BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2114 (Beall)
Hearing Date: 8/12/2010 Amended: 6/30/2010
Consultant: Katie Johnson Policy Vote: Hum. Services 4-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 2114 would define the Elder Economic Security
Standard Index and would require the California Department of
Aging (CDA) to report the Index for each service area in its
state plan. Each area agency on aging (AAA) would be required to
use the Index in their service planning.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Pressure to increase the amount likely in the
millions to tens of General/*
of services provided for seniors millions of dollars
annually Other
*AAAs purchase services with a variety of funding sources
including mainly federal funds, but also with state and local
penalty and fine revenue and the State HICAP Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
This bill would define the Elder Economic Security Standard
Index (Index), which is available on the Internet, 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. This bill states that the Index is
updated biennially by the University of California, Los Angeles
Center for Health Policy Research using publicly available data
sources on the cost of living in each county in California.
This bill would require CDA to report the Index data for each
service are in its state plan as part of its mission as a
department. AAAs would also be required to use the Index to
track the progress of participants in the state-administered
Senior Community Service Employment Program.
This bill would require the 33 AAAs to utilize the Index data in
its area service plan. The plan would be required to use the
Index to specify the costs of meeting basic needs for elders in
each planning and service area, and identify the number or
percentage of elders who are living at or below the Index.
In the FY 2009-2010 Budget Act and subsequent line-item vetoes
by the Governor, all General Fund support for 9 months of
funding for 5 community-based services programs and their state
and local administration was eliminated for a total savings of
$10.5 million. The funding for these programs has not been
proposed for restoration in the FY 2010-2011 Budget Act.
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AB 2114 (Beall)
This bill would provide that nothing in this act should be
construed to mandate changes in the current funding allocations
to AAAs or to affect means-tested programs administered through
the Mello-Granlund Older Californian's Act. However, since the
Index shows that the current measure of poverty, the federal
poverty level (FPL), as of 2007, covers less than half of the
basic costs experienced by older California adults, this bill
would imply that California seniors are in need of additional
resources and programs, there would be unknown, but potentially
significant, cost pressure on existing AAA programs to
accommodate the increased number of elders eligible for
services, which could result in the need to expand the services.