Pub. Resources Code, § 42423

(a) No later than 90 days before a budget is submitted to the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the department and the Department of Toxic Substances Control shall notify each program operator of each agency’s respective anticipated actual and reasonable regulatory costs directly related to implementing and enforcing this chapter in relation to the program operator’s activities as the criteria for those costs are defined in the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 42420.2. This may include the actual and reasonable costs associated with regulatory regulation development pursuant to Section 42420.2 and other startup activities prior to stewardship plan submittal and approval, relative to the role of the program operator’s program compared to other programs.

(b) Program operators shall, on a schedule determined by the department and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, as applicable to each agency’s fees, pay the department and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, respectively, fees incurred to reimburse the department and the Department of Toxic Substances Control for incurred costs as described in subdivision (a). The fees shall not exceed the department’s or the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s actual and reasonable regulatory costs to implement and enforce this chapter as the criteria for those costs are defined in the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 42420.2. The fees shall be paid by each producer, either individually, if the producer is complying with the requirements of this chapter individually, or through a stewardship organization.

(c) (1) The department and the Department of Toxic Substances Control shall deposit all moneys received from a program operator pursuant to this section into the Covered Battery Recycling Fund, which is hereby established in the State Treasury.

(2) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, moneys in the Covered Battery Recycling Fund shall be expended by the department and the Department of Toxic Substances Control to implement and enforce this chapter, as well as to reimburse any outstanding loans made from other funds used to finance regulation development and startup costs of the department’s and the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s activities pursuant to this chapter.

(3) The moneys in the Covered Battery Recycling Fund shall not be expended for any other purpose.