BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 773
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
773 (Baker) - As Introduced February 25, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill changes the expiration date of a psychology license
from the current system, in which the license expires on the
licensee's birth date in the second year of a two-year term, to
a system in which the license expires two years from the
issuance date.
AB 773
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FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Minor revenue losses to Board of Psychology (BOP), potentially
in the range of $100,000 (Psychology Fund). Because initial
licenses will be valid for longer, BOP will receive slightly
less revenue starting in 2017, and in each subsequent year,
due to a time lag (as compared to current practice) in
receiving initial license renewal fees. Put another way, the
current practice of an abbreviated initial licensure period
requires licensees on average to pay slightly more, and allows
the BOP to collect slightly more fee revenue, than what would
be the case under this bill.
2)Costs to BOP to change business processes and systems are
minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill is sponsored by the BOP to provide equity
and value to all licensees when procuring their initial
license. Currently, all initial licensees pay the same
amount, $400, but their license is valid for a period of 12 -
24 months, depending when the license was issued and their
date of birth. Currently, the license expires on the
licensees second birthday after the license is issued. The
birth date expiration system was created to ensure BOP's
licensure processing workload was spread throughout the year,
because in the past, large exams were given twice a year and
caused a biannual flood of license applications. BOP
indicates the licensure exam process has changed such that
this is no longer a concern, and a 2-year initial license
AB 773
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period will better serve their licensees.
2)Related Legislation. Many other boards and bureaus also use
the birth date expiration system for licenses. AB 483
(Patterson), pending in the Assembly Business and Professions
Committee, requires fees for initial healing arts licenses be
prorated, which is a different way to solve the same problem.
AB 438 addresses a number of boards instead of a single board.
AB 1758 (Patterson) of 2014 was similar to AB 483, and was
held on the Suspense File of the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916)
319-2081