BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          AB 69 (Beall)
          
          Hearing Date: 08/25/2011        Amended: 05/27/2011
          Consultant: Jolie Onodera       Policy Vote: Human Services 7-0
          
















































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          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. 
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                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12     2012-13       2013-14     Fund
           
          Increased CalFresh     Unknown; increased benefits, potentially 
          Federal*
          participation           in the low hundreds of millions annually

          CalFresh administration$2,700 to $3,800 annually, 
          dependentGeneral 
                                 upon level of participation

          Sales tax revenue      $1,000-$1,300 in 2011-12; potentially 
          General
                                 $5,000 to $7,000 ongoing

          *CalFresh benefits are 100 percent federally funded.
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          STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.

          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 
          systems without costs or significant changes. 

          This bill would require the DSS to support enrollment efforts by 








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          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. Assuming 34 percent of eligible seniors not already 
          receiving CalFresh benefits may participate statewide, to the 
          extent counties opt to utilize the new application and 
          enrollment process could result in additional CalFresh benefits 
          in the low hundreds of millions of dollars (100 percent 








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          federal). Newly eligible households could range from 106,000 to 
          142,000 based on 75 percent participation to implementation 
          statewide. Assuming a phase-in of eligible cases over nine 
          months, intake and ongoing administrative costs could range from 
          $2.7 million to $3.8 million General Fund per year. 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. Assuming every dollar in 
          CalFresh benefits results in state sales tax collections of 
          approximately $0.02 would result in $1 million to $1.3 million 
          in increased revenue in 2011-12 assuming an operative date of 
          January 2012, and between $5 million to $7 million once fully 
          implemented.

          Author's amendments specify no costs to the State for automation 
          and make the provisions operative only upon the availability of 
          adequate funding and the ability to implement the provisions of 
          the bill within existing resources, as determined by the 
          department.