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June 13, 2008 - Item 5180-111-0001 of the 2008 Budget Conference Committee (page 288).
June 13, 2008 - LAO compromise for Item 5180-101-000 of the 2008 Budget Conference Committee (page 295).
May 12, 2008 - Presented to: Hon. Patty Berg
April 21, 2008 - Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee
April 15, 2008 - Presented to: Assembly Budget Subcommitee No. 1
March 5, 2008 - Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee
February 20, 2008 - Although IHSS wages represent a significant cost to the state, current law grants local county boards the flexibility to establish IHSS wage levels and requirements for providers who choose to be listed on county registries. In order to improve the IHSS labor force and services to recipients, we recommend, prior to 2010-11, enactment of legislation to modify the structure for state participation in wages to reflect the training and tenure of IHSS providers.
February 20, 2008 - The Governor’s budget proposes to delete the June 2008 and 2009 state statutory COLAs and pass-through the federal COLAs. The Governor estimates that the deletion of these COLAs will result in savings of $23.3 million in 2007-08, and $300.3 million in 2008-09. Based on more recent data, we estimate savings in 2008-09 will increase by $5.3 million to a total of $305.6 million in the budget year. As part of the LAO budget alternative, we recommend reducing grants for couples to 125 percent of the federal poverty level.
February 20, 2008 - The budget proposes to reduce CWS county allocations, resulting in General Fund savings of $83.7 million in 2008-09. We describe the potential impact of this proposed reduction on social worker caseloads and possible subsequent policy consequences resulting from fewer resources. We provide three alternatives to the Governor’s proposal that more narrowly target the reductions in CWS expenditures.
February 20, 2008 - Pre-assistance programs focusing on preparing recipients to enter the labor force within four months and a community service requirement for adults who have received five years of assistance are two policies which would increase participation with less budgetary savings than the Governor. We discuss these alternatives, estimate their impacts, and present an alternative package of CalWORKs reforms which meet the anticipated work participation shortfall.
February 20, 2008 - In order to increase work participation and achieve budgetary savings, the Governor proposes a series policy changes for the CalWORKs program. These are (1) a graduated full-family sanction that increases to 100 percent of the grant after one year in sanction status, (2) a five-year time limit on children whose parents cannot meet federal work participation requirements, (3) a nutritional supplement for working poor families, and (4) a five-year time limit for other child-only cases. We review the Governor’s proposals and comment on them.
February 20, 2008 - Index of Information Technology Issues in the Analysis of the 2008-09 Budget Bill
October 16, 2007 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services