BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 2, 2003
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Darrell Steinberg, Chair
AB 1 (Berg) - As Amended: March 20, 2003
Policy Committee: Aging and Long
Term Care Vote: 3-0
Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill:
1)Establishes a continuous appropriation from the Federal Trust
Fund to the California Department of Aging (CDA) for the Area
Agencies on Aging (AAA) in any year in which the state budget
is not enacted by July 1.
2)Authorizes the Department of Finance to reduce the applicable
Budget Act allocations by the amount paid out pursuant to this
bill.
FISCAL EFFECT
The proposed release of Federal Trust Funds to CDA for the AAA,
in the absence of an enacted state budget, is contrary to
general committee policy to avoid continuous appropriations.
The proposed 2003-04 budget for CDA includes approximately $140
million in Federal Trust Funds. Therefore, about $12 million
monthly in Federal Trust Funds would be continuously
appropriated in absence of an enacted state budget.
COMMENTS
1)Existing Law . Establishes CDA as the state agency that
administers the federal Older Americans Act and 33 AAA as the
local administrators of a wide array of home- and
community-based services under the Older Californians Act.
About 90 percent of AAA services are paid from the Federal
AB 1
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Trust Fund, while the remaining 10 percent are paid from the
state General Fund.
2)Rationale . According to the author, in years when a state
budget has not been enacted in a timely fashion, AAA have not
been able to access state or federal funds. Under these
circumstances, some local services to the elderly have been at
risk for disruption or delay. To avoid service disruption or
delays, some AAA have sought commercial loans or lines of
credit. Because state and federal funds may not be used to
pay for banking fees or interest, private funds have been
used. This bill is intended to mitigate the risk of local
service disruption and to avoid the use of private funds to
pay for fees associated with a delayed state budget.
3)Related Legislation . This bill is identical to AB 2552
(Daucher, 2002), which was held on the suspense file in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee and SB 657 (Ortiz, 1999),
which was held on the suspense file in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
AB 41 (Daucher), proposed in the current session, is also to
designed to address the delay or disruption of services to the
elderly in the event of a delayed state budget by creating the
Senior Citizens Interim Payment Fund, which would also be
continuously appropriated.
Analysis Prepared by : Mary Ad?r/ APPR. / (916) 319-2081