BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           52 (Portantino)
          
          Hearing Date:  8/12/2010        Amended: 8/9/2010
          Consultant: Katie Johnson       Policy Vote: Health 5-3
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: AB 52, an urgency measure, would request the  
          University of California to develop a plan to establish and  
          administer the Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program on or  
          before July 1, 2011, and would increase the fee for birth  
          certificate copies by $2 to provide funds to implement the  
          program. The bill would also extend the sunset on the program  
          from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2018.
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
           Major Provisions         2010-11      2011-12       2012-13     Fund
                                                                  
          Operating funds                 unknown, but cost pressure to  
          fund          Special/*
                                   more than $3,000 annually     Federal/
                                                                 Private/
                                                                 General

          $2 fee revenues                 Approximately $3,000  
          annually,Special*
                                   commencing January 1, 2011

          Potential loss of HRSA grant    $471              $0   $0Federal

          *Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Fund
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.
          Existing state law, AB 34 (Portantino), Chapter 516, Statutes of  
          2007, requires the California Department of Public Health  
          (CDPH), on or before January 1, 2010, and until January 1, 2015,  
          to establish the Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program  
          (UCBCP), to the extent that public or private funds or grants  
          are identified and secured for these purposes. Existing law  
          provides that no state funds, unless specifically appropriated,  










          may be used for implementation of the program and establishes  
          the Umbilical Cord Blood Collection (UCBC) Fund, from which  
          moneys would be available upon appropriation by the Legislature.  
          CDPH was awarded $471,000 in federal grant funds to implement  
          the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Public  
          Cord Banking in California. The proposed FY 2010-2011 Budget Act  
          would appropriate the funds to the department; however, it has  
          yet to be passed by the Legislature or signed into law by the  
          Governor.

          This bill would shift the administration of UCBCP from CDPH to  
          the University of California (UC), if UC elects to administer  
          the program, and would extend the sunset on the program from  
          January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2018, as well as recast and  
          augment the program. This bill would request that UC develop a  
          plan to establish and administer UCBCP for the purpose of  
          collecting units of umbilical cord blood for public use, as 

          Page 2
          AB 52 (Portantino)

          defined, in transplantation and providing nonclinical units for  
          research pertaining to biology and new clinical utilization of  
          stem cells derived from the blood and tissue of the placenta and  
          umbilical cord. The HRSA grant mentioned above could be put in  
          jeopardy because UC is not the grantee; this would be a loss of  
          $417,000 in federal funds in FY 2010-2011 in the event the  
          appropriation is included in the final budget as expected. 

          This bill would permit UC to accept public and private funds for  
          the purpose of implementing these provisions and would clarify  
          that the UCBC Fund would be created in the State Treasury, not  
          within the General Fund. While the existing prohibition on the  
          use of state funds for this program would be deleted, this bill  
          would continue to require that moneys in the fund would be  
          available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Additionally,  
          this bill would provide that nothing would preclude UC from  
          establishing and administering an additional fund independent of  
          the State Treasury in support of the program. Staff recommends  
          that this provision be removed; it would be unnecessary to have  
          dual funds and could complicate state oversight of the program.

          This bill would assess an additional $2 onto the fee paid by  
          individuals obtaining birth certificates. The current fee is $14  
          and is collected by local agencies. This bill would provide that  
          a local agency could not withhold up to 15 percent of these  










          additional $2 to cover administrative costs. There could be cost  
          pressure to local agencies in the event that they incur  
          additional administrative costs in collecting and remitting this  
          additional revenue to the state. However, this would not  
          constitute a reimbursable mandate. There are approximately  
          550,000 births in the state annually and an additional 1 million  
          birth certificates are requested each year. Thus, annual  
          revenues would be approximately $3.1 million. Revenues would  
          vary depending on the number of births and the number of  
          individuals requesting birth certificates annually. The fee,  
          along with the program, would sunset January 1, 2018. In  
          addition to the $2 revenue per birth certificate, the UCBC Fund  
          would be permitted to contain additional federal, state, and  
          private moneys.

          This bill would state that it is the intent of the Legislature  
          that UC implement the program when the Controller determines by  
          an unspecified date that at least an unspecified amount of  
          money, including both federal and private moneys and the fee  
          revenue collected pursuant to these provisions, is available in  
          the UCBC Fund. Since this provision indicates that the program  
          would need more funds than that provided by the fees in this  
          bill, there would be cost pressure in the hundreds of thousands  
          to millions of dollars annually in federal, private, and General  
          Funds to fund this program.

          Additionally, this bill would provide that if the Controller has  
          not made a determination on or before an unspecified date that  
          an unspecified amount of money is available to implement the  
          program, the amount in the fund would be immediately distributed  
          to each private contributor or the federal government in the  
          amount contributed and that the UCBC Fund would cease to exist.

          Staff recommends that this bill be amended to delete the  
          provisions regarding the unspecified amounts and dates mentioned  
          above and to provide that the moneys in the UCBC Fund be  
          available upon appropriation by the Legislature.