BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Senator Jim Beall, Chair BILL NO: AB 2187 A AUTHOR: Cooley B VERSION: April 21, 2014 HEARING DATE: June 10, 2014 2 FISCAL: No 1 8 CONSULTANT: Sara Rogers 7 SUBJECT County children's trust funds SUMMARY This bill requires that birth certificate fees collected by a county for a child, whose mother resides in another county, shall be transmitted to the county children's trust fund in the county of the mother's residence. This bill removes the specification that the transfer is only required if the county of residence has no licensed health facility that provides maternity services within its jurisdiction. ABSTRACT Existing Law: 1.Establishes the State Children's Trust Fund, for the purpose of funding innovative and distinctive child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention projects and permits individuals to designate income taxes, counties to designate a portion of birth certificate fees, and Continued--- STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2187 (Cooley) Page 2 private individuals to grant, gift and bequeath monies to the fund. (WIC 18965 et seq, RTC 18711) 2.Authorizes a board of supervisors to designate a voluntary commission, board or council to establish a county children's trust fund, consisting of fees collected from birth certificates, grants, gifts, or bequests from private sources to be used for child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs, and any funds appropriated by local governmental entities or the Legislature. (WIC 18965 and 18966) 3.Establishes a birth certificate fee structure of $12 to be paid by an agency applicant, as specified and $18 to be paid by any other applicant, $4 of which is to be paid to either a county children's trust fund or to the State Children's Trust Fund, as specified. (HSC 103625(b)) 4.Requires birth certificate fees collected for the county children's trust fund by a county for a child whose mother resides in another county that does not have a licensed health facility providing maternity services, to be transmitted by the county treasurer to the county of the mother's residence. (WIC 18966) 5.Provides that counties that receive less than $20,000 per year for the county children's trust fund from birth certificate fees shall be granted from federal matching funds an amount that brings the trust fund up to $20,000. From the remainder (if applicable), each county is required to receive $10,000, with the remaining funds to be distributed based on population. (WIC18966.1) This bill: 1.Removes the condition that a county shall transmit county children's trust fund moneys to the county of residence only when that county has no licensed health facility providing maternity services. STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2187 (Cooley) Page 3 FISCAL IMPACT This bill was keyed non-fiscal. This bill may lead to small distributional impacts between counties to the extent that children are born out of the mother's county of residence despite having a health facility within the county. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION Purpose of the bill: According to the author, currently, if a mother gives birth in a delivery facility that is outside of her county of residence, and her county of residence has a delivery facility, the fee charged for the copies of her child's birth certificate remains with the county where she delivered her child. The author states that as a result, the birth certificate fee revenue that would benefit the child's county of residence, in the form of neglect and abuse prevention programs and services, is lost to the county of delivery. The author states that because health insurance parameters often dictate what delivery facilities that are in a patient's "network," some pregnant mothers may need to deliver outside of the county in which they live. To ensure that each county receives the funds for the children it provides programs and services for, the author argues that it is vital that the fee for requests of copies of a child's birth certificate should follow the child, regardless of where the child's mother gives birth. State Children's Trust Fund and County Children's Trust Fund The State Children's Trust Fund was established in 1982 to provide funding for innovative and distinctive child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention projects. It is funded through county birth certificate surcharges, state income tax designations and private donations. These monies were not realigned and are awarded by the state Office of STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2187 (Cooley) Page 4 Child Abuse Prevention to counties that have submitted proposals. The purpose of these funds is to research, evaluate and disseminate information to the public, to establish public-private partnerships with foundations and corporations, and to increase public awareness about child abuse and neglect via media campaigns. Similarly, the county children's trust funds were established the same year to support county child abuse prevention coordinating councils, as well as child abuse prevention and intervention programs provided by community based organizations or universities. Counties are required to report the following information to the Office of Child Abuse Prevention: Descriptions of the types of programs and services funded from the county trust funds; Target populations benefitting from these programs; Amount of each revenue source county trust funds as of June 30 of each year; Amount disbursed in the preceding fiscal year. Community Based Child Abuse Prevention The community-based child abuse prevention program provides federal grant funding to support community-based efforts aimed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect and the coordination of resources and activities to support families. In California, the program targets improved public awareness and education about preventing child abuse, and providing supportive services to vulnerable populations and families including mental health care, substance abuse, respite care, housing, and transportation, among others. Community-based child abuse prevention funds are allocated annually by the state to counties that have applied for the funds, with smaller counties receiving funds to supplement the County Children's Trust Fund accounts of less than $20,000, after which all applying counties receive a base award of $10,000 and the remainder of monies to be distributed by population. STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2187 (Cooley) Page 5 PRIOR VOTES Assembly Floor 76 - 0 Assembly Human Services 7 - 0 POSITIONS Support: None received. Oppose: None received. -- END --