BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2018 (Skinner)
Hearing Date: 08/02/2010 Amended: 08/02/2010
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human
Services 4-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 2018 would establish an inter-county transfer
(ICT) process for food stamp cases, when recipients move from
one county to another.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
New ICT process Minor county workload
savings Local
Eliminates new interviews Potentially significant workload
savings Loc/Gen/Fed
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STAFF COMMENTS:
Under existing law, counties must transfer CalWORKs aid and
Medi-Cal without an interruption in service, when a recipient
moves from one county to another. There is an ICT process in
place for doing so, and it is utilized throughout the state.
Recipients must notify the new county of residence of their need
for an ICT. Existing law provides that in order to receive
federal food stamps, however, a recipient must reapply for food
stamps in the new county of residence.
This bill would require the Department of Social Services (DSS)
to develop an ICT for recipients who only receive food stamps,
and implement it through an All-County Letter. This bill would
also require the CalWORKs ICT process to be utilized for food
stamps benefits if the recipient is also enrolled in CalWORKs,
and the Medi-Cal ICT process to be used if the recipient is
enrolled in Medi-Cal (but not CalWORKs).
County workload savings from not having food stamps recipients
submit a new application in the new county would likely be
minor. This bill requires County A to provide County B with
required documentation, instead of the recipient providing the
same information. The most significant workload reduction would
likely result from the provision of this bill that allows
counties, to the extent permitted by federal law, to not conduct
interviews (which are currently required because food stamps
cases are "new" in each new county of residence) to determine
continued eligibility.
The Governor's May Revision includes a virtually identical
proposal, and a new premise which includes a minor reduction in
state subventions to counties as a result of projected savings
from this proposal. The Governor's proposal, which assumes that
workload savings will merit reducing county subventions by
$9,000 General Fund in 2010-11 (and DSS has estimated $55,000
General Fund in 2011-12), calculates the workload savings based
on an estimated eligibility worker cost of $58.27 per hour, or
$111,878 per year (a portion of which is General Fund). This
projected cost seems
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AB 2018 (Skinner)
high, as does the cost avoidance projection. In Los Angeles
County, which employs more eligibility workers than any other
county, the salary range (depending on the level and seniority
of worker) for an eligibility worker is $35,594 - $48,000.
The provisions of this bill enact the policy proposal included
in the Governor's May revision, but do not enact the reduction
in subventions to counties that is scored as savings in the May
Revision. In other words, this bill will result in workload
savings to county welfare agencies, but will not result in
actual General Fund cost savings unless counties' funding is
reduced further by adoption of the May Revision reductions.