciapa, and Keith Olberg,
RVictorville, said new prison staff members affect everything from local
roads to law enforcement.

``With respect to schools, prisons can generate significant student
enrollment growth, and facilities impacts must be immediately absorbed by
the local school districts,'' the lawmakers wrote.

These argument impressed Gov. Pete Wilson, who signed AB 1378, though he
asked for some technical changes next year.

AB 1378 will provide $805 for each emergency bed, with the money being
divided equally between the schools and the counties and cities.

For education, the money goes to the county superintendents of schools, and
they work with local districts on a fair formula for distribution. The
Department of Corrections will hold the city and county share until they
certify that they have reached agreement in each county for distribution.

The bill also calls for this same approach to be used in the future if
funds are appropriated. This means communities around prisons, like the
California Institution for Men in Chino, and Salinas Valley State Prison in
Soledad, where emergency beds have been approved but not installed, might
get funding in the future.

The bill takes effect Jan. 1.

Published Monday, October 20, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News