BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
314 (Calderon)
Hearing Date: 05/11/2009 Amended: 04/02/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety
7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 314 amends existing law regarding restitution
payments. This bill would direct the Controller to deduct unpaid
restitution penalties from a person's income tax refund. This
bill would allow the Victims Compensation and Government Claims
Board (VCGCB) to authorize reimbursement of more than $2,000
(the maximum currently allowed in statute) for a victim's
relocation expenses if VCGCB determines it appropriate to due
unusual or exceptional circumstances. This bill makes
legislative declarations with regard to the Restitution Fund.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Change offset priorities:
Controller workload $0
$0 $0 General
New revenues generated unknown, potentially
significant Special*
Allow increased victim unknown, potentially
significant Special*
Relocation payment amount
*Restitution Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill may meet the criteria for referral to
the Suspense File.
Existing law requires the Controller to offset specifies
financial obligations, listed in order of priority, against the
amount of a person income tax refund. This bill would make
unpaid penalties owed to the Restitution Fund the fifth priority
(after non-payment of various child and spousal support-related
priorities). The Controller's office has indicated that it would
incur no costs to implement this bill. Moreover, by offsetting
personal income tax refunds, there will be some amount of
additional revenue to the Restitution Fund.
Existing law allows the VCGCB to authorize cash payment or
reimbursement not to exceed $2,000, to a victim for expenses
incurred in relocating, if the expenses are determined by law
enforcement to be necessary for the victim's personal safety or
emotional well-being. This bill would allow VCGCB to increase
the payment to an amount greater than $2,000 if the VCGCB "finds
this amount is appropriate due to unusual, dire, or exceptional
circumstances of a particular claim."
The additional cost of this bill to the Restitution Fund depends
on the amount of additional money determined necessary by the
VCGCB for various victims' relocation. There are approximately
2,000 claims annually for relocation expenses. According to
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SB 314 (Calderon)
the VCGCB, the average amount paid is $1,500, for a total of
$3,000,000 spent on this type of payment, annually. It is
unclear what specific circumstances or threshold would qualify a
victim to receive more than $2,000 and how often this will
occur. The VCGCB has indicated that it anticipates a larger
award would go to a small fraction of the 2,000 claims, based on
the smaller number of claims that receive the full $2,000
currently. If 10 percent (200 total) cases each received an
additional $1,000, expenses would total $200,000, and this bill
would be a candidate for referral to the Suspense File.
Staff recommends deleting Section 3 of the bill, the legislative
declaration, which reads:
The Legislature finds and declares that the Legislature should
not borrow or otherwise use funds from the Restitution Fund to
offset other expenses or to supplement the state's budget,
because funds dedicated for the victims of crime should be
reserved for that sole purpose, and continuous raiding of the
Restitution Fund for purposes unrelated to the victims of crime
have threatened the solvency of the Restitution Fund.
The LAO has indicated that the projected future insolvency of
the Restitution Fund has a variety of causes, including funding
programs directly related to victims services.