70377. (a) Amounts required to be transmitted by a county, city and county, or court to the state pursuant to this section shall be remitted to the State Treasurer no later than 45 days after the end of the month in which the fees, assessments, or penalties were collected. This remittance shall be accompanied by remittance advice identifying the collection month and that the remittance is to be deposited into the State Court Facilities Construction Fund. Any remittance made later than this time shall be considered delinquent and subject to the interest and penalties specified in this section.
(b) Upon receipt of delinquent payment required pursuant to this section, the Controller shall do the following:
(1) Calculate the interest on the delinquent payment by multiplying the amount of the delinquent payment at a daily rate equivalent to the rate of return on money deposited in the Local Agency Investment Fund pursuant to Section 16429.1 from the date the payment was originally due to either 30 days after the date of the issuance by the Controller of the final audit report concerning the failure to pay or the date of payment by the entity responsible for the delinquent payment, whichever comes first. In calculating the interest under this paragraph, the Controller shall apply the average monthly Local Agency Investment Fund rate over the period of delinquency.
(2) Calculate a penalty at a daily rate equivalent to 11/2 percent per month from the date 30 days after the date of the issuance by the Controller of the final audit report concerning the failure to pay.
(c) Interest or penalty amounts calculated pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be paid by the county, city and county, or court to the State Court Facilities Construction Fund no later than 45 days after the end of the month in which the interest or penalty was calculated. Payment shall be made by the entity responsible for the error or other action that caused the failure to pay, as determined by the Controller in a notice given to that party by the Controller.
(d) Notwithstanding Section 77009, the court may pay any penalty or interest imposed pursuant to this section due to an error or other action by the court from money received from the Trial Court Trust Fund. This section does not require an increase in a court’s allocation from the Trial Court Trust Fund.
(e) The Controller may permit a county, city and county, or court to pay the interest or penalty amounts according to a payment schedule in the event of a large interest or penalty amount that causes a hardship to the paying entity.
(f) The party responsible for the error or other action that caused the failure to pay may include, but is not limited to, the party that collected the funds who is not the party responsible for remitting the funds to the State Court Facilities Construction Fund, if the collecting party failed to provide or delayed providing the remitting party with sufficient information needed by the remitting party to distribute the funds.
(g) The changes made to this section by Chapter 452 of the Statutes of 2013 shall apply to all delinquent payments for which the Controller has not issued a final audit before January 1, 2014.
(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 79, Sec. 24. (AB 143) Effective July 16, 2021.)