BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
JEFF DENHAM, CHAIRMAN
Bill No: SB 647
Author: Denham
Version: As Amended April 13
Hearing Date: April 14, 2009
Fiscal: Yes
Consultant: Donald E. Wilson
SUBJECT OF BILL
Education benefits for active duty militia components.
PROPOSED LAW
Create the National Guard Assistance Award Program.
EXISTING LAW AND BACKGROUND
Existing law - not applicable. California has no education
benefits. The legislature passed a program in 2003 called
National Guard Assumption Program of Loans for Education
(APLE), but then decided not to fund the program. The APLE
program has since expired due to a sunset date.
The guard is a component of the State Militia funded by the
Federal Government; hence, the Federal Government decides
how many and what kind of billets reside here.
A major factor in the Federal Government's decisions on
billet allocation is a state's National Guard
participation. Other states have been offering more and
more benefits to their guardsmen to increase participation
numbers. The result has been that the Federal Government
has redeployed billets to those states. On a comparative
level, California offers its state militia members very
little. This fact is believed to be a significant reason
why other states' national guards have been continually
outdistancing California in recruitment efforts and has
negatively affected the ability of the California National
Guard to address the needs of the state.
California's National Guard has been a shrinking force
since the 1990s. In fewer than two decades, the guard has
lost an entire brigade force (the state has lost roughly
12,000 Guardsmen) and two headquarters posts. The
California Air National Guard has lost two air battalions
including an air refueling wing.
COMMENT
1. This bill is SB 1752 (Wyland) of 2008.
2. Other states continue to receive National Guard
billets that used to be assigned to California because
of better retention rates. There is little mystery as
to why California has retention problems.
3. Amongst US states and territories California holds
the distinction of ranking dead last in educational
benefits offered to guardsmen. Only the fact that the
tiny island territory of Guam also offers nothing
prevents the Golden State from holding the undisputed
title.
4. Salary figures in the following examples assume
full-time, pre-tax military pay for those activated to
full-time service.
20,942 men and women serve in the
California Air and National Guard
1,839 are officers who already have their
degrees
16,492 members of the Air and National
Guard are of the ranks E-1 to E-6, the ranks most
likely to make use of an education benefits
package.
According to California's Department of
Finance Statistical Abstract of 2005, per capita
income in California was $35,172 in 2004.***
A family of three making under $17,600
per annum is considered under the federal poverty
level.
For a family with two children, the
federal poverty level is considered $21,200 per
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annum.
The maximum pay for an E-1 is $1347.00*
per month or $16,164 per annum. An E-1 married
with a child will receive a pre-tax maximum pay
that is almost $1500 below the federal poverty
level** for a family of three.
An E-2 with maximum pay in the same
scenario clears the federal poverty line by $500
per annum in dollars.
An E-3 making maximum pay will earn
$20,253.60 a figure almost $2,500 below the
lowest per capita income statistic of 2004 in
spite of the fact that he or she is being paid in
2008 dollars. If this E-3 has two children, the
family also falls $946 below the federal poverty
line. With one child, this National Guard family
would find the fabulous wealth that is $2,653
above the poverty line.
An E-4 making maximum pay makes $25,621.2
annually.
An E-5 making maximum pay would receive
$2,722.20 but has to serve over 12 years to get
to the pay grade. The average E-5 who would have
six years of service makes $28,861.20.
An E-6 with ten years experience makes
$35,164.80 every year.
Of the 16,492 soldiers and airmen most
likely to use this program, 1,109 of them are
E-1. Those who are activated in 2008 will not
come within $19,000 of California's per capita
income for 2004.
There are 668 E-2s. Those activated to
service in 2008 will not come within $17,000 of
the state's 2004 per capita income.
1,924 E-3s stand to fall short of the
2004 standard by $14,918 if they are activated.
3,701 of the 16,492 guardsmen most likely
to use this program at some point will flirt with
the federal poverty standards.
The two largest ranks of soldiers in the
guard services are E-4s and E-5s, who account for
4,952 and 5,125 servicemen respectively. An
activated E-4 in 2008 will not come within $9,500
of California's 2004 per capita income and an E-5
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will not come within $6,300 of that figure.
1. Even the most experienced, high-ranking National
Guardsman likely to take advantage of this program in
any numbers will still make eight fewer dollars in
2008 than the average Californian made in 2004. Many
of the individuals who will have earned the
opportunity to participate in this program did so by
flirting with the federal poverty line at some point
while putting their lives on the line.
*According to pay charts effective January 1, 2008
** Federal Register , Vol. 73, No 15, January 23, 2008, pp
3971-3972
***
http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/FS_DATA/STAT-ABS/documents/StatAb
s05_web4.pdf Pg. 79
SUPPORT
American Legion, Department of California
OPPOSE
None received
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