BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair SB 813 (Correa) Hearing Date: 05/16/2011 Amended: 05/03/2011 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Education 10-0; V.A. 8-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: SB 813 would extend the period of time, from two years to four years, that a former member of the Armed Forces receives priority registration for enrollment at the California State University (CSU) and the California Community Colleges (CCC). This bill requests that the University of California (UC) comply with priority enrollment as specified in this measure. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund Extend CCC priority registration Possibly significant reimbursable mandate General Extend CSU priority registration Likely minor and absorbable General _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill may meet the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Existing law requires the CCC and CSU, and requests UC, to give priority for registration for enrollment to any member or former member of the Armed Services for any academic term attended at one of these institutions within two years of leaving active duty, if the institution already administers a priority enrollment system. (Education Code § 66025.8) SB 272 (Runner, 2007) originally established that priority registration for veterans at CSU and CCCs. When that bill was proposed, CCCs estimated this bill would result in minor costs for each campus, mostly related to database adjustment and training. Staff estimated the change would require an average > (>) Page 1 of 20 hours of staff time at $30 per hour (including benefits) for each CCC campus, for a total cost of approximately $65,000. While SB 272 was a new mandate on the CCCs, no mandate claim was ever filed to implement its provisions. The state did not reimburse the CCCs for any changes they may have made to implement the bill. Extending the term for which veterans are given priority enrollment from two to four years is unlikely to require substantial additional work for the CCCs, but is a reimbursable mandate and the CCCs could request reimbursement. The CCCs have suffered extensive budget reductions in recent years, and may be more likely to file a mandate claim for additional workload. Any mandate filed is likely to be less than the $65,000 originally estimated for the changes.