California Forward's Reforms Make Their Way to Legislative Measures
By Paul McIntosh, Executive Director
pmcintosh@counties.org
Last week, Senate and Assembly Democrats announced their endorsement of a variety of reforms included in the California Forward reform package and their intent to pursue those measures via the legislative process. (See CSAC’s blog post on this issue.)
These legislative measures have now been introduced in the form of SCA 19 (DeSaulnier) and ACA 4 (Feuer, Perez, and Bass). Companion statutory measures are included in SB 844, SB 845, AB 1638, and AB 2591.
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Hearing Held on Consolidation of County Offices
The Senate Local Government Committee held an informational hearing this week on the consolidation of county offices. Having noted that the statutes governing the organization of county offices were complicated, in some instances nonsensical, and plain outdated, the committee asked a variety of county officials to testify as to their experiences with consolidation.
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Senate Budget Subcommittee Rejects Elimination of Human Services Programs
Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 3 on Health and Human Services met on March 18 to discuss the so-called “trigger” proposals affecting human services programs. The Governor’s January budget anticipates $6.9 billion of new federal funding. However, if the federal funds do not materialize by July 15, 2010, the Governor proposes to trigger a number of cuts and revenues, including the complete elimination of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), CalWORKs, and Transitional Housing Program Plus (THP+) for former foster youth. Please recall that the trigger is an “all or nothing” proposal. If the state secured half of the additional federal funds sought by the Governor, all of the cuts would still go into effect.
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Administration of Justice
Late last week, the Governor vetoed ABX8 2, which contained just over $2.2 billion in budget solutions, including several cuts related to public safety described below. In his veto message, the Governor explained that he did not sign ABX8 2 because “it does not actually implement spending reductions and make progress to close the budget gap.” He also stated that the savings assumptions were unrealistic, citing the example of the commutation of sentences for undocumented criminals. The specific elements of ABX8 2 related to public safety were as follows:
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Agriculture and Natural Resources
AB 1672, by Assembly Member Kevin Jeffries, would require the members of the California State Air Resources Board (CARB) to be elected by the public, starting with the 2012 statewide general election. The bill would require CARB, by January 2012, to draw eleven district boundaries with the purpose of electing board members by region.
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Employee Relations
AB 2058, by Assembly Member Marty Block, will amend the Unemployment Insurance Code to allow individuals who are receiving Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits to attend job training programs without an interruption in their UI benefits.
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Government Finance and Operations
SB 1042, by Senator Mimi Walters, would repeal the outdated article of law that permits a county’s Board of Supervisors to condemn land and pay for it with general-obligation debt, for the purpose of transferring that land to the federal government for its military purposes.
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Health and Human Services
AB 1599, by Assembly Member Jim Beall, would allow the state to draw down federal funding for providing confidential alcohol and drug screening and brief intervention services to pregnant women and women of childbearing age who also qualify for Medi-Cal benefits.
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