What’s single-payer cost? + Recovering stolen funds + Suspending the gas tax?

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS CALL FOR LAO REPORT ON SINGLE-PAYER BILLS

Assembly Rules Committee Chair Ken Cooley and Vice Chair Jordan Cunningham have issued a letter to Gabriel Petek, of the Legislative Analyst’s Office, calling on Petek to conduct prepare a comprehensive fiscal analysis of AB 1400 and ACA 11, which together would create and fund a single-payer health care system in California.

The letter from Cooley and Cunningham comes at the request of Assembly Republicans, who drafted a letter to Cooley, a Democrat, making a formal written request for a fiscal analysis of the two bills.

The letter cites two estimates, one from the Senate Appropriations Committee and one from the Healthy California for All Commission, that a single-payer system would cost the state at least $400 billion annually.

“These estimates make it clear that AB 1400 will result in a ‘potential significant cost impact,’ as stated in Joint Rule 37.1. However, the analyses cited above are not independent and they do not answer a multitude of questions regarding this specific proposal,” the letter from Assembly Republicans reads.

The letter includes several questions that the LAO should answer with its report, including the total cost of a single-payer system, whether the state would be forced to delay or ration care to contain costs and the impact on the state’s 1.7 million health care workers.

“In order for lawmakers to properly represent their constituents, they deserve answers to these and other pressing questions before they are asked to vote on AB 1400 or ACA 11,” the letter reads.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has until March 15 to produce the report.

BILL WOULD HELP STATE RECOVER EDD FUNDS

Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, has introduced a bill, AB 1637, that would authorize the state to use asset forfeiture — a legal proceeding where the state seizes funds or property suspected to be the result of criminal conduct — to recover cash and property that was obtained by people who filed fraudulent Employment Development Department claims.

“I want our $20 billion back,” Cooper said in a statement. “I’m angry and every Californian should be. Criminals used a devastating pandemic to steal $30 billion from our pockets while millions of unemployed Californians desperately needed their unemployment benefits.”

Cooper’s office cited EDD estimates that that agency paid out as much as $30 billion in fraudulent COVID-19-related unemployment insurance claims.

“For context, $20 billion is the equivalent of paying more than 333,300 California schoolteachers at an annual salary of $60,000 for three years. $20 billion could shelter California’s estimated 160,000 homeless individuals in a hotel room for more than three years,” according to Cooper’s office.

AB 1637 has an urgency clause, meaning it would go into effect immediately if passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

BILL WOULD SUSPEND THE GAS TAX

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2022-23 budget would delay a planned increase in the state’s gas tax. But that’s not going far enough, says Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin.

Kiley has introduced a bill, AB 1638, that would suspend the entire state excise tax on gas for six months. Kiley’s office said this would save Californians more than 50 cents per gallon at the pump.

“This bill puts money back into the pockets of families at a time when they need it most,” Kiley said in a statement. “Inflation and record gas prices are making our state even less affordable. Californians need relief.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“My word of the year was humility. That was last year’s word and I’m starting out, that’s top of my word list this year as well. We don’t know what we don’t know, except we’re more prepared to move more quickly to address the nature of change.”

- Gov. Gavin Newsom, during a Wednesday press conference.

Best of the Bee:

• San Diego police are investigating a suspicious fire at the residence of former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and her husband, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher, via Andrew Sheeler.

• Could Black voters in California and across the country sit out this year’s midterm elections if Democrats in Washington can’t strengthen rapidly eroding voting rights protections? Via Marcus D. Smith and David Lightman.

• These are California’s 10 closest United States House of Representatives elections in 2022, according to initial expert analyses, via Gillian Brassil.