BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 74
Page 1
( Without Reference to File )
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 74 (Budget Committee)
As Amended June 12, 2013
Majority vote. Budget Bill Appropriation Takes Effect
Immediately
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(May 13, 2013) |SENATE: |28-10| (June |
| | | | | |14, 2013) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: BUDGET
SUMMARY : Contains statutory and technical changes necessary to
implement the Budget Act of 2013 relating to human services.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Conform state statute regarding the In-Home Supportive
Services (IHSS) Authority (Statewide Authority) to the process
that applies when negotiations take place. Authorize the
Statewide Authority to implement any or all of its last, best,
and final offer and would require that any proposal in the
Statewide Authority's last, best, and final offer be presented
to the Legislature for approval if it would conflict with
existing statutes or require the expenditure of funds.
2)Exempt the Statewide Authority from public meeting
requirements involving confidential discussions relating to
bargaining and personnel issues.
3)Delete the specified timing (currently the 2012-13 fiscal
year) by which the Department of Social Services (DSS) must
use a new rate-setting methodology, developed after
consultation with specified stakeholders, for estimating IHSS
public authorities' administrative costs.
4)Enact limitations on the placement of children ages 6 to 12
in-group homes. Require the deputy director or director of
the county child welfare department or an assistant chief
probation officer or chief probation officer of the county
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probation department to make findings that would authorize the
extension of the 60-day group home placement limitation for
children under six years of age, and creates requirements
relating to placements that extend beyond 120 days. Enact
similar provisions for a dependent child 6 to 12 years of age,
inclusive, and would require DSS to adopt regulations to
implement these provisions, if DSS determines that regulations
are necessary.
5)State the Legislature's intent that no child or youth in
foster care reside in-group care for longer than one year, and
would require DSS to provide updates to the Legislature,
commencing no later than January 1, 2014, regarding the
outcomes of assessments of children and youth who have been in
group homes for longer than one year.
6)Extend by one-year provisions that limit exceptions to a
moratorium on the licensing of new group homes or approvals of
specified changes for existing providers. The larger
moratorium was initially established as part of 2010-11
Budget, and the limitations on exceptions were established by
the 2012-13 Budget.
7)Extend, through 2014-15, the suspension of a prohibition on
the state charging fees for fingerprinting in order to conduct
background checks of applicants for licenses to operate
specified community care facilities that serve children.
8)Make technical and conforming changes regarding the Resource
Family Approval (RFA) program, consistent with Child Welfare
Services programmatic realignment legislation passed as part
of the 2012-13 Budget, which changed the pilot program to a
permanent, statewide program. Delete references to pilot
project counties and refer instead to early implementation
counties. The RFA program requires DSS to implement a
unified, family friendly, and child-centered resource family
approval process to replace the existing multiple processes
for licensing foster family homes, approving relatives and
nonrelative extended family members as foster care providers,
and approving adoptive families.
9)Revise provisions relating to the allowable value of a
licensed vehicle retained by an applicant or recipient of
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids
(CalWORKs) aid, by, among other things, requiring that the
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equity value of each licensed vehicle not be greater than
$9,500.
10)Revise, commencing January 1, 2014, the procedures relating
to an applicant's job search participation by requiring an
applicant, after receiving an orientation and appraisal, to
participate in job search and job club, family stabilization
pursuant to specified criteria, or substance abuse, mental
health, or domestic violence services, unless the county
determines that the participant should first receive a
specified assessment. With respect to the family services
component, authorizes a recipient to participate if the county
determines that his or her family is experiencing an
identified situation or crisis that is destabilizing the
family and would interfere with participation in
welfare-to-work activities and services.
11)Require DSS, in consultation with the County Welfare
Directors Association of California, to develop an allocation
methodology to distribute additional funding for expanded
subsidized employment programs for CalWORKs recipients.
Require counties that accept additional funding pursuant to
these provisions to continue to expend no less than the
aggregate amount of county funds that the county expended for
public and private sector subsidized employment in the 2012-13
fiscal year.
12)Extend by one year (through the 2013-14 state fiscal year) a
"match waiver" policy in the CalFresh program that was in
effect for the 2010-11 through 2012-13 state fiscal years.
Under the waiver, counties are allowed to draw down the full
state General Fund allocation for CalFresh administration
without meeting their share of nonfederal costs for the amount
above an applicable maintenance of effort requirement (which
is tied to 1996-97 expenditures).
13)Revise the timeframes for mailing out and receipt of the
certificate of eligibility required for the annual
redetermination for both CalWORKs and CalFresh programs.
Require counties to use information reported on the semiannual
report form or the annual certificate of eligibility to
prospectively determine eligibility and the grant amount for
each semiannual reporting period.
14)Require both DSS and the Department of Community Services and
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Development to report if there is a service demand that
exceeds the allocation funding for the federal Low-Income Home
Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) benefit. This report shall
be made to the Legislature and a plan shall be developed to
maintain the program as intended. Require DSS to ensure that
the receipt of the nominal LIHEAP service benefit does not
adversely affect a CalFresh household's eligibility or reduce
the household's CalFresh benefits. Provide that if use of the
full standard utility allowance, rather than the homeless
shelter deduction, results in a lower amount of CalFresh
benefits for a homeless household, the homeless household
would be entitled to use the homeless shelter deduction.
15)Authorize DSS to implement specified sections of this act by
all-county letters or similar instructions, pending the
adoption of emergency regulations by July 1, 2015.
16)Provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to
existing law.
17)Reappropriate the balance of specified appropriations made in
the 2011 and 2012 Budget Acts to DSS for the purposes provided
for in those appropriations, to be available for encumbrance
and expenditure until June 30, 2014, thereby making an
appropriation.
18)Contain an appropriation allowing this bill to take effect
immediately upon enactment.
Analysis Prepared by : Nicole Vazquez / BUDGET / (916) 319-2099
FN: 0001175