BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2187
A
AUTHOR: Cooley
B
VERSION: April 21, 2014
HEARING DATE: June 10, 2014
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FISCAL: No
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CONSULTANT: Sara Rogers
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SUBJECT
County children's trust funds
SUMMARY
This bill requires that birth certificate fees collected by
a county for a child, whose mother resides in another
county, shall be transmitted to the county children's trust
fund in the county of the mother's residence. This bill
removes the specification that the transfer is only
required if the county of residence has no licensed health
facility that provides maternity services within its
jurisdiction.
ABSTRACT
Existing Law:
1.Establishes the State Children's Trust Fund, for the
purpose of funding innovative and distinctive child abuse
and neglect prevention and intervention projects and
permits individuals to designate income taxes, counties
to designate a portion of birth certificate fees, and
Continued---
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private individuals to grant, gift and bequeath monies to
the fund. (WIC 18965 et seq, RTC 18711)
2.Authorizes a board of supervisors to designate a
voluntary commission, board or council to establish a
county children's trust fund, consisting of fees
collected from birth certificates, grants, gifts, or
bequests from private sources to be used for child abuse
and neglect prevention and intervention programs, and any
funds appropriated by local governmental entities or the
Legislature. (WIC 18965 and 18966)
3.Establishes a birth certificate fee structure of $12 to
be paid by an agency applicant, as specified and $18 to
be paid by any other applicant, $4 of which is to be paid
to either a county children's trust fund or to the State
Children's Trust Fund, as specified. (HSC 103625(b))
4.Requires birth certificate fees collected for the county
children's trust fund by a county for a child whose
mother resides in another county that does not have a
licensed health facility providing maternity services, to
be transmitted by the county treasurer to the county of
the mother's residence. (WIC 18966)
5.Provides that counties that receive less than $20,000 per
year for the county children's trust fund from birth
certificate fees shall be granted from federal matching
funds an amount that brings the trust fund up to $20,000.
From the remainder (if applicable), each county is
required to receive $10,000, with the remaining funds to
be distributed based on population. (WIC18966.1)
This bill:
1.Removes the condition that a county shall transmit county
children's trust fund moneys to the county of residence
only when that county has no licensed health facility
providing maternity services.
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FISCAL IMPACT
This bill was keyed non-fiscal. This bill may lead to small
distributional impacts between counties to the extent that
children are born out of the mother's county of residence
despite having a health facility within the county.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
According to the author, currently, if a mother gives birth
in a delivery facility that is outside of her county of
residence, and her county of residence has a delivery
facility, the fee charged for the copies of her child's
birth certificate remains with the county where she
delivered her child. The author states that as a result,
the birth certificate fee revenue that would benefit the
child's county of residence, in the form of neglect and
abuse prevention programs and services, is lost to the
county of delivery.
The author states that because health insurance parameters
often dictate what delivery facilities that are in a
patient's "network," some pregnant mothers may need to
deliver outside of the county in which they live. To ensure
that each county receives the funds for the children it
provides programs and services for, the author argues that
it is vital that the fee for requests of copies of a
child's birth certificate should follow the child,
regardless of where the child's mother gives birth.
State Children's Trust Fund and County Children's Trust
Fund
The State Children's Trust Fund was established in 1982 to
provide funding for innovative and distinctive child abuse
and neglect prevention and intervention projects. It is
funded through county birth certificate surcharges, state
income tax designations and private donations. These monies
were not realigned and are awarded by the state Office of
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Child Abuse Prevention to counties that have submitted
proposals. The purpose of these funds is to research,
evaluate and disseminate information to the public, to
establish public-private partnerships with foundations and
corporations, and to increase public awareness about child
abuse and neglect via media campaigns.
Similarly, the county children's trust funds were
established the same year to support county child abuse
prevention coordinating councils, as well as child abuse
prevention and intervention programs provided by community
based organizations or universities. Counties are required
to report the following information to the Office of Child
Abuse Prevention:
Descriptions of the types of programs and services
funded from the county trust funds;
Target populations benefitting from these programs;
Amount of each revenue source county trust funds as
of June 30 of each year;
Amount disbursed in the preceding fiscal year.
Community Based Child Abuse Prevention
The community-based child abuse prevention program provides
federal grant funding to support community-based efforts
aimed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect and the
coordination of resources and activities to support
families. In California, the program targets improved
public awareness and education about preventing child
abuse, and providing supportive services to vulnerable
populations and families including mental health care,
substance abuse, respite care, housing, and transportation,
among others.
Community-based child abuse prevention funds are allocated
annually by the state to counties that have applied for the
funds, with smaller counties receiving funds to supplement
the County Children's Trust Fund accounts of less than
$20,000, after which all applying counties receive a base
award of $10,000 and the remainder of monies to be
distributed by population.
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PRIOR VOTES
Assembly Floor 76 - 0
Assembly Human Services 7 - 0
POSITIONS
Support: None received.
Oppose: None received.
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