BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 326
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 326
(Beall) - As Amended June 2, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill extends the sunset date of the $4 penalty assessment
for Vehicle Code violations, other than parking offenses, and
related funding provisions, from January 1, 2016 to January 1,
2018, to continue raising revenues to augment funding for
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emergency medical air transportation Medi-Cal providers.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Penalty revenues of around $10 million per year for an
additional two years, until 2018 (Emergency Medical Air
Transportation Act Fund). Annual revenues will fluctuate
depending on the number of vehicle code violations that result
in convictions, as well as other factors. The numbers below
are based on an assumption of $10 million in annual revenue.
2)Administrative costs, likely in the low hundreds of thousands
(Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund).
3)Reduced GF expenditures of around $2 million per year for
Medi-Cal payments, by using penalty revenues to offset GF
expenditures for emergency air ambulance services for Medi-Cal
beneficiaries.
4)Annual expenditures of around $16 million per year for
supplemental payments to private emergency air medical service
providers (Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund and
federal funds).
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill is intended to continue a funding
augmentation for emergency medical air transportation that
expires January 1, 2016.
2)Background. AB 2173 (Beall), Chapter 547, Statutes of 2010
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(Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act), imposed an
additional penalty of $4 upon every conviction involving a
vehicle violation, except certain parking offenses, effective
January 1, 2011. The bill required the county or court that
imposed the fine to transfer the money to the Treasurer for
deposit into the Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act
(EMATA) Fund. After payment of the Department of Health Care
Services's administrative costs, 20% of the remaining EMATA
funds are used to offset the State's portion of the Medi?Cal
reimbursement rate for emergency medical air transportation
services. The remaining 80% of the fund is matched with
federal funds and used to augment funding for air medical
transportation by providing supplemental payments.
3)Penalty Assessments. In recent years, there has been
increasing concern about the ever-growing burden of additional
penalties, fines, and assessments applied to criminal and
traffic convictions. The $4 penalty assessment that is the
subject of this bill is one of numerous penalty assessments
placed on traffic fines. Currently, a $100 traffic ticket
becomes more than $500 when all the various assessments are
included. In their analysis of this bill, the Department of
Finance notes their concern with "traffic penalties as a
funding mechanism for state programs, because these penalties
place a financial burden on a narrow class of citizens for the
costs of programs that should be properly borne by the public
at large." The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San
Francisco Bay Area released a report in April 2015 titled "Not
Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality
in California" that recommends reforms to mitigate the harsh
impact of traffic fines on low-income people, including
reducing the burden of "exorbitant fines, fees, and
assessments." The report points out that these fees
perpetuate a cycle of poverty and inequality, given that
low-income people are more likely to miss payments. When
payments are missed, the report notes it results in a cycle of
increasing fines and penalties, often culminating in
suspension of drivers' licenses or even jail time for failure
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to pay, with concomitant poor labor market and social outcomes
for these individuals.
4)Related Legislation.
a) SB 85 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), the
public safety trailer bill of the 2015-16 budget, creates
an amnesty program for fines and bail initially due on or
before January 1, 2013, to be conducted in accordance
with guidelines adopted by the Judicial Council. It also
authorizes a low-income amnesty program participant to
receive an additional reduction in his or her repayment
amount. SB 85 is enrolled and pending action by the
Governor.
b) SB 405 (Hertzberg), in prior versions, contained
many of the amnesty provisions that came to be included
in SB 85. The amnesty provisions were amended out June
24, 2015, and the bill was amended to address a
defendant's right to receive a court hearing or request
an assessment be vacated. SB 405 is currently pending in
the Assembly Transportation Committee.
5)Staff Comment. Although the $4 fee in this bill is a small
percentage of the total amount of penalty assessments and
surcharges, it is worth noting significant unintended
consequences of the cumulative effect of these additional
financial penalties for traffic and criminal violations.
Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
SB 326
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