(a) State and local governments are encouraged to work cooperatively with California federally recognized tribes in their fee-to-trust applications for purposes of regaining ancestral lands.
(b) State and local governments are encouraged to support California federally recognized tribes in their nongaming fee-to-trust applications.
(c) A local government shall not adopt or enforce a resolution or ordinance that would prevent the local government from conducting a fair evaluation of a fee-to-trust application based on the merits of the application.
(d) (1) A local government that opposes a fee-to-trust application shall do both of the following:
(A) Request, by certified mail to the applicant tribe, within 10 days of receiving the notice from the federal government, information from the tribe on the economic benefits to the local government from both the project that is the subject of the application, if applicable, and the tribe’s economic contribution to the local jurisdiction in the last five years.
(B) If the local government receives information on economic benefits from the applicant tribe within 10 days of the local government’s request to the tribe, include the information on economic benefits, as described in subparagraph (A) in any opposition letter or other document submitted to the federal government, either in its response or as an attachment to its response.
(2) If the applicant tribe does not provide information on economic benefits within 10 days of the request, the local government shall not be required to submit information on economic benefits in its response to the federal government.
(Added by Stats. 2021, Ch. 291, Sec. 1. (SB 712) Effective January 1, 2022.)