6372.9.
(a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Fairground Act for Investment and Revitalization.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) California fairgrounds are valuable public assets with facilities suitable for economic development.
(2) Fairgrounds serve as critical sites for emergency and disaster response, community engagement, and regional events.
(3) Encouraging private investment on fairground property can generate long-term revenue streams for fairground operations and operations, create significant regional economic benefits, often in underserved communities, and also increases increase the state’s overall economic output.
(4) The high cost of construction, labor, utilities, and taxes has hindered development, resulting in lost opportunities.
(5) A targeted sales and use tax exemption to support public-private partnerships at state-recognized fairground properties would attract substantial private capital investment, provide fairgrounds with stable revenue streams, create jobs, and grow the state’s economy.
(6) A sales and use tax exemption applying only to new developments will not reduce existing revenues, and stimulating new projects will generate net new economic activity benefiting the region and state.
(c) (1) On or after January 1, 2027, and before January 1, 2032, there are exempted from the taxes imposed by this part the gross receipts from the sale in this state of, and the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of, tangible personal property purchased for use within in the construction, development, or ongoing operation of a qualifying project that has been approved pursuant to subdivision (e).
(2) The exemption provided by this subdivision shall not apply to any sale where the place of sale in this state is on or within the real property of a fair as described in subdivision (a) of Section 3203 of the Food and Agricultural Code.
(d) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) “Fairground” means “fair” or “state-designate “state-designated fairground” as those terms are defined in subdivision (a) of Section 3101 of the Food and Agricultural Code.
(2) “Qualified project” means a new development project, or new phase of an existing project, that is located on the land of a fairground and undertaken pursuant to a lease, sublease, license, or other written agreement, and is approved by a governing body of a fairground pursuant to subdivision (e).
(e) (1)A governing body of a fairground shall approve a qualified project for no more than 20 years. project.
(2)A governing body of a fairground may extend the approval of a qualified project for no more than 20 years.
(f) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of the Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law (Part 1.5 (commencing with Section 7200)) or the Transactions and Use Tax Law (Part 1.6 (commencing with Section 7251)), the exemption established by this section does not apply with respect to any tax levied by a county, city, or district pursuant to, or in accordance with, either of those laws.
(2) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), the exemption established by this section does not apply with respect to any tax levied pursuant to Section 6051.2 or 6201.2, pursuant to Section 35 of Article XIII of the California Constitution, or any tax levied pursuant to Section 6051 or 6201 that is deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Local Revenue Fund 2011 pursuant to Section 6051.15 or 6201.15.
(g) (1) An exemption shall not be allowed under this section with respect to sales by, or purchases from, a retailer engaged in business in this state or from a retailer that is authorized by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, under the rules and regulations as it may prescribe, to collect the tax and that is, for the purposes of this part relating to the use tax, regarded as a retailer engaged in business in this state, unless the purchaser furnishes the retailer with an exemption certificate completed in accordance with any instructions or regulations as the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration may prescribe and the retailer retains a copy of the exemption certificate in its records and furnishes the copy of the exemption certificate to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration upon request.
(2) If a purchaser furnishes the retailer with a copy of an exemption certificate pursuant to paragraph (1), but uses property purchased with the exemption certificate in a manner not qualifying for the exemption, the purchaser is liable for payment of sales tax, with applicable interest, as if the purchaser were a retailer making a retail sale of the property at the time the property is so used, and the cost of the property to the purchaser shall be deemed the gross receipts from that retail sale.
(h) (1)For the purposes of complying with Section 41, the Legislature finds and declares the following:
(A)
(1)
The specific goals of the tax exemption allowed by this section are all of the following:
To encourage new private investment and economic development on fairgrounds.