AB 1699

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The California Constitution requires the Legislature to pass a budget bill by June 15 of each year for the fiscal year commencing on July 1. Existing law provides that no state officer or employee shall be deemed to have a break in service or to have terminated his or her employment, for any purpose, or to have incurred any change in his or her authority, status, or jurisdiction or in his or her salary or other conditions of employment, solely because of the failure to enact a Budget Act for a fiscal year prior to the beginning of that fiscal year. Under the California Constitution, money may be drawn from the Treasury only through an appropriation made by law and upon a Controller's duly drawn warrant. This bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund and other specified funds to the Controller an amount necessary for the payment of compensation and employee benefits to state employees, as defined, for work performed on or after July 1 of a fiscal year for which no budget has been enacted. This bill would specify, if a memorandum of understanding is in effect that has been approved by the Legislature, that the compensation and contribution for employee benefits for represented state employees be at a rate consistent with the memorandum of understanding and, for state employees excluded from collective bargaining, at the rate approved by the Department of Personnel Administration prior to the commencement of the fiscal year for which a Budget Act has not been enacted. The bill would require, if a memorandum of understanding is not in effect for represented state employees and the department has not approved a compensation package for state employees excluded from collective bargaining, that the compensation and contribution for employee benefits for represented state employees and state employees excluded from collective bargaining be at the rate in effect at the expiration of the last fiscal year for which a budget was enacted. (2) Existing law establishes standards for the use of personal services contracts. Existing law prohibits the use of state funds to reimburse a state contractor for any costs incurred to assist, promote, or deter union organizing. For the purposes of that provision, "state contractor" is defined as any employer that receives state funds for supplying goods or services pursuant to a written contract with the state or any of its agencies. This bill would continuously appropriate from the fund from which a state contractor received compensation in the prior fiscal year to the Controller the amount necessary for payment of contract obligations to a state contractor that provides goods or services to the state until the Budget Act of that fiscal year is enacted. The bill would provide that if payments are made to a contractor pursuant to that provision, the first payment shall be made on July 15, with payments to be made on the 15th of each month thereafter until enactment of the Budget Act. (3) Under existing law, the California Department of Aging administers the federal Older Americans Act in California. Pursuant to this federal act and the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, the department allocates federal funds, in accordance with prescribed funding formulas, to area agencies on aging in order to provide an array of services to seniors. This bill would continuously appropriate from the General Fund, unallocated special funds, federal funds, and any other fund from which area agencies on aging are compensated to the Controller the amount necessary for the payment of the amount necessary to pay area agencies on aging the sums necessary for the administration of programs under their jurisdiction, including both state and federal funds used for the provision of services and program administration. The bill would provide that if payments are made to area agencies on aging pursuant to that provision, the first payment would be made on July 15, with payments to be made on the 15th of each month thereafter until enactment of the Budget Act. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.