Existing law grants to the State Lands Commission control over specified public lands in the state, including indemnity lands selected in lieu of specified land granted to the state by the United States for the use of the public schools that was lost. Existing law authorizes the commission, whenever the commission determines it to the advantage of the state to do so, to select lands of the United States equal in area to the number of acres to which the state is entitled as indemnity.

This bill would repeal the provisions of existing law relating to indemnity lands and lieu lands, except that the bill would preserve the general authority of the commission to select indemnity lands for any losses sustained by the state to its school land grants.

Existing law provides that nothing in the provisions relating to the sale of school lands affects the right of the commission to use as bases for indemnity scrip any lands embraced within the exterior boundaries of a national reservation and not otherwise disposed of.

This bill would repeal that provision. The bill would prohibit that repeal of certain provisions of law related to public lands from affecting any existing vested rights under the repealed provisions or under certain transactions entered into under the repealed provisions, or the rights of any purchaser of school lands sold before the effective date of that repeal.

Existing law establishes the School Land Bank Fund in the State Treasury, composed of all net revenues, moneys, and remittances from the sale of school lands and lieu lands. Existing law continuously appropriates the moneys in the fund to the commission, acting as the School Land Bank Trustee, to administer the fund and the interest in acquired real property, including the selection, acquisition, and conveyance of real property, for the support of the public school system. Existing law authorizes the commission, in addition to the purchase price, to pay from the fund the costs and expenses attributable to an acquisition, and also to pay the expenses attributable to the management and remediation efforts on state school lands.

This bill would explicitly authorize the commission to pay from the fund typical costs and expenses attributable to a sale of school lands, as specified, when it is in the best interest of the state to do so. By expanding the purposes of a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.