The County's legislative coordinator in the County Administrator's (CAO's) Office and the County's state advocates at Nielsen Merksamer (James Gross, Michelle Rubalcava, and Rachael Blucher) been conducting outreach to County department heads, senior staff, and the Board of Supervisors for the past two months for the purpose of developing the County's 2022 State Legislative Program--specifically, the legislative priorities, budget requests, and sponsored bill proposals for the upcoming legislative year. (Note that one supervisorial meeting has been scheduled for mid-November.)
Through multiple Zoom meetings and phone calls, the following have emerged, to this point, as legislative and/or state budget proposals for Contra Costa County in 2022. (Additional refinements/amendments to language in the adopted 2021-22 State Legislative Platform may be forthcoming over the next month.)
Carry-overs from 2021: (Attachment C is the Sponsored Bills and Legislative Priorities in the adopted FY 2021-22 State Legislative Platform)
1. AB 988 (Bauer-Kahan) Mental Health: Mobile Crisis Support Teams: 988 Crisis: Funding is needed to provide community-based crisis response services. As a co-sponsor of the bill, the County's role in system development and operations is of great concern to County Behavioral Health staff.
2. AB 844 (Grayson) Green Empowerment Zone for the Northern Waterfront Area: Funding and staffing are needed to implement the bill. Incentive mechanisms need to be identified. Additional representation for Contra Costa County and the City of Richmond is also needed on the board.
3. Medi-Cal expansion for ages 26-49: On July 27, Governor Newsom signed into law the first-in the-nation expansion of Medi-Cal to undocumented Californians age 50 and over, through the health care trailer bill, AB 133. Under AB 133, approximately 235,000 Californians aged 50 and older are newly eligible for Medi-Cal, including preventive services, long-term care and In-Home Supportive Services. In 2019, California became the frist state to expand Medi-Cal coverage to all eligible undocumented young adults up to the age of 26. With the Governor's signature on AB 133, a gap exists in eligibility for those ages 26-49. Advocacy for a single-payor model may have implications on this proposal.
4. ACA 1: Creates an additional exception to the 1% ad valorem tax rate limit on real property that would authorize a city, county, or special district to levy an ad valorem tax to service bonded indebtedness incurred to fund the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of public infrastructure, affordable housing, or permanent supportive housing, if the proposition proposing the tax is approved by 55% of the voters of the city or county, and the proposition includes accountability requirements. This proposal will be carried over into 2022 for further consideration by the Legislature.
5. AB 903 (Frazier) Los Medanos Healthcare District: Relative to this matter, County Counsel is awaiting hearing and decision information from the Court of Appeals in early-mid 2022. CAO staff will continue to monitor.
New Legislative and/or Budget Proposals for Consideration: (Note these proposals are not in priority order.)
1. Stipends to Address Menstruation Equity: Attachment A. The umbrella term "period poverty" describes inequities resulting from the lack of access to menstrual hygiene tools and resources. Menstrual hygiene products cannot be purchased with Food Stamps (CalFresh), Medi-Cal, and the WIC program. EHSD staff have developed a legislative proposal to provide stipends for hygiene products or to change eligibility requirements in CalFresh to allow for their purchase.
2. Choice in Aging's "Aging in Place Campus" (State Budget Request): Attachment B. Choice in Aging is seeking a one-time allocation of $20 million in the 2022-23 state budget to build out the facilities for services for the residents, community members, and preschool attendees. The housing construction funding will be made available from other sources, but the full range of services can only be realized with the help of the state. While the campus will serve local residents, it will stand as both an incubator and policy platform for an intergenerational and integrated service approach to aging in place.
3. Illegal Dumping Solutions: Staff and the County's state lobbyists require additional time to develop strategies.
4. Permanent Changes to the Brown Act to allow for hybrid Board and Commission/Committee meetings (including in-person, Zoom, and phone) without having elected officials or members of commissions/committees post their location address on the agenda.
5. Increased Fines for Flaring at Refineries: Potential partnership with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) to develop a legislative proposal, aimed at addressing the root causes of flaring and reducing their occurence.
6. Enabling the use of Progressive Design-Build for public construction contracts, thereby allowing local agencies to evaluate bids on factors other than price; reducing certain risks as compared to alternative contracting methods; reducing project delivery schedules and costs; and partnering with the designer during the initial phase of the process.
7. Jail-Based Competency Restoration Programs (Budget and Legislation): CAO staff are exploring funding opportunities to develop a jail-based return to competency program in Contra Costa. This exploration and potential legislative changes may require additional time and might not be ready for roll-out in 2022.
8. Funding for Library Development and Operations (including ACA 1): Members of the Board of Supervisors and Library staff remain focused on identifying revenue sources for library building/re-building projects and for on-going library operations.
9. On-going Funding for Sustainability and Infrastructure (e.g. Drainage, tree-planting) Projects (operations and maintenance): Public Works and Department of Conservation and Development (DCD) staff advocate for operations and maintenance revenue sources for infrastructure and sustainability projects that often have capital funding sources but no on-going revenue sources.
10. Supporting a state-wide, state-led approach to the Preparation of Local Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Inventories (Legislation): Relieving a local data burden and increasing capacity for local implementation efforts, DCD staff are supportive of efforts to shift this responsibility to a state-led effort, ensuring data and methodology consistency.
11. Accessible Transportation Statewide: John Cunningham, DCD staff, and Mark Watts, lobbyist, are the lead on this effort for the County.
Proposed Accessible Transportation Legislation from the California Senior Legislature
As reported at the October Committee meeting, the California Senior Legislature (CSL) is proposing new legislation to fund and improve accessible transportation statewide. County staff and our legislative advocate have been providing support to the CSL on the topic given the supporting language in our State Legislative Platform (see below). The proposal would create the Accessible Transportation Account (ATA), authorize Consolidated Transportation Services Agencies (CTSAs, authorized under existing law) to oversee expenditures at the local level, and improve the CTSA mechanism. While vehicle registration/license fees are cited as potential revenue sources in the proposal, that specific detail has not yet been finalized.
The origin of the bill was the State's Master Plan for Aging (MPA) process which began in 2019 and was completed in early 2021. The MPA addressed a spectrum of aging issues including housing, caregiving, affordability of aging, fighting isolation, and transportation. The transportation recommendations in the final MPA was an outlier relative to the other topics, the input of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee were disregarded and replaced by non-substantive talking points without explanation or consultation with the Stakeholders. The State's response to the Stakeholder transportation input was unusual not only in its disparate treatment relative to the other topic areas, but also given that the recommendations were relatively modest, strengthening existing statutes and promoting widely accepted best practices. The speculation among staff is that it was the Stakeholders insistence that the State actually fund and implement the recommendations so they don't "sit on a shelf" caused the recommendations to be rejected and rewritten.
The frustration with the State's response combined with a legacy of inaction drove several members of the CSL to propose legislation to address the transportation issue. The MPA effort is just the latest transportation recommendations in the aging space to be disregarded by the State, reports in 2005 and 2007 were ignored as well.
Update: The CSL held their annual legislative session in October, from the 26th to the 28th, the legislative proposal was approved.
The proposal is consistent with our adopted FY 2021-22 State Legislative Platform as follows:
- Legislative and/or Regulatory Advocacy Priorities: Transportation for Seniors, Persons with Disabilities
- Climate Change: SUPPORT efforts to expand eligible expenditures of the Climate Investments to investments in accessible transit/transportation systems (serving seniors, disabled, and veterans) which result in more efficient service and corresponding reductions in greenhouse gas production, and in investments in infrastructure and programs to promote active transportation, particularly bicycling and walking.
- Human Services: Older Adults: • SUPPORT continued and improved funding to expand services for older adults and people with disabilities.
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