BILL ANALYSIS
SB 57
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Date of Hearing: August 25, 2005
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
SB 57 (Alarcon) - As Amended: July 12, 2005
Policy Committee: HealthVote: 8-4
Public Safety 5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes counties to collect an additional $2
penalty assessment for every $10 in base fines for purposes of
providing payment for emergency medical services. Sunsets the
provisions of this bill January 1, 2009. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Authorizes a county board of supervisors to elect to levy an
additional penalty of $2 for every $10 or fraction thereof
upon every fine, penalty, or forfeiture imposed and collected
by the courts for criminal offenses, including violations
relating to the control of alcoholic beverages, and all
offenses involving a violation of the Vehicle Code or any
local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, except
parking offenses, as specified.
2)Requires funds collected as a result of this bill to be
deposited into the Maddy Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Fund, with 15% utilized to provide funding for all public and
private pediatric trauma centers throughout the county.
Requires expenditures to be limited to reimbursement to
physicians and hospitals for patients who do not make payment
for services, or to hospitals for expanding the services
provided at pediatric trauma centers, including the purchase
of equipment.
3)Requires counties that do not maintain a pediatric trauma
center to utilize the money resulting from this bill to
improve access to pediatric trauma and emergency services in
the county, with preference for funding given to hospitals
that specialize in services to children, and physicians who
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provide care for children.
4)Requires costs associated with administering the funds
received to be reimbursed from the money collected, capped at
10 percent.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Increased revenue for emergency medical services for the
duration of this bill, depending upon the county and the
amounts collected, potentially in the tens of millions of
dollars annually, to the extent that judges do not reduce base
fines and offenders do not opt for jail time in lieu of the
increased fines.
2)Indeterminate state revenue loss, potentially in excess of
$150,000 GF, to the extent that offenders elect jail time in
lieu of paying increased fines, or if judges use their
discretion to reduce penalty assessments as a result of the
penalty assessment increase authorized by this bill. Either
of these scenarios would affect existing state entities funded
through state penalty assessments. Data regarding the extent
to which judges use their discretion to reduce fines and the
number of offenders who serve jail time in lieu of paying
fines is not collected by the state, so the extent of state
revenue loss resulting from a local penalty assessment
increase is difficult to estimate. However, because the state
received $231 million in state penalty assessment revenue on a
cash basis in 2004-05, a small percentage decrease of .05% in
state penalty assessment revenue would result in a state
revenue loss of $1.2 million.
3)One-time non-reimbursable increased costs to counties electing
to implement an additional penalty assessment for accounting
and programming changes, staff training, and revisions to
forms.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The author argues many hospitals suffer from funding
shortages, are not adequately prepared to serve the patients
in their area, and are often forced to close their doors.
Many of these hospitals offer trauma care services essential
to saving the lives of many patients who without them would
have no choice but to go elsewhere for services. The author
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argues trauma care centers face a $635 million dollar
shortfall, and this bill seeks to generate funding to help
alleviate this problem.
2)Penalty Assessments . Existing law establishes an additional
penalty to be assessed by each county on fines, penalties, and
forfeitures imposed for criminal offenses and parking
penalties, to be used for local courthouse construction,
criminal justice facilities construction, automatic
fingerprint identification funding, forensic laboratory
funding, emergency medical services funding, and DNA
identification funding. In most counties, traffic violators
pay $21 to $23 in penalty assessments for each $10 (or
fraction thereof) in a base fine, plus a 20% state surcharge
on the base fine plus related criminal case fees and
assessments. The state received approximately $231 million
from penalty assessments in 2004-05 on an unaudited cash
basis, plus an additional $55.5 million from the 20%
surcharge.
3)Maddy EMS Funds . Maddy EMS Funds are used primarily to
reimburse physicians and hospitals for patients who do not
make payment for emergency medical services. These funds
receive two revenue streams: a) penalty assessments on certain
criminal offenses and motor vehicle violations, and b) a
portion of Proposition 99 tobacco tax funds. Each county, at
its option, can establish a Maddy Fund upon adoption of a
resolution by the county's board of supervisors.
4)Opposition . The Judicial Council writes in opposition that
the additional penalty assessment in this bill will impose
significant burdens on court administration, in counties that
adopt the assessments, courts will need to reprogram their
case management systems to perform the new calculations, and
some older systems are not capable of reprogramming. The
Teamsters and other labor organizations oppose this bill,
arguing that assessments can total between 300 to 350% of base
violation fine, which goes against truth in government
principles, and unfairly impacts men and women who must drive
to work, or who use their vehicles for work.
Analysis Prepared by : Scott Bain / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
SB 57
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