BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 186 (Maienschein) - Professions and vocations: temporary
licensure for military spouses.
Amended: June 25, 2014 Policy Vote: BP&ED 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 30, 2014
Consultant: Mark McKenzie
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 186 would require boards within the Department
of Consumer Affairs (DCA), with specified exceptions, to issue a
temporary license to the spouse or domestic partner of a member
of the U.S. military who is stationed in California on active
duty, under specified conditions. The temporary license would
expire within 12 months, upon issuance of an expedited license,
or denial of an application for expedited license, whichever
occurs first.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time costs of less than $150,000 for each affected
board to develop and adopt regulations to provide for a
temporary license (various special funds). The process to
promulgate regulations is likely to take one year from the
time of enactment.
DCA indicates that, assuming the current BreEZe
comprehensive licensing IT project is completed by the time
regulations are adopted, the total one-time costs to provide
for a temporary license at the department level are likely
to be approximately $20,000. If there are unforeseen
delays, a number of "release 3" boards and bureaus would be
required to update existing stand-alone licensing programs
at a cumulative cost of approximately $370,000. These costs
would be shared among the special funds of 14 professional
board and bureaus.
The Bureau of Real Estate and Bureau of Real Estate
Appraisers, which are not a part of the BreEZe system, will
incur costs of approximately $40,000 and $20,000,
AB 186 (Maienschein)
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respectively (Real Estate Fund, Real Estate Appraisers
Regulation Fund).
Background: Existing law generally provides for the licensing
and regulation of various professions and vocations through
numerous regulatory boards and bureaus within DCA. These
entities have established minimum competency standards for
approximately 250 licensing classifications involving about 3
million licensees statewide.
Existing law, AB 1904 (Block), Chap. 399/2012, requires all
licensing entities within DCA to issue an expedited license to
the spouse or domestic partner of a member of the U.S. military
who is stationed in California on active duty, if the applicant
holds a current license in another state in the profession for
which he or she seeks a license from the board. DCA indicates
that around 90 expedited licenses have been granted under this
statute.
Proposed Law: AB 186 would require boards within the Department
of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to issue a temporary license to the
spouse or domestic partner of a member of the U.S. military who
is stationed in California on active duty, under the following
conditions:
The applicant holds a current, active, and unrestricted
license in another state providing authority to practice in
the profession or vocation for which he or she seeks a
temporary license. The application must also include
written verification from the original licensing
jurisdiction indicating that the license is in good
standing.
The applicant submits a signed affidavit indicating that
he or she meets all of the requirements for a temporary
license.
The applicant must not have committed an act in any
jurisdiction that would have constituted grounds for
denial, suspension, or revocation of the license under the
requirements of California law.
The applicant must not have been disciplined by a
licensing entity in another jurisdiction and must not be
the subject of an unresolved complaint, review procedure,
or disciplinary proceeding in another jurisdiction.
The applicant must submit a set of fingerprints for
purposes of conducting a background check.
AB 186 (Maienschein)
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The temporary license would expire within 12 months, upon
issuance of an expedited license, or denial of an application
for expedited license, whichever occurs first. The bill
specifies that a temporary license for the practice of medicine
may be immediately terminated, and the person must cease
practicing, if the license holder failed to meet any of the
specified requirements for a temporary license or provided
inaccurate information. The bill also requires applicants
seeking temporary licensure in specified technical professions
to successfully pass California-specific licensure examinations.
The bill also exempts the following entities from the
requirements to issue a temporary license: the California
Architects Board, the Landscape Architects Technical Committee,
the Contractors' State Licensing Board, the State Board of
Chiropractic Examiners, and any board that established a
temporary licensing process prior to January 1, 2014.
Staff Comments: DCA is currently in the process of implementing
BreEZe, a new database and Web site system that centralizes the
licensing and enforcement functions of all the licensing
programs under the department. Full implementation is scheduled
to take place in three stages over an 18-month span through
2015. Once completed, individuals will be able to apply and pay
for licenses and consumers can file complaints using a single
Web site as a one-stop shop. Full implementation of BreEZe
should result in substantial cost savings related to the
licensing functions among the numerous DCA boards and bureaus.
If AB 186 requires temporary licenses to be issued prior to the
implementation of 14 affected "release 3" BreEZe clients, the
bill would impose costs of approximately $370,000 among those
boards. However, if BreEZe is fully implemented, those costs
would come down to $20,000 for all boards under BreEZe.
Each board and bureau under DCA would incur costs to develop and
adopt regulations to provide for temporary licensure. These
costs are expected to be less than $150,000 for each affected
board and bureau.