BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
324 (Beall)
Hearing Date: 8/17/2009 Amended: 6/1/2009
Consultant: Katie Johnson Policy Vote: Hum. Serv. 4-1
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 324 would require the California Department of
Aging to establish and annually update the Elder Economic
Security Standard Index, a tool that would quantify the basic
living costs of elders in California based on their counties of
residence.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
CDA EESSI implementation $35 - $85 $70 - 150 $70 -
100 General
and annual calculation
Cost pressure on AAA unknown, but potentially in the millions
General/
resources of dollars annually. Federal
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act,
establishes the California Department of Aging (CDA).
This bill would define the Elder Economic Security Standard
Index (EESSI) to mean an index that quantifies the costs that
elders face in meeting their basic needs, including, but not
limited to, food, shelter, health care, transportation,
utilities, and essential household items, in the private market.
The EESSI is derived by applying the methodology developed by
the Wider Opportunities for Women and Gerontology Institute to
publicly available data sources on the costs to live in each
county of the state.
This bill would redefine "greatest economic need" as the need
resulting from an income level at or below the thresholds
established by the EESSI. Under existing law, "greatest economic
need" is defined as the need resulting from an income level at
or below the poverty threshold established by the Bureau of the
Census.
This bill would require CDA to report the EESSI data for each
service are in its state plan as part of its mission as a
department.
Commencing in the 2010 calendar year, this bill would require
CDA to annually update the EESSI using the methodology developed
for the 2008 EESSI for each of California's 58 counties.
Utilizing the most recent demographic data available, this bill
would require CDA to annually calculate, beginning in 2010, the
number, percentage, and demographic profile of elders living
below the updated EESSI for that year.
Page 2
AB 324 (Beall)
Staff recommends that the bill be amended to specify an
implementation date instead of the ambiguous phrase "the 2010
calendar year".
This bill would require CDA to analyze the number and percentage
of elders living below the current EESSI for that year by
county, race, ethnicity, gender, age, housing, and other
relevant demographic factors. This bill would authorize CDA to
contract with the President of the University of California (UC)
for this purpose. If CDA were to contract with the UC to perform
the analysis, it would be an ongoing annual General Fund cost of
approximately $70,000. If CDA were to complete the analysis
in-house, it could cost approximately $85,000 in FY 2009-2010
and $100,000 - $150,000 ongoing in General Funds to provide for
research analysts, training in the EESSI and statistical
software, annually locating and gathering the most current
demographic and economic data within CA's counties, and annually
updating the EESSI.
This bill would require the 33 area agencies on aging (AAAs) to
annually update the Linkages Program intake form to include the
most current EESSI with the purpose of identifying elders in
economic need and to refer those elders to other resources and
programs. This bill would delete the existing requirement to
grant priority enrollment and services to low-income individuals
within the Linkages Programs.
According to an August 6, 2009, CDA Program Memo, among other
General Fund budget cuts, 9 months of funding for the Linkages
Program and 4 other programs was eliminated in FY 2009-2010, and
all funding was eliminated for FY 2010-2011. Although statutory
authority will continue to exist for Linkages, it is unknown
which AAAs will continue to operate the program.
Additionally, if an AAA chooses to close its Linkages Program,
it would be unreasonable for the AAA to annually update the
Linkages intake form, as required by this bill. Staff recommends
that the bill be amended to clarify that if an AAA chooses to
operate a Linkages Program, it would annually update the
program's intake form to include the most current EESSI.
This bill would provide that nothing in this act should be
construed to mandate changes in the current funding allocations
to AAAs. However, since this bill would connect more elders to
local resources and programs, there would be unknown, but
potentially significant, cost pressure on existing AAA programs
to accommodate the increased number of elders seeking services,
which could result in the need to expand the services. AAAs
administer various community-based programs funded primarily by
the General Fund and federal funds.