February 12, 2021 - Analyzes the Governor’s 2021-22 budget proposals related to the child support program, provides background on recent program developments and state review process of child support guidelines, and provides issues for the Legislature to consider.
February 18, 2022 - This brief describes the Governor's 2022-23 budget proposals for the child support program and provides comments and recommendations to the Legislature.
February 27, 2024 - This post provides a general overview of the Governor’s budget for the Department of Child Support Services (DCSS), then turns to focus on a few key DCSS budget areas, providing background, implementation updates, and some comments for the Legislature to consider. Specifically, the budget areas we focus on in this post are: (1) the passthrough of child support collections to former California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids families, (2) foster care referrals and enforcement, (3) local child support agency funding methodology, and (4) proposed budget language related to overpayments disbursed from the Child Support Trust Fund.
July 29, 2020 - The Supplemental Report of the 2020-21 Budget Act contains statements of legislative intent that were adopted during deliberations on the 2020-21 budget package.
May 3, 2006 - Despite reform attempts, California continues to lag the nation in the collection of child support and in its performance on federal outcome measures. We recommend creating a performance-based system which gives counties the flexibility and financial incentives to meet state-established performance benchmarks. If enacted, our proposed reforms would (1) likely increase the amount of child support collected on behalf of custodial parents and (2) restore accountability to the child support enforcement system.
January 27, 2000 - In 1999, the Legislature and Governor changed the state’s child support enforcement program which significantly increased state authority over the program. We review the governing legislation and recommend steps designed to maximize collections while minimizing federal penalties and automation problems.
February 15, 2013 - The Governor’s 2013-14 budget for criminal justice programs is relatively flat. It contains few major proposals for the judiciary or corrections compared with recent years when the state budget included significant budget cuts to programs, as well as major policy changes. In total, the Governor's budget provides $13.2 billion for criminal justice programs in 2013-14. This is an increase of about 2 percent over estimated current-year expenditures. In this report, we review the Governor’s 2013-14 budget proposals for criminal justice programs, including the judicial branch, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Board of State and Community Corrections, and the Department of Justice. We identify concerns with several of the proposals and make recommendations for legislative consideration. In some cases, we identify proposals that we think should be rejected or modified, resulting in several million dollars of General Fund savings. We also identify several issues that we think would benefit from additional legislative oversight. These include (1) how trial courts will implement budget reductions in coming years, particularly in the absence of reserves beginning in 2014-15, (2) the new staffing methodology being implemented by the federal court-appointed Receiver currently managing the state’s inmate medical system, and (3) efforts by the Board of State and Community Corrections to meet its statutory mission to assist local agencies improve criminal justice outcomes through technical assistance and data collection.