SB 98 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) – Support As Amended on August 27, 2013

SB 98, by the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, was approved by the Assembly last week and now awaits a concurrence vote in the Senate.  

SB 98 is a technical cleanup measure related to AB 85, the budget trailer bill regarding the county health realignment “savings” under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law in June.  It is the product of weeks of effort and collaboration between CSAC, the Department of Finance, legislative staff, county affiliates and other stakeholders.

SB 98 includes several policy changes that counties strongly support, including:

•  The inclusion of a “hard cap” on the $300 million in 1991 health realignment payments that counties will make to the state in the first six months of 2014. Under AB 85, a county that elected to determine savings related to indigent health care through the cost/revenue formula option might have had to pay more than their proportional share of the $300 million under the “true up” mechanism. SB 98 clarifies this provision, ensuring that counties that choose the formula option will pay no more than their original proportional share of the $300 million.
• SB 98 extends key deadlines for counties and the state, which will ensure the accuracy of the data processes outlined in AB 85. Many of the deadlines have been moved back at least 30 days, including the date by which a county must formally choose either the 60/40 split or cost/revenue formula route from December 4, 2013 to January 22, 2014.
•  SB 98 also contains additional provisions related to the complex apportioning of sales tax and Vehicle License Fee (VLF) revenues in the 1991 Realignment structure, all of which were developed to ensure the most efficient process available.

Each of the above provisions, as well as the myriad technical changes embodied in SB 98, has – as mentioned above – received extensive thought and review from counties. CSAC also collaborated with the California Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), the California Health and Human Services Agency (Agency), county affiliates, and legislative staff to reach agreement on many of the provisions above.