BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW
Mark Leno, Chair
Bill No: AB 1471
Author: Committee on Budget
As Amended: June 13, 2012
Consultant: Jennifer Troia
Fiscal: Yes
Hearing Date: June 14, 2012
Subject: Budget Act of 2012: Human Services Omnibus
Summary: Contains the necessary statutory and technical
changes to implement the Human Services provisions of the
Budget Act of 2012.
Proposed Law:
This bill includes the following provisions
1)Child Support Payment Trust Fund: For the 2012-13 fiscal
year only, authorizes money in the Child Support Payment
Trust Fund accounts to be invested in specified
securities or alternatives that offer comparable
security, including mutual funds and money market funds.
The provision does not authorize an investment or
transfer that would interfere with the objective of the
Child Support Payment Trust Fund.
2)Continues Suspension of Child Support Incentive Payments:
Extends the suspension of performance and health
insurance-related incentive payments to local child
support agencies (LCSAs) through the 2014-15 fiscal year.
Existing law, in the absence of a suspension, would
award the ten highest performing counties with an
additional share of collections and require the state to
provide payments to LCSAs of $50 per case for obtaining
3rd-party health coverage or insurance of Medi-Cal
beneficiaries.
3)Continues Suspension of Fingerprint Fee Exemption:
Extends the suspension of a prohibition on the state
charging fees for fingerprinting in order to conduct
background checks of applicants for licenses to operate
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specified community care facilities that serve children.
4)Changes to Implementation Date for Sales Tax on Support
Services: Delays the date when the state can implement
existing law related to the extension of the sales tax to
apply to support services (i.e., homecare)- from July 1,
2010 to January 1, 2012. Under existing law,
corresponding supplementary payments would be made to
specified providers of those services.
5)Repeals Sections Related to Statewide Eligibility and
Enrollment Processing: Repeals a statute that was
enacted as part of the 2009 Budget Act that required the
Administration to develop a statewide eligibility and
enrollment determination process for the California Work
Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs),
Medi-Cal, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP, also known as CalFresh or food stamps) programs,
and directed the development of a comprehensive plan with
respect to a centralized eligibility and enrollment
process. Subsequent statutes changes related to the
Statewide Automated Welfare System have obviated these
requirements. Thus, this repeal resolves potential
statutory conflicts with respect to the state's
information technology systems and enrollment processes.
6)Reduction to CalWORKs Single Allocation: Permanently
extends a reduction to the CalWORKs Single Allocation
that has been in effect during each of the last three
fiscal years (while lowering the reduction from $375 to
$327 million GF annually). The Single Allocation funds
welfare-to-work employment services, Stage 1 child care,
and the counties' implementation of specific program
administration responsibilities. Over the last few
years, and again in the provisions of this bill, the
reduction has been accompanied by welfare-to-work
exemptions for parents with young children (one child
under the age of two or two children under the age of
six). This bill would also continue to allow counties
flexibility to redirect funding between specified
employment assistance and substance abuse treatment
funding sources.
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7)Phase-in and Reporting Related to Cal-Learn Program:
Restores the operation of intensive case management
services provided through the Cal-Learn program within
CalWORKs. State funding for these services was suspended
during the 2011-12 fiscal year. From July 1, 2012 to
March 31, 2013, inclusive, authorizes counties to provide
full or partial year funding, depending on the pace of
their progression to full implementation, by April 1,
2013. Additionally requires the Department of Social
Services (DSS) to annually report specified information
related to the program to the budget committees of the
Legislature. The phase-in approach included in this bill
provides for savings in 2012-13 of approximately $5
million GF.
8)Moratorium on Group Home Rate-Setting: Permanently
extends the moratorium on the licensing of new group
homes or approvals of specified changes for existing
providers, with some allowable exceptions. This
moratorium was initially established as a part of the
2010 Budget Act. New provisions further limit, for one
year, exceptions for any programs with rate
classification levels below 10 to those associated with a
program change.
9)Cost-of-Living Adjustment for Dual Agency Rates:
Requires annual adjustment by changes in the cost of
living (as measured by the California Necessities Index)
of rates payable for care and supervision of children who
are dually eligible for the Child Welfare Services and
Developmental Services systems. This change is
consistent with changes made last year to foster family
home and related rates in response to litigation. Under
the provisions of this bill, the change to dual agency
rates would begin retroactively with the 2011-12 fiscal
year.
10)Repeal of Medication Dispensing Machine Pilot: Repeals
statute that required the Department of Health Care
Services (DHCS) to establish a medication dispensing
machine pilot project for certain at-risk Medi-Cal
recipients. This pilot project was also associated with
a reduction, with some exceptions, in authorized hours of
service for In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) recipients
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that would have been triggered if savings from the pilot
had not been achieved. This bill would repeal both of
these policies.
11)Extension of 3.6 Percent Reduction in Authorized IHSS
Hours: Extends, for the 2012-13 fiscal year, an existing
reduction of 3.6 percent in authorized IHSS hours that is
otherwise scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2013. This
reduction is anticipated to save approximately $58.9
million GF in 2012-13.
12)Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Sharing:
Authorizes local public authorities or nonprofit
consortia to share Criminal Offender Record Information
(CORI) background reports with DSS in specified
circumstances. More specifically, allows the public
authority or nonprofit consortia to share this
information when an individual who is applying to become
an IHSS provider has requested from the department an
exception to a prohibition on his/her ability to become a
provider because of his/her criminal record.
13)Rate-setting for IHSS Public Authorities: Extends by
one year, to the 2013-14 fiscal year, the required time
by which DSS, in consultation with designated
stakeholders, must develop a new rate-setting methodology
for estimating the costs of public authorities with
respect to administration of specified requirements
related to the state's IHSS program.
14)Rehabilitation Appeals: Eliminates the Rehabilitation
Appeals Board, which currently serves as the entity which
hears appeals by applicants for, or clients of, programs
provided by the Department of Rehabilitation. Instead
provides for fair hearings to be held before an impartial
hearing officer and establishes standards, training, and
due process requirements related to those fair hearings.
15)Kids' Plates Funding: Amends existing requirements
related to distribution of funds in the Child Health and
Safety Fund that are derived from the Have a Heart, Help
Our Kids specialized license plate program (Kids'
Plates). Specifically, redirects $501,000 from child
abuse and injury prevention programs to support specific
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Department of Social Services' (DSS) responsibilities
related to child day care licensing.
16)Child Welfare Services Automation System: Requires DSS
to use specified funding included in the 2012 Budget Act
for the next steps necessary to move forward with the
recommendation of the Child Welfare Automation Study Team
(CWAST) to proceed toward procuring a new information
technology system to replace the existing Child Welfare
Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS). Further,
requires the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) and the
department to report the results of these activities, in
addition to key milestones and anticipated timelines, to
the Legislature by March 1, 2013, for review during 2013
budget hearings.
17)Assessment of Automation Costs: Requires DSS and OSI to
have a qualified 3rd party conduct a cost-reasonableness
assessment of specified costs related to changes in the
Statewide Automated Welfare System (SAWS). More
specifically, requires this assessment with respect to
costs that will be proposed by the project vendor in
order to consolidate two of the state's three existing
consortia systems into one new consortium (leaving the
state with a two-consortium system). This migration will
consolidate data and functionality for the counties
currently served by Consortium-IV into the Los Angeles
Eligibility, Automated Determination, Evaluation and
Reporting (LEADER) Replacement System, which is newly
being developed. The cost reasonableness assessment is
intended to assist the state in determining whether the
proposed overall costs for this migration are within
range of reasonableness, based on specified factors.
Support: Unknown
Opposed: Unknown
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