BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                            



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                                    THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 235
          Author:   Gatto (D)
          Amended:  4/29/13 in Assembly
          Vote:     27 - Urgency


           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE  :  7-0, 6/24/13
          AYES:  De Le�n, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  71-1, 5/9/13 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    State claims

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill appropriates $1,080,580.70 from specified  
          funds to the California Victim Compensation and Government  
          Claims Board (Board) for the payment of 343 state claims.

           ANALYSIS  :    The State Board of Control was established in 1945.  
           It was revised and renamed the Victim Compensation and  
          Government Claims Board by 
          AB 2491 (Jackson, Chapter 1016, Statutes of 2000).  Government  
          Code Section 13928 requires the Board to ensure that all claims  
          that have been approved by the Board, and for which no legally  
          available appropriation exists, are submitted for legislative  
          approval at least twice during each calendar year.  In general,  
          the Board will approve claims in November and February.  Those  
          claims are reported to the Chairs of the Appropriations  
          Committees who introduce bills appropriating General Funds and  
          special funds to pay the claims.  These bills may appropriate  
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          funds in amounts to the penny for tens to hundreds of claims.   
          Government Code Section 906 provides for the payment of interest  
          on claims approved by the Board for which an appropriation has  
          been made beginning 30 days after the effective date of the law  
          by which the appropriation is enacted.
          The re-issuance of stale-dated warrants is the most prevalent  
          claim approved by the Board.  For stale-dated warrants, the  
          State Controller must confirm that, (1) the check was not cashed  
          and has not been issued and (2) more than three years have  
          elapsed since the check was issued and the monies have reverted  
          to the General Fund or to the relevant special fund.  For these  
          warrants an appropriation is needed to reissue the payment.   
          This category also may include state treasury bonds that have  
          not been redeemed within ten years of their maturity date (there  
          are no such claims in this bill), but the majority of warrants  
          are payroll or tax refund checks.

          This bill appropriates approximately $1.1 million from the  
          General Fund and various other funds to pay 343 claims approved  
          by the Board, 338 of which are for reissuing stale-dated  
          warrants.  These expired checks range in payment amount from $2  
          to $86,607; the average payment amount is $2,541.79.

          In addition to the stale-dated warrants, the bill includes  
          payment for the following five claims:

          1.$95,056.49 for a contract claim to pay State Controller legal  
            services in excess of the original contracted amount.  The  
            legal services were conducted at the direction of the State  
            Controller under an amended contract.  The Department of  
            General Services did not approve the contract changes, but the  
            legal services had already been performed and were deemed  
            critical.

          2.$122,833.00 for a contract claim related to the California  
            Emergency Management Agency for grant funding awarded for gang  
            intervention work.  The grant appropriation liquidation period  
            expired due to procedural problems that were eventually  
            resolved.

          3.$1,297.36 to reimburse a Department of Social Services  
            employee for travel expenses.  The original forms to process  
            the reimbursement were not considered to be filed on time  
            because they were lost in an office move.

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          4.$1,567.00 to reissue an unclaimed property payment that was  
            mistakenly paid by the State Controller to an individual with  
            the same name as the eligible claimant.  The funds were  
            uncollectable from the original payee, who is now indigent.

          5.$700.80 for a tort claim to reimburse a Board of Equalization  
            employee's travel expenses, which were approved but filed late  
            by the employee.


           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  Yes   Fiscal Com.:  Yes    
          Local:  No

          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:  General Fund  
          appropriation of $914,057.76 to pay 317 claims, and  
          appropriations totaling $166,522.94 from various funds to pay 26  
          claims as follows:

                 $4,038.64 from the Estate Tax Fund (0085) to pay one  
               claim.

                 $1,297.36 from the Continuing Care Provider Fund (0163)  
               to pay one claim.

                 $122,833.00 from the Restitution Fund (0214) to pay one  
               claim.

                 $201.48 from the California Water Resources Development  
               Bond Fund (0502) to pay one claim.

                 $1,622.23 from the Unclaimed Property Fund (0970) to pay  
               two claims.

                 $1,610.08 from the Motor Vehicle Account (0044) to pay  
               nine claims.

                 $637.33 from the CSU Trust Fund (0948) to pay one claim.

                 $34,945.04 from the Employment Development Contingent  
               Fund (0185) to pay eight claims.

                 $268.78 from the Service Revolving Fund (0666) to pay  
               one claim.

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                 $69.00 from the Public Employees' Healthcare Fund (0822)  
               to pay one claim.


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  71-1, 5/9/13
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,  
            Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,  
            Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Dahle,  
            Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth  
            Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hagman,  
            Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine,  
            Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell,  
            Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan,  
            Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,  
            Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Torres, Wagner, Weber,  
            Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
          NOES:  Ch�vez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Conway, Gorell, Holden, Logue, Mansoor,  
            Waldron, Wilk, Vacancy


          JA:ej  6/26/13   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  NONE RECEIVED

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