BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
733 (Leno)
Hearing Date: 05/18/2009 Amended: 04/23/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety
7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: This bill requires the Victims Compensation and
Government Claims Board (VCGCB) to administer a grant program to
create multi-disciplinary trauma recovery centers (TRC) that
provide victims services in the areas of: mental health;
community outreach; coordination among medical personnel, mental
health care providers, law enforcement and social services.
VCGCB would be authorized to award grants of up to $1,700,000
from the Restitution Fund, not to total more than $5,100,000.
This bill makes legislative findings and declarations regarding
the importance of providing treatment and services to crime
victims.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Restitution Fund grants up to $5,100 up to $5,100
up to $5,100 Special*
Program Administration Unknown, potentially significant
costs Special*
(VCGCB)
*Restitution Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
This bill requires the VCGCB to administer a new grant program
for trauma recovery centers. VCGCB would receive applications
and award grants to centers of no more than $1,700,000 per
center, and totaling no more than $5,100,000 each year. The
board may award grants funding for up to three years.
This bill has substantial costs, but to the degree that the
trauma recovery centers receiving grants are successful, the
state will likely have some cost savings. These cost savings
will, however, be at least somewhat offset by the increased
number of victims served under this program.
The purpose of this bill is to replicate the successful model
used in San Francisco General Hospital's Trauma Recovery Center
(TRC). TRC was created in 2001 to develop and test a more
cost-effective alternative model of care than the one usually
used for victims in the state, TRC was developed in partnership
with VCGCB. And funded from the Restitution Fund 2001-2005. In
2005, funding was vetoed by the governor, with a veto message
explaining that he thought appropriating money specifically to
San Francisco's TRC depleted Restitution Fund moneys intended
for all victims in the state and jeopardized federal funding
because TRC funds are "not being spent on direct victim
reimbursement". San Francisco County ultimately continued
funding TRC.
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SB 733 (Leno)
By all measures, TRC has been very successful at providing
victim's services more cost effectively than individual
reimbursements to victims for seeking their own mental health
and medical services. In addition to the cost containment for
each individual victim that occurs when TRC as the provider is
paid by VCGCB because it seeks to serve as many people as
possible, as opposed to a victim potentially incurring more
expensive services elsewhere, TRC has served seven times as many
victims in need of mental health services as the entire panel of
San Francisco fee-for-service providers. TRC provides services
more efficiently, and is able to reach more people (which often
mitigates cost savings). If these services are needed, however,
there may be additional long term savings by providing them to
victims who would not seek them otherwise and would have a
slower recovery period.
Requiring VCGCB to administer a new grant program will increase
existing workload, and it is unclear if new staff would be
required. A Bureau of State Audits (BSA) report from December
2008 criticized the size of the VCGCB administration relative to
services provided and the efficiency of reimbursement
processing. The BSA report also criticized VCGCB outreach,
contending that many victims are completely unaware of its
existence and program. The LAO estimates that in 2006-07, VCGCB
administrative costs accounted for $39,000,000 - about 31% of
the annual funding for that year. It is possible that the VCGCB
could absorb the administration and evaluation of this program
within existing resources.