BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2164|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2164
Author: O'Donnell (D) and Cooper (D), et al.
Amended: 8/16/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/15/16
AYES: Liu, Block, Hancock, Huff, Leyva, Mendoza, Monning, Pan,
Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Public postsecondary education: tuition and fees
SOURCE: California Professional Firefighters
DIGEST: This bill expands fee waiver requirements for survivors
of deceased law enforcement or firefighters at California's
public postsecondary education institutions to include mandatory
campus-based fees, and expands eligibility for the waiver to
include survivors of a law enforcement officer or firefighter
who died as the result of an industrial injury or illness
related to their job duties.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
AB 2164
Page 2
1)Requires that mandatory systemwide fees be waived by the
University of California (UC) Regents, the Board of Directors
of Hastings College of Law, or California State University
(CSU) Trustees, for any surviving spouse or child, of a
deceased person, who met all of the following requirements:
a) Was a California resident.
b) Was employed by a public agency, or was a contractor, or
an employee of a contractor, performing services for a
public agency.
c) The person's principal duties consisted of active law
enforcement service or active fire suppression and
prevention.
d) Was killed in the performance of active law enforcement
or active fire suppression and prevention duties, or died
as a result of an accident or an injury caused by external
violence or physical force, incurred in the performance of
his or her active law enforcement or active fire
suppression and prevention duties. (Education Code §
68120)
2)Requires that enrollment fees at the California Community
Colleges (CCC) be waived for any student who meets the
requirements outlined above.
(EC § 76300(i))
3)Requires that any determination of eligibility for these fee
waiver requirements to be consistent with any findings of the
Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, using the same procedures
as in workers' compensation hearings, as to whether the death
of the person, as specified, was industrial. (EC § 68120.5)
4)Provides various workers' compensation benefits for
firefighters, police officers, sheriffs, and their survivors
in case of death for injuries and illness caused by the long
terms exposures they face in their line of work, including,
but not limited to cancer and leukemia, tuberculosis, and
blood-borne infectious diseases or skin infections, as
specified. (Labor Code § 3212.1,
§ 3212.6, and § 3212.8)
AB 2164
Page 3
This bill:
1)Expands the fee waiver requirements applicable to the
survivors of deceased law enforcement or firefighters at
California's public postsecondary education institutions, as
follows:
a) Expands the waiver beyond systemwide fees to also
include mandatory campus-based fees.
b) Expands eligibility for the waiver to include the
survivors of a law enforcement officer or a firefighter who
died as the result of an industrial injury or illness
related to their job duties.
c) Expands fee waiver provisions to apply to the CCC.
2)Makes several technical and conforming changes.
Comments
Expansion of eligibility. According to the sponsor, the fee
waiver requirements in existing law were enacted before many of
the existing public safety job-caused illnesses were deemed
compensable under the state worker's compensation system. This
bill clarifies that the fee waiver eligibility would be
consistent with any findings of the Workers' Compensation
Appeals Board and ensures that fee waiver benefits would extend
to survivors of first responders whose death resulted from
occupational illnesses.
Existing fees. Existing law provides for a number of additional
mandatory fee waivers, including for dependents or survivors of
disabled or deceased California veterans, certain recipients (or
children of recipients) of a Congressional Medal of Honor, and
dependents of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. These statutory waivers apply exclusively to systemwide
mandatory fees.
Campuses may also charge additional mandatory campus-based fees
related to student services. For example:
1)Community college students may have enrollment fees waived
AB 2164
Page 4
under the Board of Governor Fee Waiver programs, but could
still be subject to a health fee, the student representation
fee, and parking or transportation fees (although existing law
caps the allowable fee for students on financial assistance).
2)At the CSU, these could include fees for health facilities,
health services, associated student body, materials services
and facilities, instructionally related activities,
orientation, athletics recreation and transit. Recently
enacted legislation, AB 1000 (Weber, Chapter 636, 2015)
requires a binding student vote prior to implementation and
provides that these fees may be rescinded at any time after
six years with another binding majority student vote, except
that student success fees supporting ongoing and long-term
obligations may not be rescinded until the obligation is
satisfied.
3)At the UC, campus-based fees support a variety of
campus-specific, student-related expenditures and programs
such as student government, and construction, renovation, and
maintenance of student activities and recreational facilities,
which are not funded by mandatory university wide fees.
Campus-based fees are initiated or modified by student
referendum with final approval by the President of the UC.
Although campus-based fees are not currently waived as part of
the state mandated program, both the UC and the CSU report that
campus-based mandatory fees are included in the cost of
attendance, and most low-income students would have these fees
covered via their award package (federal Pell grant, Cal Grant,
State University Grant).
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Unknown, but potentially significant revenue loss to the UC,
CSU, and the CCC. The UC indicates less than 20 students are
receiving the current waiver. The CSU and the CCC indicate
that 36 about 350 students received the waiver in 2014-15,
AB 2164
Page 5
respectively. The number of additional students that would
receive fee waivers as a result of this bill is unknown.
Assuming the number of additional students is half of the
existing recipients, revenue loss due to systemwide fee
waivers would be about $123,000 at the UC; $98,000 at the CSU;
and $160,000 at the CCC.
Because eligibility for this award requires income and asset
levels of no more than those allowed for Cal Grant B award
eligibility, it is possible that a portion of these recipients
may have otherwise received a Cal Grant or a Board of
Governor's fee waiver at the CCC, without this bill.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/15/16)
California Professional Firefighters (source)
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/15/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 6/1/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cooper, Gordon
Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105
AB 2164
Page 6
8/16/16 17:33:34
**** END ****