BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 580 (Leno) - Crime victims: trauma recovery center grants.
Amended: April 17, 2013 Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 580 would authorize the California Victim
Compensation and Government Claims Board (VCGCB) to administer a
grant program to award, upon appropriation of the Legislature,
up to $2 million annually to trauma recovery centers (TRCs), as
defined. This bill also contains codified legislative findings
and declarations.
Fiscal Impact: Annual costs of up to $2 million from the
Restitution Fund (Special Fund), subject to appropriation by the
Legislature and specific Restitution Fund reserve thresholds,
for grants to be awarded to TRCs. Increased administrative
workload to VCGCB to develop criteria for granting awards,
monitor the use of grant funds, and facilitate applications for
federal matching grants.
Background: The California Victim Compensation Program (CalVCP),
administered by the VCGCB, provides compensation for victims who
suffer physical or emotional injury, or the threat of physical
injury, as a direct result of a violent crime. Crimes covered by
the program include domestic violence, child abuse, sexual and
physical assault, homicide, human trafficking, robbery, and
vehicular manslaughter.
Subject to specified eligibility criteria, CalVCP compensates
eligible victims for various crime-related expenses that are not
covered by other sources. Services covered include medical and
dental care, mental health services, income loss, funeral
expenses, home security, rehabilitation and relocation. Funding
for the program is provided by the Restitution Fund, which
derives its revenue from restitution fines and orders, diversion
fees, and penalty assessments levied on persons convicted of
crimes and traffic offenses. CalVCP also receives federal grant
monies from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA).
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In order to receive compensation, victims must apply and provide
specified documentation. The waiting period to receive
indication of application for compensation has been documented
to take up to three months or more to receive.
The TRC treatment model was developed in 2001 and utilizes a
multidisciplinary staff to provide direct mental health services
and treatment to victims while coordinating services with law
enforcement and other social service agencies at the center. AB
50 (Leno) Chapter 884/2006 appropriated $1.3 million from the
Restitution Fund in FY 2006-07 for the TRC at San Francisco
General Hospital.
Proposed Law: This bill would authorize the VCGCB to administer
a program to evaluate applications and award grants to TRCs, as
follows:
Upon appropriation by the Legislature, authorizes VCGCB to
award grants of up to $2 million annually and specifies
grants must be funded solely from the Restitution Fund.
Provides that grant awards to TRCs must demonstrate that
they serve as a community resource by providing services,
including making presentations and providing training to law
enforcement, community-based agencies, and other health care
providers on the identification and effects of violent crime,
as well as any other related criteria required by the board.
Authorizes VCGCB to award a grant providing funding for up
to a maximum period of three years, with any unexpended funds
after the specified grant period reverting to the Restitution
Fund. Prohibits TRCs from receiving more than one grant for
any period of time.
Provides that the VCGCB shall not receive, evaluate, or
approve applications for TRC grants in a fiscal year unless
the Restitution Fund is projected to have a year-end fund
reserve equal to, or greater than, 25 percent of total
budgeted expenditures for the fund, as projected in the
January Governor's budget.
Provides that grants awarded to TRCs shall not result in a
year-end balance to the Restitution Fund of less than 25
percent of total budgeted expenditures for the fund, as
projected in the January Governor's budget.
Requires TRCs awarded grants to report to VCGCB annually on
how grant funds were spent, and in order to ensure federal
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compliance governing federal matching funds for victims'
services, each TRC must submit forms and data as requested to
allow the VCGCB to receive the 60 percent federal matching
funds for eligible victim services and allowable expenses.
Defines a "trauma recovery center" as a center that provides
all of the following resources, treatments, and recovery
services to crime victims:
(1) Mental health services.
(2) Assertive community-based outreach and clinical case
management.
(3) Coordination of care among medical and mental health
care providers, law enforcement agencies, and other social
services.
(4) Services to family members and loved ones of homicide
victims.
(5) A multidisciplinary staff of clinicians that includes
psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers.
Related Legislation: SB 733 (Leno) 2010 was substantially
similar to this measure. This bill was vetoed by the Governor
with the following message:
I am returning Senate Bill 733 without my signature. While the
model of service supported by this bill has proven effective at
the San Francisco Trauma Recovery Center, the Restitution Fund
is an inappropriate ongoing source of funding for this type of
program. The Restitution Fund is the funding source of the
Victim Compensation Program, which was designated to pay for
certain out-of-pocket expenses to specific victims of crime.
The use of the Restitution Fund to support programs of this type
presents a significant concern to its ongoing ability to support
the compensation of crime victims for which it was established.
For these reasons, I am unable to sign this bill.
AB 1669 (Leno) 2007 was similar to SB 733 noted above, and was
also vetoed.
AB 50 (Leno) Chapter 884/2006 reauthorized an interagency
agreement between the VCGCB and the University of California,
San Francisco, and appropriated $1.3 million from the
Restitution Fund in FY 2006-07 to provide services at the San
Francisco TRC.
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Staff Comments: This bill requires the VCGCB to administer a
grant program for TRCs subject to a Legislative appropriation
and specific Restitution Fund reserve thresholds. The VCGCB
would receive applications and award grants totaling no more
than $2 million to one or more TRCs. This bill makes a
substantial appropriation, but to the extent the TRCs receiving
grants are successful, the state could potentially incur some
level of cost savings. These cost savings would, however, be
somewhat offset by an increased number of victims served under
this program.
TRCs that would be eligible for the grants described in this
bill would be very similar to the San Francisco TRC in terms of
services provided. The San Francisco TRC has been very
successful at providing victim's services more cost effectively
than individual reimbursements to victims for seeking their own
mental health and medical services. In addition to the cost
containment for each individual victim that occurs when TRC as
the provider is paid by VCGCB (because it seeks to serve as many
people as possible, as opposed to a victim potentially incurring
more expensive services elsewhere), the TRC has served many more
victims in need of mental health services than the entire panel
of San Francisco fee-for-service providers. The TRC provides
services more efficiently, and is able to reach more people
(which often mitigate cost savings). If these services are
needed, however, there may be additional long term savings by
providing them to victims who would not otherwise seek them and
would have experienced an extended recovery period.
The $2 million appropriation that will fund the grant program
may only come from the Restitution Fund, which is designed to
fund victims' services. The current system largely relies on
individual victims seeking mental health and medical services,
and subsequently applying to the VCGCB for reimbursement, which
can take an extended period of time.
Requiring the VCGCB to administer the grant program will
increase existing workload. Additional administrative workload
would include developing criteria for grant awards, evaluating
grant applications from TRCs, monitoring the use of grant funds,
and facilitating applications for federal matching grants. A
Bureau of State Audits (BSA) report from December 2008 reported
that the administrative costs to support the program made up a
significant portion of the Restitution Fund disbursements for
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services and reported issues with the efficiency of
reimbursement processing and outreach efforts. The most recent
BSA report on Recommendations Not Fully Implemented After One
Year (January 2013 Report 2012-041), indicates an estimated
completion date of December 2013 for addressing
structural/operational issues and an as yet unknown date by
which VCGCB will define specific procedures to accomplish action
strategies for outreach and establish quantitative measures to
evaluate the effectiveness of its outreach efforts. Staff notes
that SB 1299 (Wright) Chapter 870/2012 became effective on
January 1, 2013, and made changes to streamline the VCGCB
guidelines for processing claims.
In FY 2011-12, $91million in victim's claims were paid through
direct payment to victims of $73.6 million and $13.4 million
through compacts with local agencies. The Governor's Budget
projects a Restitution Fund reserve balance of $55 million for
FY 2012-13 and $40 million for FY 2013-14.
The provisions of this bill provide that the VCGCB shall not
receive, evaluate, or approve applications for TRC grants in a
fiscal year unless the Restitution Fund is projected to have a
year-end fund reserve equal to, or greater than, 25 percent of
total budgeted expenditures for the fund, as projected in the
January Governor's budget. Further, this bill provides that
grants awarded to TRCs shall not result in a year-end balance to
the Restitution Fund of less than 25 percent of total budgeted
expenditures for the fund, as projected in the January
Governor's budget.
Based on the 2013-14 Governor's Budget, total estimated
expenditures for the Restitution Fund are $120.5 million.
Twenty-five percent of budgeted expenditures would equate to
$30.1 million, within the allowance provisions of this bill.
Projections for the FY 2014-15 budget will not available until
January 2014, subsequent to the potential enactment date of this
measure. It should be noted that despite the current reserve
balance, the Restitution Fund has a structural imbalance with
expenditures exceeding revenues by approximately $15 million per
year. Extrapolating the operating deficit of $15 million to FY
2014-15, the estimated reserve would decline to $25 million,
below the threshold authorized for the VCGCB to accept and
approve applications for TRC grants.
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Staff notes the VCGCB voted in FY 2011-12 to adopt a number of
reductions in the rates paid for specific types of services
provided. Due to the significant uncertainty of revenue
projections resulting from the implementation of 2011 Public
Safety Realignment, it was recommended at the January 2013 VCGCB
board meeting that no restorations to the rate reductions be
made at that time. Additionally, the full impact on the
Restitution Fund due to enactment of SB 1299 (Wright), which
tripled the time period allowed for crime victims to apply for
financial assistance for crime-related expenses, has yet to
occur, as the bill's provisions recently became effective on
January 1, 2013.