BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           719 (Lowenthal)
          
          Hearing Date:  07/13/2009           Amended: As introduced
          Consultant:  Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human  
          Services 4-1
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   AB 719 creates a transitional food stamps  
          program for foster youth who age out of the foster care system,  
          effective July 1, 2010. Specifically, this bill: 

          1)Provides 12-months of federal food stamps to independent  
            foster youth who are ineligible for CalWORKs or SSI benefits,  
            without regard to their income or resources.

          2)Specifies that a foster youth will receive the maximum amount  
            of federal food stamps available for a household of one during  
            the initial certification period.

          3)Exempts the foster youth from any quarterly or semi-annual  
            reporting.

          4)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to seek all  
            necessary federal waivers and specifies that this legislation  
            will only be implemented if "federal financial participation"  
            is available.

          5)Requires DSS to implement the provisions of this legislation  
            through an all county letter (ACL) or similar instructions  
            from the director and requires the adoption of regulations, as  
            necessary, no later than January 1, 2011. 

          6)Requires DSS, through the Department of Health Care Services  
            (DCHS), to add a new aid code for these foster youth. 
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions               2009-10                  2010-11        
           2011-12                      Fund
           Caseload increase admin (State portion)                     $80   
                        $26             General











          California Food Assistance                                        
             $36               $72             General
          Program (CFAP) caseload increase
                                            
          DSS workload                                     $20              
               $20                 $20            General

          Automation - New DCHS Aid Code                             $75    
                                          General
                                                                            
                             $225                                  Federal  
           
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.

          This bill requires DSS to submit a waiver proposal to the  
          federal government to implement a new policy that would  
          otherwise be in violation of federal law. The increased workload  
          to submit the waiver, as well as to establish the program and  
          new aid code would be mandated by this bill, before receiving  
          federal approval to implement. 
          Page 2
          AB 719 (Lowenthal)

          If federal approval is granted, the food stamps will be  
          federally funded. The administrative cost of food stamps is  
          borne by counties, federal government, and the state. The GF  
          portion is 35% of the administrative costs. This bill would  
          automatically add approximately 4,200 individuals to the  
          caseload, and waive the requirements for
          quarterly and semi-annual reporting. Waiving the specified  
          requirements will likely reduce administrative costs for the new  
          caseload, relative to the usual cost for new federal food stamps  
          cases. In 2007-08, 18.5% of foster youth who aged out of the  
          system received food stamps. 20% of the remaining population was  
          ineligible due to their status as students. (It is unclear if  
          the proscribed waiver would apply to them, since it both makes  
          all foster youth aging out automatically eligible, but also  
          specifies "without regard to resources or income"). 

          There are approximately 2,600 remaining foster youth who would  
          become eligible for food stamps. Some of those would likely be  
          excluded from federal food stamp eligibility because of their  










          immigration status (certain new immigrants are prohibited from  
          receiving federal food stamps) and state policy is to enroll  
          them in the CFAP program to get comparable food stamp aid from  
          the state. The above calculations are a conservative estimate  
          based on 1% of these foster youth falling into this category.
          Additional costs to the state come from DSS workload increase,  
          at a time when the department is subject to numerous budget  
          cuts, increased caseload, and DCHS automation costs to establish  
          a new group of aid recipients in its tracking system. 

          By increasing eligibility, more than $6 million of  
          federally-funded food stamps would be received. To the extent  
          that these former foster youth are spending their money on  
          non-food items because they are receiving food stamps, the state  
          would receive some amount of offsetting revenue from increased  
          sales tax.