Costly Worker's Comp Plan to Become Law Next Year
20 Percent Benefit Hike Predicted Over Four Years
Worker's compensation legislation signed into law over the opposition of business owners and the California Chamber of Commerce is certain to increase costs by $3.5 billion, according to industry estimates, but potential savings are difficult to quantify.
AB 749 (Calderon) will increase maximum worker's compensation benefits for temporarily and permanently disabled workers by 20 percent beginning January 1, 2003 - from $490 to $602 per week.
The benefits will increase to $728 weekly in 2004 and $840 per week in 2005. Annual increases thereafter are linked to cost-of-living adjustments in the state's average weekly wage.
Cost Controls - AB 749 includes a number of features aimed at tackling the high cost of unnecessary medical care:
• Gives employers with a designated health care organization (HCO) control over the injured employee's treatment for 180 days (instead of 90 days). Employers not using an HCO are limited to 30 days of control.
• Partially eliminates after January 1, 2003 the presumption that the treating physician's evaluation of disabilities and needed treatment is correct (a presumption that had encouraged doctor shopping by applicants and their attorneys). The presumption remains if the physician has been pre-designated and treated the employee before the injury.
• Repeals the so-called "baseball arbitration" process, which led to the most costly disability awards rather than narrowing down competing assessments of the degree to which a worker was impaired.
• Broadens the insurer's ability to disclose medical information to employers.
Continuing Concerns - A number of shortcomings in the bill will be of continuing concern to employers:
• The bill fails to address the other major system cost driver in addition to medical treatment costs - permanent partial disability (PPD) awards. There has been an explosive growth in the number of PPD claims at the lower end of the disability ratings, as well as some inflationary creep in the amount of the percentage of disability rating.
• There is no restriction on who may be the treating physician, nor is there a restriction on chiropractors.
• The bill reduces the complexity of the system only slightly.
• The penalty structure remains largely unchanged and the bill broadens a claimant's ability to collect attorney fees in penalty cases involving delayed benefit payments.
Cost Drivers - Also of concern to employers are features of the bill that could push workers' compensation costs even higher:
• The cost-of-living adjustment for life pensions and permanent total disability claims is uncapped and retroactive for open claims.
• Vocational rehabilitation still is mandatory, although the bill allows the employee to opt for a one-time cash grant of $10,000 for self-directed vocational rehabilitation. There is no requirement that the employee meet qualifications for participating in vocational rehabilitation, so industry observers predict this feature will lead to inflated settlements.
Savings Depend on Details - AB 749 includes a number of requirements that could lead to savings, depending on how they are implemented. These provisions relate to the use of generic drugs, how employees obtain prescription drugs, the pharmaceutical fee schedule and outpatient surgery facility fee schedule.
Other Provisions
• The bill expands the definition of first aid to allow employers to pay directly for a wider range of medical costs outside the workers' compensation system.
• It also offers grants of up to $2,500, beginning in 2004, to help employers sustain modified duty programs for injured employees who return to work. The program is subject to the Legislature appropriating the funds, however.
ASSEMBLYMEMBER CAROL LIU, 44TH DISTRICT
LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE - 2002
(03/10/02)CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
AB 1525 - Childcare Accessibility
Sponsor - Department of Education
Allows childcare centers to obtain waivers from the state in order to enroll more subsidized children.
* This bill enumerates and expands the conditions under which a low-income family can obtain a waiver to the "25% rule" and employ the childcare provider of their choice.
Status: Senate Floor; working with Women's Caucus; bill may become part of larger effort to overhaul childcare delivery system.
Staff: Catherine Hazelton
AB 2294 - Foster Youth Ombudsperson
Sponsor - California Children's Commission
Extends possible term for Foster Youth Ombudsperson and requires Obmudsperson to report to the Legislature biannually.
* This bill extends Ombudsperson's term from two years to four years and allows him or her to be reappointed for additional terms. Without this provision, the Ombudsperson can only serve a two year term, after which the State will lose the expertise and institutional knowledge he or she has developed.
* The bill requires the Ombudsperson to report to the Legislature at least once every two years statewide foster youth trends and legislative recommendations for improving the child welfare system.
Status: Assembly Human Services Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Catherine HazeltonAB 2622 - Domestic Violence
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Streamlines data collection of child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse.
* In development.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee.
Staff: Catherine Hazelton
CONSUMER PROTECTIONAB 2293 - Consumer Credit Counseling Reform
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Updates laws regulating consumer credit counseling to protect consumers and respond to recent proliferation of such businesses.
* While the popularity and number of consumer credit counseling companies have exploded in recent years, the laws governing them have not changed in decades.
* This bill will update old codes to reflect the current needs of consumers and protect them from the unscrupulous practices of some consumer credit counseling companies.
Status: Assembly Banking and Finance; will be heard April 1.
Staff: Patrice Broussard
EDUCATIONAB 878 - Student Cell Phones
Sponsor - Five Star Education Coalition
Allows local school boards to establish policies governing student possession and use of cellular phones and other electronic signaling devices.
* Under current law, school districts may not allow students to possess or use cellular phones or other electronic signaling devices (two way pagers, etc.) unless prescribed by a physician.
* This bill returns local control to school boards by allowing them to craft their own policies regulating the use of cell phones on campus.
Status: Senate Education Committee; will be heard March 13.
Staff: Keith NittaAB 1317: Student Witness Protection
Sponsor: Los Angeles County Office of Education
Protects student witnesses who testify in expulsion hearings for retaliatory lawsuits.
* This bill, inspired by a recent lawsuit, strengthens current "whistleblower protection" laws intended to protect students who report illegal or threatening behavior of other students.
* Specifically, the bill protects students who testify in school expulsion hearings from being sued in civil court for their testimony.
Status: Senate Education Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Keith NittaAB 1407 -Algebra Incentive Program (Joint Author with Lowenthal)
Sponsor - Governor Gray Davis/Office of the Secretary of Education
Establishes the Algebra Incentive Program to provide funding to assist public schools to provide quality instruction in algebra before a pupil's graduation from high school.
* This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to implement the program beginning January 1, 2002, and to report annually to the Legislature on the success of the program in meeting its objectives.
* AB 1407 provides a per-pupil grant of either $50 or $100, based on the percentage change in pupils who took either the Algebra I or Integrated Math I achievement test. The bill permits school districts maintaining one or more of grades 7 to 12 to apply for a grant.
* The grants may be used to provide fiscal incentives to algebra and pre-algebra teachers, train algebra teachers, reduce the pupil to teacher ratios in algebra classes, improve pupil pre-algebra skills, offer on-line learning opportunities, or other activities.
Status: Senate Education Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Keith NittaAB 1746 - Firefighter/September 11 Tuition Waiver
Sponsor: California Professional Firefighters
Waives tuition to California Community Colleges for the dependents of public safety officers killed in the line of duty. Waives tuition to UC, CSU and community colleges for the dependents of Californians who were killed on September 11th.
* This bill waives tuition to California Community Colleges for children and spouses of police or firefighters killed in the line of duty. Current law waives tuition for these dependents to the CSU and UC, but not the community colleges.
* The bill would also waive tuition to each system for the dependents of Californians killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Status: Assembly Higher Education Committee; will be heard April 2.
Staff: Catherine HazeltonAB 1991 - Community College Cal Grants
Sponsor: Carol Liu
Improves the method of delivering Cal Grants to Community College Students.
* This bill will probably become a study of how the Cal Grant system serves community college students. In development.
Status: Assembly Higher Education Committee; will be heard April 2.
Staff: Catherine HazeltonAB 2188 - Expansion of High School ROP Programs
Sponsor: MetroEd (Central Santa Clara ROP) (pending)
Allows multiple school districts and ROPs to collaborate and form regional technical high schools and allows the Department of Education to administer a pilot program.
* This bill seeks to relax established funding requirements to allow districts and ROCP districts to collaborate to establish regional career and technical high schools.
* The bill also sets aside funds for the Department of Education to administer the establishment of a pilot program or demonstration of regional career and technical high schools.
Status: Assembly Education Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Keith NittaAB 2616 - Training to Teach the Visually Impaired (Joint author with Lowenthal)
Sponsor: National Federation of the Blind
Provides resources to train CSU students to teach visually impaired students.
* The bill appropriates $1,570,000 from the General Fund to the CSU to fund interactive television, Web-based courses, and other off-campus options for providing instruction to persons studying in the field of teaching visually impaired pupils and to fund other CSU efforts to increase the number of these teachers.
Status: Assembly Higher Education Committee; will be heard April 16.
Staff: Keith NittaAB 2618 - Women's Sports at Community Colleges
Sponsor: Carol Liu
Improves funding and availability of women's sports at community colleges.
* Bill is in development.
Status: Assembly Higher Education Committee; will be heard April 16.
Staff: Catherine HazeltonAB 2638 - Education Data Collection
Sponsor: Carol Liu
Improves the collection of data related to education.
* The bill will create an integrated, centralized, multifaceted data collection and distribution system.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for assignment to a policy committee.
Staff: Keith NittaAB 2646 - State Teachers' Retirement System
Sponsor: California Teachers Association, California Federation of Teachers, Association of California School Administrators
Changes funding formula for State Teachers' Retirement System.
* Benefits for STRS members are calculated on a base rate. This rate is set at the highest single year (usually the final year) for teachers with more than 25 years of service but for the average of the highest three years for all others.
* This bill eliminates the dual classification and gives all teachers the final year rate.
* The bill will be amended to make it clear that the additional costs for this change will not come from the state's General Fund but from additional money within the STRS system.
Status: Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee; hearing date has not yet been set.
Staff: Keith Nitta
ENVIRONMENTAB 2643 - Water Conservation
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Promotes water conservation throughout California.
* This bill will implement recommendations from several water districts to create a statewide water conservation plan.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Theo Cline
GOOD GOVERNMENTAB 2036 - Property Tax Refund Equity Act
Sponsor - Los Angeles County
Clarifies the ambiguities in the calculation of interest on property tax refunds.
* Some counties calculate interest on property tax refunds based upon the total amount of the annual bill, while other counties calculate interest on these refunds based upon each installment.
* This bill provides clarity and uniformity to California tax law, by requiring the interest on a refund be calculated upon each installment.
* The bill makes it less complicated for taxpayers to forecast future payments and protects counties from potential litigation.
Status: Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Theo ClineAB 2615 - Report Streamlining and Elimination
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Reduces the number and frequency of agency reports to the Legislature.
* This bill will allow the State Department of Resources and the California Environmental Protection Agency to save staff resources and money by eliminating certain reports that are no longer relevant.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Theo ClineAB 2629 - DMV bill
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Allows victims of identity theft to suppress their registration and driving records.
* This bill adds victims of identity theft to the list of those who may suppress their DMV information from public consumption.
* This bill will allow stalking and identity theft victims to suppress their records for an indefinite period of time.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Patrice BroussardAB 2647 - Elimination of Obsolete Reports
Sponsor - Governor Gray Davis
Eliminates requirement for Cal Trans to submit reports to the Legislature that are no longer necessary to the Department's function or mission.
* This bill will streamline the reporting requirements of the Department of Transportation and reduce waste and inefficiency.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Theo Cline
HEALTHAB 1885 - Health Care Tax Credit
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Creates a health care tax credit for laid off workers.
* This bill will allow taxpayers who have lost their jobs due to the recession to receive a credit to their California state income taxes for the costs of maintaining health plan coverage (COBRA).
* The bill will encourage Californians to continue health coverage during a period of unemployment thereby avoiding reliance on public health safety nets.
Status: Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Theo ClineAB 1896 - Ovarian Cancer Screening
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Requires health insurers to cover ovarian cancer screening tests.
* This bill will require health insurers to cover the cost of ovarian cancer screening tests including, but not limited to, the CA 125 blood test when used with a sonogram and pelvic examination.
* Coverage would be extended to women who are at risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Status: Assembly Health Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Theo ClineAB 1989 - Next of Kin
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Requires nursing homes to notify next of kin when a patient's condition deteriorates.
* This bill will require residential care facilities and nursing homes to notify the next of kin or patient contact when a resident's health status changes to unstable or critical.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Theo ClineAB 2617 - Employer Funded Cafeteria Plans
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Allow the balance of an employer funded cafeteria plan to roll over from one year to another.
* Cafeteria plans are funded by an employer and an employee in order to afford various medical expenses such as co-payments, deductibles, etc.
* Typically, the funds established in the plans must be utilized before the end of every calendar year. This "use it or lose it" policy does not give the consumer flexibility on how to best use the funds.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Theo ClineAB 2684 - Long Term Care
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Allows Californians to receive an income tax credit for the premiums paid on Long Tern Care Insurance policies.
* This bill will give consumers better incentives to plan for long term care.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Theo Cline
PUBLIC SAFETYAB 1990 - Gang Crime Asset Forfeiture
Sponsor - Carol Liu
Makes it easier to seize the assets of convicted gang members.
* This bill changes the threshold of the criminal profiteering statute to allow asset forfeiture of gang members convicted of committed one crime, instead of two.
Status: Assembly Public Safety Committee; hearing date not yet set.
Staff: Catherine HazeltonAB 2620 - Funding Volunteer Search and Rescue Teams
Sponsor - Short Term Emergency Plan (STEP)
Allows volunteer public safety organizations to apply for state funding when available.
* This bill will allow volunteer emergency preparedness and search and rescue teams and other volunteer public safety organizations to apply to the Office of Emergency Service for state funding, when funds are available.
Status: Assembly Rules Committee; waiting for referral to policy committee.
Staff: Catherine Hazelton
BANKINGSB 1657 - Armenian Trade Office (Currently a resources spot)
This bill requires the Secretary of Technology, Trade and Commerce to establish an overseas trade office in Yerevan.EDUCATION
SB 1656 -Protection of California School Children from Registered Sex Offenders
This bill would close the gaps in current law that hinder or delay the revocation of credential holders and denial of applications of individuals convicted of sex offenses that required registration as sex offenders.Current law defines sex offenses and, in large part, calls for the mandatory revocation of credentials and denial of applications upon conviction. There is one situation that requires attention. Due to unclear wording of existing law (Education Code Sections 44010, 44425 and 44346), there is the potential that a person convicted of a sex offense that requires that the individual register as a sex offender would not be subject to mandatory revocation or denial. Existing law does not address situations where an individual is required to register as a sex offender under the law of another state or federal law. This proposal promotes excellence by ensuring that sex registrants are never in the classroom.
SB 1655 - Fast Track Credential for School Administrators
Fashioned after the expedited credential route for teachers in SB 57 (Scott, 2001), this bill would provide an expedited credentialing route for school administrators. School districts, particularly those with hard-to-staff and low performing schools, could identify strong teacher leaders with the skills and commitment to work in challenged schools who could pursue this credentialing option.This bill proposes a quality optional route for earning an expedited Administrative Services Credential through the application of three crucial components: (1) Passage of a rigorous national written examination testing administrator knowledge, skill and ability, adopted by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for this purpose; (2) Demonstration of competence through a performance assessment, and; (3) Recommendation by an accredited administrator preparation program.
This option targets candidates with demonstrated skills, knowledge, and ability equivalent to those typically acquired in an administrator preparation program. As is the case with all California school administrators, the candidate would need to: earn a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited university; pass the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST); possess a basic teaching or service credential; serve for three years on the basis of that credential; pass identification and character clearance.
SB 1596 - Child Care Family Support and Accountability Act - Fraudulent Activities
SB 541 would enact the Child Care Family Support and Accountability Act to provide a comprehensive system of child care services. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to ensure that each contact for child care and associated services specify how the effectiveness of the contract will be measured, and how fraudulent activities will be eliminated. Additionally, language to address how Department of Social Services responds to child care fraud will be amended into the bill.Reforming and cutting down on fraud in government subsidized child care can result in substantial state savings. Some estimates cite that crackdown on child care fraud through enforcement activities could save the state $100-$200 million annually.
SB 850 -- Training and Certification of School Management and Business Officials
California's K-12 public education system is a $52 billion investment in our children and our future. Because managing California's public education is such a big business, there is a growing need for school business and management personnel that are knowledgeable in the complexities of the public school budget process. Business official training for school districts and leaders is an important and vital part of creating a strong business fabric for all California school districts.This bill addresses that problem by facilitating training to improve school district management of funds and resources. SB 850 allocates $1.4 million to develop and implement programs to train and certify school management and business officials throughout the state - the officials who are so important to the fiscal accountability of public education.
SB 1796 -- EOPS Academic Bridge Program
This bill would appropriate $140,000 from the General Fund to the California Community College Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) for a pilot program at up to 6 community colleges establishing Academic Bridge programs for EOPS students. Seeking to address the high proportion of incoming EOPS students that do not succeed in their initial writing and math courses, these pilot programs would create informal networks of instructors and counselors to provide supplemental support centered around classroom activities. This bill would be the first to formally recognize the need for instruction-oriented services within the EOPS.
HEALTHSB 451 -Developmental Assistant Certification
This bill would standardize direct care training and professional staffing requirements for all long-term health care facilities serving clients with developmental disabilities. SB 451 would create a Certified Developmental Assistant Program that would professionalize Direct Care Staff in long term care facilities. Currently, Direct Care Staff receive on-the-job training, which can vary greatly from facility to facility. The certification program in this bill has been modeled after California's Certified Nursing Assistants' program for direct care staff in skilled nursing facilities. The training program will set standards for CDA's working in larger licensed intermediate care facilities as well as habilitative and nursing facilities. In addition, the CDA program will establish a career ladder and other vocational incentives for CDAs to continue to pursue more skilled training to help address the continuing staffing shortage in long term care facilities. The training certification program is designed to be transferable, with minimal training, to other similar certified direct care positions.SB 492 - J-1 Visa Waiver for Foreign Doctors (Joint w/Senator Polanco)
This bill would require DHS to implement a program consistent with federal law whereby the department would recommend, in each year and for up to 20 doctors who are working the US on a J-1 visa, a waiver of the 2-year home country residence requirement, so that the doctors can continue to work in California in a designated health shortage area. Currently, a doctor may work in California for up to three years before they must return to their home countries to do a 2 year residency. Once the residency is completed, they may return to the US. The doctors are all licensed by the State of California.SB 1744 -- Juvenile Mental Health
This bill would make it easier for courts to implement mental health courts for juveniles. It would also establish a procedure for evaluating the mental fitness of minors for adjudication by a juvenile delinquency court that would be similar to the system set forth in Penal Code section 1368 et seq for determining adult defendants' mental competency.
INSURANCESB 1621 - HMO Contracts
Under the Knox-Keene act, an HMO can adjust any terms of a contract with 30 days notice to the enrollees. This bill would require the HMO to adjust the terms only at time of open enrollment, unless by doing so the financial health of the company would be compromised. Department of Managed Health Care would be the body that could make a financial health determination.SB 1638 -- HMO Coverage for Hearing Aids
This bill would require health care service plans to cover the costs of hearing tests and hearing aids for children with hearing loss/disabilities.Currently, most HMOs cover surgery to repair hearing, but do not cover the hearing aids that many families opt for. Additionally, Healthy Families and Medical both cover hearing aids for children. Two of the Kaiser plans and Pacific Care covers hearing aids. In California, there are approximately 15 children in every 1,000 who would benefit from this treatment.
The cost is small in comparison to the critical difference that testing and hearing aids will make to children and their ability to learn and succeed in school.
SB 1881 - Emergency Services Billing
This bill would require physicians and hospitals to bill the health care service plan prior to billing the patient for emergency room care. The patient would continue to be liable for the co-payment at the time the care was provided.
JUDICIARYSB 1512 - Adoptions Clean-up
This bill makes some technical, non-controversial changes in existing adoption law.SB 1674 - Adoption Facilitator Advertising
Adoption facilitators perform an important role in the adoption process: linking birth mothers with adoptive families. In most cases, however, they do not prepare the legal documents or home studies that are required to complete adoptions. Unfortunately, some adoption facilitators take advantage of adoptive families by misleading them about their function in the adoption process. Adoptive parents are often unaware that they have to pay for attorneys and adoption service providers in addition to paying for the services of adoption facilitators. SB 1674 would require adoption facilitators to inform consumers that they are not licensed adoption agencies or attorneys.SB 1803 -- Elder Financial Abuse - Clean-up to AB 2107
AB 2107 (Scott, 1999) established a comprehensive safety net for protecting seniors from financial abuse. However, some drafting errors in the bill have led to ambiguity about the meaning of a few minor provisions. SB 1803 would correct those errors so that the law can be strongly and effectively enforced.
LABORSB 467 - Voluntary Disability Insurance Plan
This labor bill would implement reforms of the voluntary disability insurance plan program. This program is an alternative to State Disability Insurance, which like SDI, is funded by employee contributions. Under existing law, employers are allowed to co-mingle funds for their voluntary plans with other funds, which sometimes results in underfunded plans. If the plans become insolvent, the Employment Development Department (EDD) is prohibited from immediately paying claims by injured workers who were supposed to be covered by voluntary plans.One example of the problems with the existing system was the bankruptcy of PG&E's voluntary plan in 2000. As a result, injured PG&E workers went without income for five months.
SB 467, sponsored by the California Labor Federation, would prevent employers from co-mingling disability insurance funds with other funds, allow EDD to immediately pay the claims of injured workers when the VPP is bankrupt, and make related technical changes in the law.
PUBLIC SAFETYSB 836 - Sex Offender Registration
SB 836 corrects a chaptering out error which affects Penal Code Section 290, relating to the registration of sex offenders. The last bill to be signed in 2001 which affected P.C section 290, AB 349, included language that was supposed to be moved out of Penal Code section 290 by AB 1004. The Department of Justice has requested that the language to be moved so as not to create any new issues that might interfere with the sex offender registration requirements. SB 836 would simply move that "treatment" language out of P.C. section 290.SB 1670 - Trigger Lock Clean-Up - DOJ certified trigger locks
Under AB 106 (Scott, 1999), all firearms sold in California must include safety lock devices approved by independent testing laboratories. A loophole in the law allows safety lock devices which do not meet the AB 106 standards to be sold to the public "off the rack." Such locks are potentially ineffective, and therefore dangerous. Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission tested 32 trigger and cable locks. Thirty of them failed the CPSC tests, opening when they were dropped, banged, picked or cut. One shooting sports group that had previously given away some of the defective locks voluntarily recalled 400,000 of them after the CPSC test.SB 1670 would close the loophole in AB 106 to apply the existing safety standards for locks sold with guns to locks sold separately from guns. Under SB 1670, it would be unlawful to sell a trigger or cable lock in California that does not pass the DOJ-certified tests.
SB 1712 - Funding Restoration for Domestic Violence Shelters
Last year, ten well-established domestic violence shelters lost grants from the Office of Criminal Justice Planning. Two of the centers are in my district, Haven House of Pasadena and the YWCA of Glendale. Haven House was the first battered women's shelter in the United States. It has provided emergency shelter and other services - including counseling, transportation, victim/witness assistance, and transitional housing assistance - for abused women since 1964. In many cases, funding was denied to the programs because of minor technical errors in their grant applications.Assembly Bill 664 (Dutra), which Governor Davis recently signed into law, softened the blow of the lost grants for these centers. AB 664 provided one year of funding for the programs. At the end of the year, however, the shelters will face the prospect of closing their doors once again. Under current law, the programs cannot reapply for funding until 2004. SB 1712 will ensure that funding for successful, well-established shelters such as Haven House and the YWCA will continue for years to come.
RESOURCESSB 1508 -- Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
Adds a non-voting member to the Board of the Conservancy. The new member would be the executive director of the park.
REVENUE AND TAXATIONSB 219 --Tax relief for victims of Terrorist Attacks
Authorizes Franchise Tax Board and Board of Equalization power to grant 120-day tax extensions and penalty relief to businesses and individual taxpayers affected by September 11 terrorist attacks. Includes all corporations in the relief allowed for individuals affected by disasters. Provisions apply to any disaster occurring on or after September 11, 2001.SB 657 Pension and Tax Conformity
Conforms California to new federal law (Economic Growth and Tax Relief reconciliation Act of 2001 - EGTRRA) relating to educational IRAs, traditional and Roth IRA's 401k/457/403b plans, and defined benefit plans (e.g. PERS). As a tax levy, the bill goes into immediate effect.Without this conforming legislation, persons that take advantage of the new, higher limits for retirement accounts under the federal law will have their account disqualified and will incur immediate capital gains taxes.
The new federal limits increase contributions as follows:
* IRA accounts: increase each year from $2000 to $5000 by 2004
* 401k/457/403b accounts: increase each year from $10,500 to $15,000 by 2006
* Educational IRAs: increases from $500 to $2000.The federal law also enhances the portability and consolidation of 401k/457/403b plans, to accommodate the mobile nature of today's workforce. New federal provisions also allow persons over age 50 to contribute $5,000 a year more than normally allowed to these plans to "catch up" on contributions.
The federal law also increases the contribution amounts and maximum pension benefits for workers with defined pension systems, such as public employee retirement systems.
SB 1660 - Revenue and Taxation Omnibus Bill
Franchise Tax Board omnibus bill -- miscellaneous technical and corrective changes.SB 1805 - Sales Tax Spot Bill
Spot bill.