BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 43
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 13, 2009 

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                  AB 43 (Blakeslee) - As Amended:  April 28, 2009  

          Policy Committee:                               
          InsuranceVote:10-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill eliminates a cap on the number of civil services  
          employees authorized for the California Earthquake Authority  
          (CEA) and authorizes CEA to contract for the services of a chief  
          mitigation officer and specifies responsibility of the officer. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          No direct fiscal impact. CEA is a privately financed, publicly  
          managed agency with 25 civil service positions and a handful of  
          temporary and exempt positions. This bill eliminates the  
          staffing cap, but does not adjust current law administrative  
          financing which is capped at 3% of premium collected. 

           COMMENTS  

           Rationale.  This bill is sponsored by the author to provide the  
          CEA with greater staffing flexibility and to specify the duties  
          of a chief mitigation officer. The CEA is administered under the  
          authority of the Insurance Commissioner (IC) and is privately  
          financed by more than 700,000 insurance policies and capital of  
          more than $2 billion. CEA is authorized to sell policies of  
          basic earthquake insurance in conjunction with policies of  
          residential property insurance issued by insurers that have  
          transferred their earthquake risk to the CEA.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081