BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2279 (Cooley) - Mental Health Services Act: county-by-county
spending reports
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|Version: June 13, 2016 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 2279 would require the Department of Health Care
Services to collect and publicly report specified information
regarding Mental Health Services Act revenues and expenditures
made by counties.
Fiscal
Impact: Ongoing costs of $240,000 per year to compile
information submitted by counties, create comparisons of
county-by-county expenditures, and develop the required reports
by the Department of Health Care Services (Mental Health
Services Act Fund).
Background: The Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63 of 2004)
imposes an additional 1% personal income tax on incomes over $1
million. Most of the funding from the Mental Health Services Act
is transferred to counties to provide support for mental health
services. The Mental Health Services Act limits state
administrative spending to 5% of revenues. Counties are required
AB 2279 (Cooley) Page 1 of
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to prepare three-year program and expenditure plans (with annual
updates) and to submit those plans to the state. In addition,
under direction from the Department of Health Care Services,
counties are required to develop annual revenue and expenditure
reports.
Proposed Law:
AB 2279 would require the Department of Health Care Services
to collect and publicly report specified information regarding
Mental Health Services Act revenues and expenditures made by
counties.
Specific provisions of the bill would:
Require the Department of Health Care Services, no later
than nine months after the end of each fiscal year, to
collect and publicly report specified information by county
and statewide;
Specify the information to be reported, including
information broken down by programmatic area, information
on administrative expenditures, funds held in reserve, and
other topics;
Require the report made by the Department to include
information going back ten years and to provide for a
process for making revisions;
Authorize counties to provide additional information on
expenditures based on the purpose of expenditure (e.g.
expenditures that address homelessness, suicide prevention,
and other issues);
Require the Department to make the information required
in the bill available to the Legislature and the public no
later than July 1, 2018 and annually thereafter.
Related
Legislation: AB 2017 (McCarty) would appropriate $40 million
per year from the Mental Health Services Act Fund to create a
grant program for mental health services at colleges and
universities. That bill will be heard in this committee.
Staff
Comments: Under current law, the Department of Health Care
Services receives information from counties on their expenditure
plans and expenditures. However, the Department does not perform
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any substantial review of that information or compile the
information into any report that would allow comparisons to be
made between county programs.
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