Asm. Tony Thurmond

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides for a schedule of benefits provided under the Medi-Cal program, which includes certain dental services that are referred to as Denti-Cal. Existing law, the California Healthcare, Research, and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016, or Proposition 56, which was approved by voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, increases taxes imposed on distributors of cigarettes and tobacco products and allocates a specified percentage of those revenues to the department to increase funding for existing health care programs under the Medi-Cal program. Existing law establishes the Healthcare Treatment Fund for this purpose. This bill would require the department, for the 2017–18 fiscal year, to double Denti-Cal provider reimbursement rates for the 15 most common prevention, treatment, and oral evaluation services based on the average rates per service established in the 2015–16 fiscal year. The bill would appropriate for the 2017–18 fiscal year such an amount as may be necessary to double the reimbursement rates from the Healthcare Treatment Fund to the department, as specified.

Existing law requires the minimum wage for all industries to not be less than specified amounts to be increased from January 1, 2017, to January 1, 2022, inclusive, for employers employing 26 or more employees and from January 1, 2018, to January 1, 2023, inclusive, for employers employing 25 or fewer employees, except when the scheduled increases are temporarily suspended by the Governor, based on certain determinations. Existing law defines an employer for purposes of those provisions to mean a person who directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of another person. Payment of less than the established minimum wage is a misdemeanor. This bill would expand the definition of "employer" for purposes of these provisions to include a person who directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of a person engaged in a period of supervised work experience longer than 100 hours to satisfy requirements for licensure, registration, or certification as an allied health professional, as defined. Because this bill would expand the definition of a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law creates the Department of Finance and provides that the department has general powers of supervision over all matters concerning the financial and business policies of the state. This bill would enact the Homeless Relief Act of 2017. The bill would appropriate $500,000,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Finance for expenditure for the purpose of relieving homelessness in this state, to be allocated to local continuums of care based on a formula developed by the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board, when adopting rules and regulations to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions beyond the statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit and to protect the state's most impacted and disadvantaged communities, to follow specified requirements, consider the social costs of the emissions of greenhouse gases, and prioritize specified emission reduction rules and regulations. This bill would additionally require the state board to consider and account for the social costs of the emissions of greenhouse gases when adopting those rules and regulations. The bill would authorize the state board to adopt or amend regulations that establish a market-based compliance mechanism, applicable from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2030, to complement direct emissions reduction measures in ensuring that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The bill would authorize the state board to adopt no-trade zones or facility-specific declining greenhouse gas emissions limits where facilities' emissions contribute to a cumulative pollution burden that creates a significant health impact. This bill would require the state board, in consultation with affected air pollution control and air quality management districts, to adopt air pollutant emissions standards for emissions of criteria air pollutants and toxic air contaminants at industrial facilities that are subject to a market-based compliance mechanism. The bill would prohibit the state board from allocating allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to industrial facilities that do not meet the air pollutant emissions standards for criteria air pollutants and toxic air contaminants. This bill would require the state board, in ensuring that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030, to adopt the most effective and equitable mix of emissions reduction measures and ensure that emissions reduction measures collectively and individually support achieving air quality and other environmental and public health goals.

Existing law imposes various taxes, including taxes on the privilege of engaging in certain activities. The Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, provides procedures for the collection of certain fees and surcharges. This bill, for the privilege of contracting with a state prison, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or the Department of General Services to provide a state prison with goods, services, or both, would impose a tax on vendors, as defined, at the rate equal to 10% of the final contract price, as defined, for contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2018. The bill would require all amounts paid, less refunds, to be deposited into the State Incarceration Prevention Fund, which this bill would establish in the State Treasury, and would continuously appropriate those moneys to the State Department of Education for preschool and after school programs for the purposes of providing services to prevent people from being incarcerated and providing early intervention programs, less the amount needed to reimburse the State Board of Equalization and the Attorney General for costs incurred in administering these provisions. The bill would prohibit this tax from being passed through to the state by way of higher prices for the goods or services in the contract, and would require a vendor to certify under penalty of perjury that this tax was not passed through to the state. The bill would require a vendor to pay a penalty if it fails to comply with these provisions. The bill would require the Attorney General to enforce this prohibition and would authorize the Attorney General to monitor and, if necessary, investigate any instance where a vendor has passed or attempted to pass the tax through to the state. The bill would require the State Board of Equalization to assess and collect the tax imposed by this part pursuant to the Fee Collection Procedures Law and would provide an appeals process for a person from whom the state incarceration prevention tax is determined to be due, as provided. By expanding the application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, and by expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill imposes a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law provides for the State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind and Disabled (SSP) , which requires the State Department of Social Services to contract with the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments to SSP recipients to supplement Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments made available pursuant to the federal Social Security Act. Under existing law, benefit payments under SSP are calculated by establishing the maximum level of nonexempt income and federal SSI and state SSP benefits for each category of eligible recipient. The state SSP payment is the amount required, when added to the nonexempt income and SSI benefits available to the recipient, to provide the maximum benefit payment. Existing law prohibits, for each calendar year, commencing with the 2011 calendar year, any cost-of-living adjustment from being made to the maximum benefit payment unless otherwise specified by statute, except for the pass along of any cost-of-living increase in the federal SSI benefits. Existing law continuously appropriates funds for the implementation of SSP. This bill would reinstate the cost-of-living adjustment beginning January 1 of the 2018 calendar year. The bill would also require a maximum aid payment provided to an individual or a married couple that does not equal or exceed 96% of the 2017 federal poverty level, or 100% of the 2018 federal poverty level, as specified, to be increased to an amount that equals 96% or 100% of the federal poverty level, respectively. By reinstating the cost-of-living adjustment and by increasing the amount of benefits paid under the SSP, this bill would make an appropriation.

(1) Existing law establishes the Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant Program for the purpose of supporting local housing trust funds dedicated to the creation or preservation of affordable housing. Under the grant program, the department is authorized to make matching grants available to cities, counties, cities and counties, and existing charitable nonprofit organizations that have created, funded, and operated housing trust funds. The minimum allocation to a program applicant is $1,000,000 for existing trust funds, or $500,000 for newly established housing trust funds. The maximum allocation for any applicant is $2,000,000, unless the applicant has previously received a grant through the program, in which case the maximum allocation is $1,000,000. Under existing law, all funds provided under the grant program are to be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis with moneys that are not required by any state or federal law to be spent on housing. This bill would recast these provisions to instead authorize the department to make grants to eligible recipients, defined as cities that meet specified criteria and charitable nonprofit organizations organized under certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that apply jointly with a qualifying city, that have created or are operating or will operate housing trust funds. The bill would increase the maximum allocation for an eligible recipient to $5,000,000 or, if the eligible recipient has previously received a grant through the program, $2,500,000. The bill would also provide that an eligible recipient would not be required to provide matching funds if the eligible recipient is suffering a hardship, as determined by the Department of Finance, and is unable to generate matching funds, and that the maximum allocation to an eligible recipient suffering hardship would be $10,000,000 or, if the eligible recipient has previously received a grant through the program, $5,000,000. (2) Existing law requires that funds awarded pursuant to the program be used for the predevelopment costs, acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of rental housing projects with an affordability restriction for at least 55 years, emergency shelters, safe havens, transitional housing, for-sale housing projects, or units within for-sale housing projects. This bill would remove emergency shelters, safe havens, and transitional housing from the authorized use of funds. The bill would instead authorize funds to be used for community land trusts, as defined, and housing projects constructed by Habitat for Humanity of California, Inc., or California Habitat for Humanity affiliates. The bill would make findings that the effect that authorizing the use of these funds for housing projects constructed by Habitat for Humanity of California, Inc., or California Habitat for Humanity affiliates serves a public purpose and does not constitute a gift of public funds. (3) Under existing law, at least 30% of the total amount of the grant and the match must be expended on projects, units, or shelters that are affordable to, and restricted for, extremely low income households; up to 20% of the total amount of the grant and the match must be expended on projects or units affordable to, and restricted for, moderate-income persons and families whose income does not exceed 120% of the area median income; and the remaining funds must be used for projects, units, or shelters that are affordable to, and restricted for, lower income households. The bill would instead require that funds distributed by the Department of Housing and Community Development be expended on projects or units that are affordable to, and restricted for, persons and families whose income does not exceed 120% of the area median income, if the projects or units are to be owned by the occupants, or 100% of the area median income, if the projects or units are rental housing projects or units. The bill would require that at least 50% of the total amount of the grant and match be expended on projects or units that are affordable to, and restricted for, persons and families whose income does not exceed 60% of the area median income, but that no more than 20% of the total amount of the grant and match be expended on projects or units affordable to, and restricted for, persons and families whose income does not exceed 30% of the area median income. (4) Existing law requires an applicant for a grant provide the department with adequate documentation of the deposit in the local housing trust fund of the local match and the identity of the source of matching funds and adequate documentation that an ordinance imposing or dedicating a tax or fee to be deposited into the new trust has been enacted or the applicant has adopted a legally binding commitment to deposit matching funds into the new trust. This bill would additionally require an eligible recipient to provide a proposed expenditure plan. The bill would provide that an eligible recipient may subsequently amend its expenditure plan subject to the approval of the department. (5) Existing law requires recipients to have held, or agree to hold, a public hearing or hearings to discuss and describe the project or projects that will be financed with grant funds. Under existing law, any nonprofit organization, as a condition to receiving a grant, must agree that it will hold one public meeting a year to discuss the criteria that will be used to select projects to be funded. Existing law requires that the meeting be open to the public, and public notice of this meeting be provided, except to the extent that any similar meeting of a city or county would be permitted to be held in closed session. This bill would recast this provision to require that an eligible recipient hold, or agree to hold, a public hearing or hearings in accordance with the Ralph M. Brown Act to discuss and describe the project or projects that will be financed with grant funds. The bill, if the eligible recipient that is a charitable nonprofit organization, as provided, would require that the city that has applied jointly with the charitable nonprofit organization hold the public hearing. (6) This bill would make various technical and conforming changes to the Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant Program. The bill would also make findings and declarations with regard to all of its provisions.

Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to conduct assessments of all inmates regarding the inmate's history of substance abuse, medical and mental health, education, family background, criminal activity, service in the United States military, and social functioning for use in placing the inmate in programs that will aid in his or her reentry to society and that will most likely reduce the inmate's chances of reoffending. This bill would require the department, in making an initial inmate housing assignment, to consider whether the inmate is eligible for public mental health services due to a serious mental illness or whether the inmate currently is eligible for benefits under the federal Social Security Disability Insurance program due to a diagnosed mental illness.

(1) Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed by, and funded pursuant to, federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides for the federal Medicare Program, which is a public health insurance program for persons 65 years of age and older and specified persons with disabilities who are under 65 years of age. Existing law, the Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI) , requires the department to seek federal approval pursuant to a Medicare or Medicaid demonstration project or waiver, or a combination thereof, to establish a demonstration project that enables beneficiaries who are dually eligible for the Medi-Cal program and the Medicare Program to receive a continuum of services that maximizes access to, and coordination of, benefits between these programs. Existing law requires, with some exceptions, Medi-Cal beneficiaries who have dual eligibility in the Medi-Cal program and the Medicare Program to be assigned as mandatory enrollees into Medi-Cal managed care health plans for their Medi-Cal benefits in counties participating in the CCI. Existing law conditions implementation of the CCI on whether the Director of Finance estimates that the CCI will generate net General Fund savings, as specified. Existing law, with certain exceptions, specifies those provisions of law that are within the scope of the CCI, including those relating to the demonstration project described above, to become inoperative if this condition is not met. Existing law establishes the county-administered In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with services in order to permit them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Existing law requires, as part of the CCI, Medi-Cal long-term services and supports, including IHSS, to be covered services under managed care health plan contracts and to be available only through managed care health plans to beneficiaries residing in the CCI counties, except as specified. This bill would provide that the provision conditioning implementation of the CCI on the above-described estimation by the Director of Finance shall not apply to the requirement that IHSS be a covered service available through managed care health plans in CCI counties, and would continue IHSS as a covered service available through Medi-Cal managed care health plans in those counties. The bill would make conforming changes to related provisions. (2) Existing law permits services to be provided under the IHSS program through the employment of individual providers, a contract between the county and an entity for the provision of services, the creation by the county of a public authority, or a contract between the county and a nonprofit consortium. Under existing law, any public authority created under the IHSS program is deemed to be the employer of in-home support services personnel within the meaning of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, which governs local employer-employee relations. Existing law also provides that any nonprofit consortium contracting with a county is deemed the employer of in-home supportive services personnel for the purposes of collective bargaining over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Existing law, as part of the CCI, establishes the California In-Home Supportive Services Authority, referred to as the Statewide Authority, and requires the authority to be the entity authorized to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations for any individual provider who is employed by a recipient of supportive services, as specified. Existing law establishes the In-Home Supportive Services Fund within the State Treasury. Existing law requires that moneys in the fund be made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Statewide Authority for the purposes of funding its functions. Existing law establishes, as part of the CCI, the In-Home Supportive Services Employer-Employee Relations Act, which serves to resolve disputes regarding wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment between the Statewide Authority and recognized employee organizations providing in-home supportive services. Under the act, the Statewide Authority is deemed to be the employer of record, for purposes of collective bargaining, of individual providers of in-home supportive services in each county, as specified. This bill would provide that the provision conditioning implementation of the CCI on the above-described estimation by the Director of Finance shall not apply to the provisions establishing the Statewide Authority, the provisions establishing the In-Home Supportive Services Fund, and the IHSS Employer-Employee Relations Act. (3) Existing law requires the state and counties to share the annual cost of providing in-home supportive services, with the state paying to the county 65% of the nonfederal cost and each county paying 35% of the nonfederal cost. Notwithstanding that provision, existing law requires all counties to have a County IHSS Maintenance of Effort (MOE) and requires counties to pay the County IHSS MOE instead of paying the nonfederal share of IHSS costs, as specified. Existing law provides that the County IHSS MOE base year is the 2011–12 state fiscal year and requires the County IHSS MOE from the previous year to be annually adjusted by an inflation factor of 3.5%. Existing law conditions the IHSS MOE requirement on the above-described determination by the Director of Finance. This bill would provide that the provision conditioning implementation of the CCI on the above-described estimation by the Director of Finance shall not apply to the IHSS MOE requirement. The bill would make conforming changes in related provisions. This bill would appropriate $650,000,000 from the General Fund to the department for the purpose of continuing to make IHSS available to Medi-Cal beneficiaries pursuant to these provisions.