Assembly Bill No. 2549 authorizes the State Treasurer to sell State tax indebtedness and merit rating surcharge indebtedness.
The bill requires purchasers of debt to promptly file any warrant of satisfaction of the debt. Purchasers of tax indebtedness and their employees are subject to the confidentiality provisions of the State Tax Uniform Procedure Law, and are subject to criminal penalties and fine if purchasers or their employees use tax information for purposes other than the collection of the debt. Purchasers of merit rating surcharge indebtedness will be provided with information necessary to collect the debt if disclosure of the information does not violate State or federal law.
The bill requires that, if the underlying tax or surcharge must be deposited to a dedicated fund then the proceeds of the sale of the indebtedness relating to the tax or surcharge must also be deposited to the same dedicated fund.
The Office of the Treasurer has provided an estimate that the sale of current debt may raise approximately $20 million in revenue. The Office of the Treasurer states that this estimate is based on outstanding merit rating surcharge indebtedness of about $600 million and outstanding tax liabilities of over $2 billion.