SB 15

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law establishes the Employment Training Panel (ETP) in the Employment Development Department, and prescribes the functions and duties of the ETP with respect to the development, implementation, and administration of various employment training programs in the state. This bill would require the ETP to establish and administer the California Jobs Initiative Training Program for the purposes of averting job layoffs for incumbent workers, providing new skills to dislocated and underemployed workers, and supporting business expansion in California, and would require the ETP to take all necessary actions to provide for the implementation and administration of the program, as prescribed. The bill would specify that those provisions shall only become operative if specified funding becomes available for the purposes of the program. Existing law requires the ETP to establish the Partnership for Workforce Recovery Training (PWRT) for the purpose of supporting and implementing the workforce development goals set forth in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) . This bill would eliminate the requirement that the ETP establish the PWRT, and would instead authorize the ETP to allocate funds for the purpose of supporting and implementing the workforce development goals of any special source of government funding other than the employment training tax, including the ARRA, and the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The bill would authorize the ETP to allocate funds under those provisions for workforce development incentives, except for reimbursement of training and administrative costs, as specified. Existing law authorizes the ETP to allocate any funds it receives pursuant to the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and the ARRA to support the activities of the PWRT. This bill would delete that authorization. Existing law requires specified employers to contribute 0.1% of wages into the Employment Training Fund, to be used for employment training purposes, but exempts from that contribution requirement certain employers who have a negative reserve account balance on the computation date. This bill would delete that exemption for any employer who has a negative reserve balance on the computation date. Existing law establishes the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund as a special fund in the State Treasury, but authorizes the Controller to use moneys in the fund for loans to the General Fund, in accordance with specified requirements, including the payment of interest on all moneys loaned to the General Fund. This bill would require that the Controller immediately transfer the sum of $32,000,000 from the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund to the Employment Training Fund, in accordance with specified requirements, and transfer the additional sum of $90,000,000 no later than September 1, 2010, to be used for the California Jobs Initiative Training Program, but would specify that the transfer of funds authorized by those provisions are loans, and would require that those funds be repaid with interest in accordance with specified requirements. The bill would also appropriate the sum of $500,000,000 from the Employment Training Fund to the ETP to implement the Initiative Training Program, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.