Title
Title
Child Support | Assembly Bill 1058 Child Support Commissioner and Family Law Facilitator Program Funding Reduction Fiscal Year 2020-21 (Action Required)
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Summary
Summary
The Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee recommends approving a temporary budget reduction methodology to allocate the $7 million budget reduction to the AB 1058 Child Support Commissioner and Family Law Facilitator Program’s fiscal year (FY) 2020-21 budget resulting from the California Department of Child Support Services’ ongoing reduction to the Judicial Council’s cooperative agreement for FY 2020-21. The department has allocated $2.38 million of the $8.3 million of their state budget reduction for FY 2020-21 to the AB 1058 program. The reduction of the state funds will result in a reduction of federal matching funds of $4.62 million for a $7 million total reduction to the AB 1058 program for the current fiscal year.
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Recommendation
Recommendation
The Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee recommends that the Judicial Council, effective July 1, 2020:
1. Approve the committee’s recommended reduction for funding of child support commissioners for FY 2020-21, as set forth in Attachment A1. This methodology distributes 75 percent of the $7 million reduction to the child support commissioners based on the FY 2020-21 allocation approved by the Judicial Council in March 2020 (which allocated 75 percent of the overall funding to this side of the program). Additionally, the methodology applies the reduction based on courts’ child support commissioner workload by establishing a 4 percent band around the statewide average funding level (2 percent above the average funding level and 2 percent below) and includes the following criteria:
a. Courts within the band take a pro rata reduction, but do not fall outside the band;
b. Courts above the band take up to an additional 1 percent cut from those within the band without falling into the band;
c. Courts below the band take up to 1 percent less of a cut than those within the band; and
d. Cluster 1 courts are held to a cut of 50 percent of the percentage reduction taken by courts within the band.
2. Approve the committee’s recommended reduction for funding of family law facilitators for FY 2020-21, as set forth in Attachment A2. This methodology distributes 25 percent of the $7 million reduction to the family law facilitators based on the FY 2020-21 allocation approved by the Judicial Council in March 2020. Additionally, the methodology applies the reduction pro rata, holding the cluster 1 courts to 50 percent of the pro rata reduction.
3. Approve the committee’s recommendation for FY 2020-21 AB 1058 program funding for the courts for the total base funding allocations derived from recommendations 1 and 2, and the application of the additional federal drawdown funding, as displayed in Attachments B1 and B2.