BILL NUMBER: AB 1396 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 16, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bonta
(Principal coauthor: Senator Pan)
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to add Sections 30130.53 and 30130.55 to the Revenue
and Taxation Code, relating to Medi-Cal.
public health finance, and making an appropriation therefor.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1396, as amended, Bonta. Medi-Cal.
Public health finance.
The Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Law, the violation of which
is a crime, imposes a tax of $0.87 per package of 20 cigarettes on
every distributor of cigarettes and a tax on the wholesale cost of
tobacco products distributed at a tax rate that is equivalent to the
combined rate of all taxes imposed on cigarettes, and at a rate
equivalent to $0.50 per pack cigarette tax. Revenues from taxes
imposed under this law are deposited in specified accounts. These
taxes are inclusive of the taxes imposed under the Tobacco Tax and
Health Protection Act of 1988 (Proposition 99) and the California
Children and Families Act of 1998 (Proposition 10).
This bill would require moneys collected from an additional tax to
be imposed on the distribution of cigarettes, a related floor stock
tax, and a cigarette indicia adjustment tax deposited into the
California Tobacco Tax Act of 2015 Fund, and transferred from that
fund to the California Children and Families Trust Fund, which is a
continuously appropriated fund, the Cigarette and Tobacco Products
Surtax Fund, the Breast Cancer Fund, and the General Fund, as
necessary to offset revenue decreases to those funds directly
resulting from additional taxes to be imposed.
This bill would also continuously appropriate funds of accounts in
the California Tobacco Tax Act of 2015 Fund to specified state
entities supplement tobacco prevention and control programs, to
improve existing programs to provide quality and access to health
care programs for families and children, and to supplement funding
for the enforcement of laws that regulate the distribution and sale
of cigarettes and other tobacco products, as specified.
This bill would require the Department of Justice, the State
Department of Public Health, the State Department of Education, the
State Department of Health Care Services, and would request the
Regents of the University of California, annually to publish an
accounting of moneys received from the fund on their respective
Internet Web sites.
This bill would become operative only if SB 591 of the 2015-16
Regular Session is also enacted and takes effect on or before January
1, 2016.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under
which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services.
The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal
Medicaid Program provisions. Existing federal law requires, among
other things, that a state plan for medical assistance provide
methods and procedures relating to the utilization of, and the
payment for, care and services available under the plan as may be
necessary to assure that payments are consistent with efficiency,
economy, and quality of care and are sufficient to enlist enough
providers so that care and services are available under the plan at
least to the extent that care and services are available to the
general population in the geographic area.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation to align state law with federal law, as specified above,
and to require an independent, third party to establish standardized
metrics on access to care and quality of care, and to assess services
using those metrics.
Vote: majority 2/3 . Appropriation:
no yes . Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 30130.53 is added to the
Revenue and Taxation Code , to read:
30130.53. (a) The board shall determine within one year of the
effective date of this act, and annually thereafter, the effect that
the additional taxes imposed on cigarettes by this article, and the
resulting increase in the tax on tobacco products required by
subdivision (b) of Section 30123, have on the consumption of
cigarettes and tobacco products in this state. To the extent that a
decrease in consumption is determined by the board to be a direct
result of the additional tax imposed by this article, or the
resulting increase in the tax on tobacco products required by
subdivision (b) of Section 30123, the board shall determine the
fiscal effect the decrease in consumption has on the Cigarette and
Tobacco Products Surtax Fund created by Section 30122 (Proposition 99
as approved by the voters at the November 8, 1988, statewide general
election), the Breast Cancer Fund created by Section 30461.6, the
California Children and Families Trust Fund created by Section 30131
(Proposition 10 as approved by the voters at the November 3, 1998,
statewide general election), and the General Fund with respect to
revenues derived from Section 30101.
(b) Funds shall be transferred from the California Tobacco Tax Act
of 2015 Fund, to the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Surtax Fund, the
Breast Cancer Fund, the California Children and Families Trust Fund,
and the General Fund, to offset the revenue decrease directly
resulting from imposition of additional taxes by this article.
(c) Transfers under this section shall be made by the board at
times as the board determines necessary to further the intent of this
section.
SEC. 2. Section 30130.55 is added to the
Revenue and Taxation Code , to read:
30130.55. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, the California
Tobacco Tax Act of 2015 Fund is a trust fund established solely to
carry out the purposes set forth in this article, and all revenues
deposited into the California Tobacco Tax Act of 2015 Fund, together
with interest earned by the fund, shall be expended only in
accordance with this article and its purposes.
(b) (1) Funds in the Tobacco Prevention and Education Account are
hereby appropriated with out regard to fiscal year to supplement
tobacco prevention and control programs as follows:
(A) __ percent to the State Department of Public Health.
(B) __ percent to the State Department of Education.
(C) ___percent to the University of California.
(2) Funds in the Tobacco Disease Related Health Care Account are
hereby appropriated without regard to fiscal years to the State
Department of Health Care Services to improve existing programs to
provide quality and access to health care programs for families and
children pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 14000) to
Chapter 8.9 (commencing with Section 14700), inclusive, of Part 3 of
Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(3) Funds in the Tobacco Law Enforcement Account are hereby
appropriated without regard to fiscal years to the board, the
Department of Justice, and the State Department of Public Health for
the purpose of supplementing funding for the enforcement of laws that
regulate the distribution and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco
products, including, but not limited to, laws that prohibit cigarette
smuggling, counterfeiting, selling untaxed tobacco, selling tobacco
without a proper license, and selling tobacco to minors, and
enforcing tobacco-related laws, court judgments, and settlements.
(c) Not more than 2 percent of the funds received from the
California Tobacco Tax Act of 2015 Fund shall be used by any state
recipient for administrative costs.
(d) The Department of Justice, the State Department of Public
Health, the State Department of Education, and the State Department
of Health Care Services shall, and the Regents of the University of
California are requested to, on an annual basis, publish on their
respective Internet Web sites an accounting of moneys received from
the California Tobacco Tax Act of 2015 Fund and how the moneys were
spent.
SEC. 3. This act shall become operative only if
Senate Bill 591 of the 2015-16 Regular Session is also enacted and
takes effect on or before January 1, 2016.
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature
to enact legislation that would align state law with federal law,
specifically to assure that Medi-Cal "payments are consistent with
efficiency, economy, and quality of care and are sufficient to enlist
enough providers so that care and services are available under the
plan at least to the extent that such care and services are available
to the general population in the geographic area" (42 U.S.C. Sec.
1369a(a)(30)(A)), that would require an independent, third party to
establish standardized metrics on access to care and quality of care,
and that would require that same entity to annually assess, using
the standardized metrics, services provided to Medi-Cal
beneficiaries, and report those findings annually to the Legislature.