BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 1509
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 30, 2014

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                     AB 1509 (Fox) - As Amended:  March 25, 2014 

          Policy Committee:                              Veterans  
          AffairsVote: 7-1

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to  
          develop, by July 1, 2015, a California transition assistance  
          program (Cal TAP) for veterans discharged from the Armed Forces  
          of the United States or the National Guard of any state to help  
          veterans  transition from military to civilian life in  
          California and to complement the transition program offered by  
          the Department of Defense. 

          Requires the program to include California-specific transition  
          assistance information regarding higher education benefits,  
          vocational training assistance, small business resources, health  
          care programs and services, mental health resources, military  
          sexual trauma resources, and housing.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Significant ongoing state costs, presumably GF, to create a  
          state program to help transition veterans to civilian life.  
          Depending on the scale of the program, and whether the program  
          is designed to simply provide access to existing information and  
          programs, or whether the program  is designed to provide  
          independent assistance , costs would likely range from several  
          hundred thousand dollars for start-up and program maintenance,  
          to more than $1 million.  

          The bill states legislative intent that DVA use existing  
          personnel and other resources, including its existing  
          internet-based CalVet Internet Web site, to disseminate this  
          information.









                                                                  AB 1509
                                                                  Page  2

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale.  The author and proponents - a list of  
            veteran-related organizations - contend the existing federal  
            Transition Goals, Plans, and Success Program (TGPS), the  
            successor to the federal Transition Assistance Program (TAP),   
            lacks California-specific information essential to successful  
            transition. 

            According to the author, "The curriculum for [TGPS] workshops  
            is entirely maintained by the federal government, leaving  
            little-to-no state-specific employment, education, business  
            and other career choices information.  AB 1509 complements the  
            federal Transition GPS (TGPS) by ensuring that veterans  
            discharging in California or moving to California after  
            discharge have the state specific benefit information and  
            tools they need."

           2)Implementation timeline appears optimistic  . Development and  
            implementation of a transition assistance program may require  
            more than six months. The author may wish to consider a longer  
            developmental period, depending on the intended breadth of the  
            program.



           Analysis Prepared by  :    Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081