“The Assembly actions will increase the tools we have to get Californians back to work and deal with other challenges the national recession has thrown in our path,” Bass said. “California will now be much better positioned to lower our 10.5 percent unemployment rate, ensure hard hit families can hang on to their health coverage and make improvements to our state’s water infrastructure that mean jobs now and benefits for the long term.”

AB 3x 20 by Speaker Bass revises state law to secure $2.6 billion of federal stimulus funds for road and highway projects. This bill is critical because the ARRA contains “use-it-or-lose-it” provisions on funds allocated to regional transportation agencies as well as cities and counties. If a local entity cannot meet the federal deadlines, the funding will be allocated to another local entity. AB 3x 20 takes steps to ensure no funds are lost by California and re-allocated by the federal government to other states.

The $2.6 billion in ARRA funds that are available to California for highways and roads will be distributed via the federal formula known as the Surface Transportation Program (STP).  Under the bill’s provisions, 62.5 percent of the funds ($1.6 billion) are available to regional agencies for allocation and 37.5 percent ($935 million) for allocation by the California Transportation Commission, which has already programmed 57 State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) projects to receive $625 million in federal funds. 

The bill includes legislative intent language that at least 40 percent (which would be about $640 million) of the funds apportioned to regional agencies be sub-allocated to cities and counties.

SB 3x 24 by Senator Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose) suspends the requirement for semi-annual eligibility status reports for children in Medi-Cal so that California may access over $10 billion in enhanced federal matching dollars in the Medi-Cal program.  California has been unable to claim the enhanced federal funds that are currently available under ARRA due to this requirement.

SB 3x 27, by Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Chino), revises state law to conform with ARRA requirements on how funding for clean drinking water and wastewater projects can be distributed. This will secure $443 million in federal funds. Of that, $160 million must go to drinking water projects before February 2010. The remaining $283 million will go toward wastewater treatment and recycled water projects.  

The ARRA has a short timeframe for distribution of funds for clean drinking water and wastewater projects. If state law was not revised to conform with the Act’s requirements, the funds would be available to other states. 

The ARRA establishes a goal of using at least 50 percent of the funds for activities that can be initiated by no later than June 17, 2009. These funds will go toward programs or projects for surface water and groundwater storage, recycling, desalinization, water conservation, water supply reliability, and water supply augmentation.

All of the funds for water projects must be used by February 17, 2010, and all projects must be started no later than February 2010.

In addition to these bills, the Assembly concurred in Senate amendments to AB 3x 29 by Assemblymembers Joe Coto (D-San Jose) and Martin Garrick (R-Carlsbad). The bill would allow Californians to count work done in more recent months towards their unemployment benefit formula, capturing $840 million in federal unemployment insurance stimulus funds.

These bills now go to the governor’s desk