BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair AB 69 (Beall) Hearing Date: 07/11/2011 Amended: 05/27/2011 Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Human Services 7-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: AB 69 would require the Department of Social Services (DSS), to the extent permitted by federal law, to allow counties to utilize existing information maintained by the Social Security Administration (SSA) regarding low-income social security benefit recipients to simplify enrollment into CalFresh. This bill would require DSS to support enrollment efforts through various activities, as specified. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund Programming/automation Unknown; potential costs in the hundredsGen/Fed changes of thousands to millions of dollars to DSS Increased CalFresh Unknown; benefit and administrativeFed*/Gen/Loc participation costs potentially in the millions of dollars annually Development of streamlined One-time costs potentially in excess of Gen/Fed application process $100 to DSS *CalFresh benefits are 100 percent federally funded. _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Existing federal law provides for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known in California as CalFresh, under which nutrition assistance benefits are provided to eligible individuals. This bill would require DSS, to the extent permitted by federal law, waiver, demonstration project, or other federal authority, to allow counties to utilize existing information maintained by the SSA in order to streamline and simplify enrollment into CalFresh provided that an interested county has either the existing capacity to receive the information, or the ability to adapt its existing automation AB 69 (Beall) Page 3 systems without costs or significant changes. This bill would require the DSS to support enrollment efforts by doing all of the following: 1) Working with the SSA to target social security recipients 60 years of age and older whose income and other factors are likely to qualify them for aid; 2) Developing a streamlined application and simplified enrollment process for likely eligible recipients, which may include strategies used by other states to reduce paperwork and increase federal nutrition benefits, including self certification of key eligibility factors, standardization of benefits and deductions, and automation of the application process; 3) Seek waivers, grants, or other federal authority and support necessary to implement this section. The supportive enrollment efforts required under the provisions of this would result in increased workload to DSS of an unknown, but potentially significant amount in excess of $100,000 to work with the SSA, develop a streamlined application and enrollment process for SSA recipients, and seek the appropriate federal authority to implement the new process. Although counties are authorized to implement this process subject to the capacity to receive the information, or the ability to adapt its existing automation systems without costs or significant changes, there could be significant costs to the State in programming and automation changes required to enable the secure and proper sharing of data between the SSA and existing automation systems. Although combined application projects have been implemented in other states utilizing data matching for SSI recipients in order to increase SNAP participation, extending the data sharing concept to social security recipients (while excluding SSI recipients) has not been tested to date. The potential ongoing costs to the State to enter into an agreement with SSA to provide this information are also unknown. Recent data suggests that there are over 440,000 CalFresh eligible households containing recipients of social security benefits. To the extent counties opt to utilize the new application and enrollment process could result in additional AB 69 (Beall) Page 4 CalFresh benefits in the millions of dollars (100 percent federal). The associated intake and ongoing administrative costs would also be significant (50 percent federal, 35 percent state), and would be dependent upon the number of newly enrolled seniors. For every 10 percent of potentially eligible households (44,000 households), additional administrative costs of $9.6 million ($3.3 million General Fund) could result. To the extent the application and enrollment process is simplified and/or streamlined could result in lower estimated administrative costs for this population. Additional federal CalFresh benefits received will likely result in increased sales tax revenue to the State. Studies show that low-income individuals spend a significant portion of their money on food, and increasing CalFresh access would allow them to spend that money on taxable items.