AB 1520 (Burke):
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Title: |
Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act |
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Introduced: |
02/17/2017 |
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Last Amend: |
04/17/2017 |
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Disposition: |
Pending |
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Location: |
Assembly Appropriations Committee |
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Summary: |
Establishes the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force, consisting of specified stakeholders, for purposes of researching, analyzing, and providing guidance to the Legislature in making appropriations pursuant to the framework and in supporting State's efforts on lifetime wellness, self-sufficiency, and economic strength in families and communities throughout the state. |
The bill would establish a goal of reducing child poverty by 50% over the next twenty years without any new taxes or fees. The bill proposes to create a taskforce which would implement an analytic framework, based on work performed by the Stanford Poverty Center, to analyze and report back to the Legislature on how to more effectively use our state budget to reduce child poverty. In addition, the bill would require the Legislature to hold joint hearings every 2 years as well as attach a statement to each year’s budget bill on how that year’s budget is working toward reducing child poverty.
Bill text can be found at: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1520
2017 CA A 1520: Bill Analysis - 04/21/2017 - Assembly Human Services Committee, Hearing Date 04/25/2017
Date of Hearing: April 25, 2017
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Blanca Rubio, Chair
AB 1520 (
Burke) - As Amended Ver:April 17, 2017
SUBJECT: Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act of 2017
SUMMARY: Establishes the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act of 2017.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Makes Legislative findings and declarations related to child poverty in California.
2) Declares Legislative intent to move toward reducing child poverty by 50% in the 20-year period between fiscal years 2018-19 and 2038-39 and to use the framework proposed by this bill as recommendations for enacting future legislation to fund programs or services and future innovations to reduce child poverty, as specified.
3) Encourages the Legislature, on an annual basis, to appropriate funds for programs, services, or expenditures - including, but not limited to, child care and early education programs, home visiting programs, job training and placement programs, and increases in the amount of aid to recipients of the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program - for the purpose of cutting child poverty in half by 2038-39 in amounts deemed appropriate, as specified.
4) States that the Legislature should consider the merit of temporarily suspending use of the framework proposed by this bill if General Fund revenues fall by 10% from one fiscal year to the next or in the event of a state of emergency, as specified.
5) Requires the annual Budget Act passed by the Legislature to include a statement specifying how expenditures in that Act comply with the provisions of this bill encouraging the Legislature to appropriate funds to programs for the purposes of reducing child poverty by 50% over 20 years, as specified.
6) Establishes the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force (Task Force), to be made up of specified stakeholders, for purposes of researching, analyzing, and providing guidance to the Legislature in making appropriations pursuant to proposed provisions of this bill and in supporting the state's efforts on lifetime wellness, self-sufficiency, and economic strength in families and communities throughout California.
7) Requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) and the Task Force to, in conjunction with the release of the Governor's budget proposal each year, as specified, report to the Legislature on their projections of how the Governor's budget proposal will impact the state's child poverty rate.
8) Requires the LAO and the Task Force to, beginning in 2019 and every two years thereafter, prepare an analysis to be reported, as specified, to the Legislature that includes all of the following:
a) An estimate that current programs, services, and innovations have had on the state's child poverty rate, as specified;
b) An estimate of the impact that any potential future investment increases in existing programs, services, or innovations or any new investments in strategies not employed by the state, as specified, would have on the state's child poverty rate;
c) An estimate of the impact that expenditures and financial formulas for programs affecting children, as specified, have had on county services for children living in poverty; and
d) An estimate of the impact of the framework proposed by this bill, to the extent it has been used by the Legislature and to the extent that relevant information is available, on the current and projected state child poverty rates, as specified.
9) Encourages the Legislature to, beginning in 2019, and every two years thereafter, hold a joint hearing in order to assess the impact that the framework proposed by this bill has had on the state child poverty rate and encourages the committees convening each hearing to consider the reports submitted by the LAO and the Task Force, among other reports deemed appropriate, as specified.
EXISTING LAW:
1) Establishes the California Child Care and Developmental Services Act (CCDSA) for the purpose of providing a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective system of child care and development services, as specified, for children from infancy to 13 years of age, and their parents, through full- and part-time programs. (EDC 8200 et seq.)
2) States the intent of the Legislature that all families have access to child care and development services, as specified, regardless of ethnic status, cultural background, or special needs, and the intent that subsidized child care and development services be provided to eligible families, to the extent funding is available. (EDC 8202)
3) Establishes under federal law the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to provide aid and welfare-to-work services to eligible families and, in California, provides that TANF funds for welfare-to-work services are administered through the CalWORKs program. (42 U.S.C. 601 et seq., WIC 11200 et seq.)
4) Establishes the Nurse-Family Partnership program, to be administered by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), to provide grants to counties for voluntary nurse home visiting programs to be provided to expectant first-time mothers, their children, and their families, as specified. (HSC 123491 - 123493)
5) States that the purpose of foster care law is to provide maximum safety and protection for children who are being physically, sexually or emotionally abused, neglected, or exploited and to ensure the safety, protection, and physical and emotional well-being of children at risk of such harm. (WIC 300.2)
6) Declares the intent of the Legislature to, whenever possible: preserve and strengthen a child's family ties, reunify a foster child with his or her relatives, or when family reunification is not possible or likely, to develop a permanent alternative. Further states the intent of the Legislature to reaffirm its commitment to children who are in out-of-home placement to live in the least restrictive family setting promoting normal childhood experiences that is suited to meet the child's or youth's needs and is as close to the child's family as possible, as specified. Further declares Legislative intent that all children live with a committed, permanent, and nurturing family and that services and supports should be tailored to meet the needs of the individual child and family being served, as specified. (WIC 16000)
7) Requires placement of a child in foster care to be based upon selection of a safe setting that is the least restrictive family setting that promotes normal childhood experiences and the most appropriate setting that meets the child's individual needs and is available, in proximity to the parent's home, the child's school, and best suited to meet the child's special needs and best interests. Further requires the selection of placement to consider, in order of priority, placement with relatives, nonrelated extended family members, and tribal members; foster family homes, resource families, and nontreatment certified homes of foster family agencies; followed by treatment and intensive treatment certified homes of foster family agencies; or multidimensional treatment foster care homes or therapeutic foster care homes; group care placements in the order of short term residential therapeutic programs (STRTPs), group homes, community treatment facilities, and out-of-state residential treatment, as specified. (WIC 16501.1(d)(1))
8) Establishes the federal EITC for eligible taxpayers based on the taxpayer's income. (26 U.S.C. Section 32)
9) Establishes the state EITC for eligible taxpayers based on certain eligibility criteria. (RTC 17052)
10) Defines a "state of emergency" to mean the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by conditions which, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat, as specified. (GOV 8558)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
Child poverty in California: According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Official Poverty Measure, more than one in five children - 21.2% - in California were living in poverty in 2015. According to the Public Policy Institute of California's (PPIC's) California Poverty Measure (CPM), which employs a more comprehensive methodology for measuring poverty across regions, the child poverty rate in 2014 (the most recent year for which data are available) was 23.1%. Using the combined 2012 through 2014 CPM, PPIC determined that child poverty rates across counties vary significantly, from a high of 30.8% in Santa Barbara County to a low of 13% in El Dorado County. Los Angeles County has a child poverty rate of 29.1%, while Sacramento County's was 19.1%.
State child poverty rates per the 2014 CPM also vary by race and ethnicity, with Latino children having a poverty rate of 31.6%, African American children a rate of 19%, Asian American children 13.5%, and white children 11.9%. Children under the age of 5 had a poverty rate of 23.6%, compared to children ages 5 and older, whose poverty rate was 22.8%. 81.8% of poor children in California lived in families with at least one working adult.
Moreover, PPIC finds that, without safety net resources such as CalFresh (formerly known as food stamps) or CalWORKs, the state's TANF program, 37.1% of the state's children would live in poverty - that is, social safety net programs reduced the child poverty rate by 14%. According to PPIC:
"The largest social safety net programs are CalFresh (California's food stamps program), CalWORKs (cash assistance for families with children), General Assistance (GA), the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC; the state EITC is in place as of 2015), the federal Child Tax Credit (CTC), Supplemental Security Income (SSI/SSP), federal housing subsidies, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and school breakfast and lunch. CalFresh and the EITC lowered the child poverty rate by the largest amount (4.1 and 4.0 percentage points, respectively). The CTC, CalWORKs, school meals, and housing subsidies reduced child poverty by 1.2 to 2.3 percentage points each. These differing effects are overlapping and reflect, in part, the scale and scope of each program as well as participation rates among eligible families."
Need for this bill: According to the author:
"1 in 5 children live in poverty, which translates into 1/3 of African American children and 1/3 of Latino children in poverty; even though, California is the sixth largest economy in the world. From a moral perspective, it is shameful to have one of the largest economies in the world and the largest percentage of child poverty in the country. On the other hand and from an economic standpoint, poverty itself threatens the future economic stability of California. Poverty is not an isolated event; poverty is the effect of many causes that loop back and perpetuates despair among our communities."
According to GRACE, the sponsor of this bill;
"[This bill] establishes a permanent framework through the state budget process that requires the Legislature to invest in programs that have been proven to significantly reduce child poverty. In addition, [this bill] requires the state to monitor and measure progress by producing annual reports analyzing how the proposed state budget will impact the child poverty rate. It also requires reports every two years monitoring the impact of current and potential investments, and the Legislature will be required to hold hearings on California's progress to reduce child poverty every two years."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Bonnie M. Dumanis San Diego County District Attorney
California Alternative Payment Program Association
California Catholic Conference
California Coverage and Health Initiatives
California Legislative Black Caucus
California State Parent Teacher Association
CaliforniaHealth+ Advocates
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
Children Now
Children's Defense Fund
First 5 California
First AME Church of Los Angeles
First Focus Campaign for Children
Golden State Opportunity
GRACE (Sponsor)
Health Access California
Jewish Public Affairs Committee
Junior Leagues of CA
LA PROMISE
Los Angeles Promise Neighborhood
Los Angeles Urban League
Moneta Gardens Community Center
Mothers In Action, Inc.
National Association of Social Workers, CA Chapter
National Foster Youth Institute
One For All (OFA)
Public Counsel
San Diego County District Attorney
SHIELDS for families
Social Justice Learning Institute
South Bay Community Services
South Bay Universal Child Development Center
St. John's Well Child & Family Center
St. Joseph Center Planting Hope & Growing Lives
University of Southern California
Youth Policy Institute
1 Individual
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by: Daphne Hunt / HUM. S. / |