republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20132014/sb-1353.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Local government: Williamson Act."
description: "Existing law, the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to enter into contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation. Existing law sets forth procedures for reimbursing cities and counties for property tax revenues not received as a result of these contracts. Existing law sets forth the term of these contracts at 10 or 20 years, except that until January 1, 2016, a county may, in any fiscal year in which payments authorized for reimbursement to a county for lost revenue are less than 12 of the participating county's actual foregone general fund property tax revenue, revise the term for newly renewed and new contracts to either 9 or 18 years. Existing law provides for an addition to the assessed value of properties subject to contracts with a reduced term."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20132014"
identifier: "SB 1353"
citation: "California SB 1353 (20132014)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Local government: Williamson Act."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nielsen"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 25
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2014-02-21"
last_action: "2014-09-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3e0458f5-93d1-41aa-b686-01e402adb787"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1353"
source_hash: "180d29e2934d665575758dfefe3c8c5df81542e2df9ae18f46829fa874a362e1"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California SB 1353 (20132014) — Local government: Williamson Act.

Existing law, the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to enter into contracts with owners of land devoted to agricultural use, whereby the owners agree to continue using the property for that purpose, and the city or county agrees to value the land accordingly for purposes of property taxation. Existing law sets forth procedures for reimbursing cities and counties for property tax revenues not received as a result of these contracts. Existing law sets forth the term of these contracts at 10 or 20 years, except that until January 1, 2016, a county may, in any fiscal year in which payments authorized for reimbursement to a county for lost revenue are less than 12 of the participating county's actual foregone general fund property tax revenue, revise the term for newly renewed and new contracts to either 9 or 18 years. Existing law provides for an addition to the assessed value of properties subject to contracts with a reduced term.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/21/14 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1353&version=20130SB135399INT)
2. **05/15/14 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1353&version=20130SB135398AMD)
3. **09/15/14 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1353&version=20130SB135396CHP)
4. **SB1353** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1353)
5. **08/20/14 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1353&version=20130SB135397ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Unfinished Business SB1353 Nielsen Concurrence — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 1353 Nielsen Senate Third Reading By OLSEN — **75–1** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading — **35–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations Recommend Consent. — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and re-refer to Committee on Appropriations with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Agriculture. — **8–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Nielsen — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2014-02-21** Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction`
- **2014-02-22** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 24.
- **2014-02-24** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2014-03-17** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2014-03-21** Set for hearing April 2.
- **2014-04-02** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 3038.) (April 2). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-04-11** Set for hearing April 28.
- **2014-04-28** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 3278.) (April 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2014-04-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-05-01** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 3326.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-05-01** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2014-05-15** Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and AGRI. `referral-committee`
- **2014-05-15** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on L. GOV. `committee-passage, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2014-06-04** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on AGRI. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 4). Re-referred to Com. on AGRI. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-06-19** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 18). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee, committee-passage`
- **2014-07-02** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (July 2). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2014-07-03** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2014-08-07** From consent calendar.
- **2014-08-07** Ordered to third reading.
- **2014-08-18** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 75. Noes 1. Page 6124.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2014-08-18** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2014-08-19** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 34. Noes 0. Page 4605.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2014-08-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11 a.m.
- **2014-09-15** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2014-09-15** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 322, Statutes of 2014.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3e0458f5-93d1-41aa-b686-01e402adb787`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).