BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1039|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1039
Author: Aroner (D)
Amended: 9/8/99 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH & HUMAN SERV. COMMITTEE : 6-1, 7/14/99
AYES: Escutia, Figueroa, Hughes, Polanco, Solis,
Vasconcellos
NOES: Haynes
NOT VOTING: Morrow, Mountjoy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 9-3, 9/9/99
AYES: Johnston, Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Escutia, Karnette,
McPherson, Perata, Vasconcellos
NOES: Kelley, Leslie, Mountjoy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 42-36, 6/3/99 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : CalWORKs program
SOURCE : Western Center on Law and Poverty
DIGEST : This bill:
1. Authorizes the State Department of Social Services to
approve demonstration projects, in up-to-five counties,
to provide a wage-based subsidized employment program
for CalWORKs recipients in lieu of, or in addition to,
participating in community service;
2. Requires counties to notify recipients of their right,
CONTINUED
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as provided in current law, to contest terms of a
welfare to work plan;
3. Allows parents enrolled in self initiated education
program to count a specified amount of study time toward
their weekly required hours of work activity;
4. Requires the district attorney to determine if certain
former recipients have good cause for noncooperation
with child support enforcement.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
The federal welfare reform enacted in 1996 (TANF) initially
was implemented in California as the CalWORKs program in
1997 (AB 1542, Chapter 270, Statutes of 1997), and amended
by AB 2722 (Chapter 903, Statutes of 1998). The CalWORKs
program provides time-limited cash assistance and
supportive services to eligible low-income families. Under
CalWORKs, recipients participate in certain welfare-to-work
activities for a specified number of hours each week,
unless otherwise exempt.
Existing law also contains the following provisions:
1. Community Service -- Existing law permits counties to
provide community service activities for CalWORKs
recipients who have not yet met time limits and are not
employed in unsubsidized employment sufficient to meet
the required hours of participation. It also requires
counties to provide community service activities for
CalWORKs recipients who have met their 18-24 month time
limits and cannot find unsubsidized employment
sufficient to meet the required hours of participation,
when the county certifies that no job is currently
available to fulfill the required hours.
2. Welfare-to-work plan -- Existing law provides that an
applicant for, or a recipient of, CalWORKs benefits who
is dissatisfied with his or her welfare-to-work plan
may seek review through an independent assessment
process or a state or county hearing or grievance
process.
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3. Program requirements -- Existing law requires that the
county provide a CalWORKs applicant or recipient with a
description of program requirements, in writing or
orally, as necessary.
4. Self initiated programs -- Existing law provides that
any CalWORKs recipient who, at the time he or she is
required to participate in welfare-to-work activities,
is enrolled in any undergraduate degree or certificate
program, may continue in that program if the county
determines the program is likely to lead to employment.
Existing law further requires that a CalWORKs
recipient who is participating in educational or
vocational training and whose weekly hours of
classroom, laboratory, or internship activities total
less than 32, must participate up to the required 32
hours in other work activities which are more narrowly
defined than for other CalWORKs recipients.
5. Requires that CalWORKs recipients participate in
certain activities for a specified number of hours each
week, unless otherwise exempt.
6. Child support -- Existing law requires CalWORKs
applicants and recipients to cooperate with child
support services unless they have established good
cause for not doing so as determined by the county
welfare department. Existing law also requires the
district attorney to suspend child support enforcement
efforts if the county welfare department makes a
finding of good cause for a failure to cooperate.
This bill would make the following changes to current law.
1. Subsidized employment - This bill permits the director
of the Department of Social Services to approve
demonstration projects, in up-to-five counties to
provide a subsidized employment program as an
alternative, or in addition to, community service
activities, subject to the following conditions:
Participants in subsidized employment would be entitled
to a stipend of:
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A. $90 per month for mandatory payroll deductions
and other work expenses instead of the earned income
disregard; participation shall not exceed one year
in duration.
B. Specifies provisions for handling accrued sick
leave or vacation after the end of subsidized
employment.
C. Participants who fail to perform the required
number of hours in the first month would be entitled
to an amount equal to the wages not received for the
hours not worked, but shall be ineligible for the
program if they fail to meet the work requirement in
the second month.
D. Employers or entities other than the county
shall pay participants' wages.
E. Counties may fund the wages for subsidized
employment through their single allocation or any
other funds.
F. Counties shall monitor the retention of
participants as permanent employees of employers
participating in subsidized employment and cancel
participation of employers who demonstrate an
unwillingness to permanently hire individuals who
have participated in subsidized employment.
G. Counties approved to participate shall be given
the option of participating in community service in
lieu of subsidized employment.
H. Specifies earnings shall not be considered in
determining eligibility for the CalWORKS program,
but shall be considered in determining the CalWORKS
grant amount.
I. Implementation of subsidized employment projects
would be contingent upon funding in the annual
Budget Act.
J. The director would evaluate the demonstration
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projects as specified.
K. Specifies that subsidized employment shall be
counted as welfare-to-work activities and shall be
deemed to be grant-based on-the-job training.
2. Sick leave, hours per week -- This bill requires
counties to count toward the participant's weekly hours
of participation requirement the hours of sick leave
authorized by the employer and hours a participant
cannot work because of employer-recognized holidays.
Also, this bill requires that participants shall be
considered employees for all purposes, including the
Fair Labor Standards Act, and must be compensated at no
less than the higher of the state or federal minimum
wage.
3. EITC -- This bill requires that counties shall assist
recipients in subsidized employment in applying and
qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
4. Welfare to work plans --AB 1039 requires counties to
include, in their existing notice to CalWORKs
applicants and in the welfare-to-work plan, a
description of the right of the applicant or recipient
to contest the terms of his or her welfare-to-work plan
or seek changes in the plan.
5. Allowable work hours -- This bill conforms the
allowable work activities for students to the allowable
work activities for other CalWORKs recipients.
6. Child support -- This bill permits a former CalWORKs
recipient to claim a good cause exemption from the
county welfare department for noncooperation with child
support services in the same manner as CalWORKs
applicants and recipients.
7. Study time -- This bill provides that CalWORKs
recipients enrolled in an educational or vocational
training program are entitled to count classroom
preparation time toward their 32-hour work
participation requirements and presumes that one hour
of study time is required for each hour of classroom
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instruction, up to a maximum of six hours per week.
Comments
As part of California's welfare reform plan, a CalWORKs
recipient who is not employed after 18 or 24 months on aid
must go into community service employment. Community
service employment is work performed by recipients of
public assistance that otherwise would have gone undone by
employees in the public, private or non-profit sector.
There are two broad approaches to community service:
workfare and wage-based community service. Under workfare,
recipients are required to participate in community service
as a condition of receiving their public assistance grant.
Under wage-based community service, the recipient's grant
is used to fully or partially offset wages that are paid to
the recipient.
The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) recently completed a
report on CalWORKs community service, "CalWORKs Community
Service, What Does It Mean for California?" (February 4,
1999). In that report, LAO found that wage-based community
service results in more income for families by allowing
them to access the EITC. A typical family of three in
wage-based community service would receive an EITC of about
$250 per month, or about $3,000 per year. The report also
noted that wage-based community service aids recipients in
the transition to work by giving participants actual work
experience. The author states it is her intent to allow,
but not mandate, counties to create wage-based community
service programs for CalWORKs recipients that will give
those recipients real-life work opportunities and increase
their household income.
Self-initiated Education Programs
The author states that one purpose of this bill is to
correct discriminatory hourly requirements for CalWORKs
recipients who are self-initiated students. She states
that a recent oversight hearing by the Select Committee on
Welfare Reform Implementation on the role of community
colleges in welfare reform determined there are several
barriers to CalWORKs recipients receiving an education.
One of the major barriers identified was the current law
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requirement that students may not count their study time
towards their work participation hours.
Child Support Assurance
Current law authorizes child support assurances
demonstration programs in up to three counties; this bill
instead authorizes three demonstration programs, in two or
more counties, if the appropriate operational fiscal
arrangements are achieved and if approved by the California
Department of Social Services. This bill also revises the
specific limits on the number of persons who may
participate in CSA and revises evaluation criteria for the
CSA pilot projects. Also, this bill specifies that no
funding source for CSA shall be used if it would cause
participants to be subject to the time limits required
under CalWORKs. (CSA is intended to be an alternative to
CalWORKs.)
Current law also required that one of the CSA pilot
programs had to replicate a model implemented in New York
State. This bill deletes that requirement.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 Fund
Unknown costs potentially General
exceeding $1 million
SUPPORT : (Unable to verify at time of writing)
Western Center on Law and Poverty (source)
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State Department of Finance
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
California Church IMPACT
California Federation of Business and Professional Women
California National Organization of Women
Children's Advocacy Institute
Community College League of California
Equal Rights Advocates
Housing California
Jericho
San Diego Community College District
Santa Barbara Family Care Center
23 Individuals
OPPOSITION : (Unable to verify at time of writing)
State Department of Finance
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Western Center on Law and Poverty,
the bill's sponsor, notes that current law puts student
CalWORKs participants at a distinct disadvantage by
requiring more combined hours of work activity than other
participants. A single parent recipient in a full-time
education program must add 17-20 hours of employment or
other work activities to satisfy the CalWORKs requirement.
If that student's study time is two hours for each
classroom hour and he or she is taking 15 units, that
student will have to devote 62 hours per week of education
or work activities to meet the participation requirement,
since 30 hours are not counted. This, the sponsor say,
jeopardizes the well-being and development of the student's
children and risks the educational success of the student.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : State Department of Finance
opposes the cost of the bill.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 42-36, 6/3/99
AYES: Alquist, Aroner, Bock, Calderon, Cardenas, Cardoza,
Cedillo, Corbett, Ducheny, Dutra, Firebaugh, Floyd,
Gallegos, Hertzberg, Honda, Jackson, Keeley, Knox, Kuehl,
Lempert, Longville, Lowenthal, Machado, Mazzoni, Migden,
Papan, Reyes, Romero, Scott, Shelley, Soto, Steinberg,
Strom-Martin, Thomson, Torlakson, Vincent, Washington,
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Wesson, Wiggins, Wildman, Wright, Villaraigosa
NOES: Aanestad, Ackerman, Ashburn, Baldwin, Bates, Battin,
Baugh, Brewer, Briggs, Campbell, Correa, Cox, Cunneen,
Dickerson, Florez, Frusetta, Granlund, Havice, House,
Kaloogian, Leach, Leonard, Maddox, Maldonado, Margett,
McClintock, Olberg, Oller, Robert Pacheco, Rod Pacheco,
Pescetti, Runner, Strickland, Thompson, Wayne, Zettel
NOT VOTING: Davis, Nakano
CP:kb 9/9/99 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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