Contact: Michael Hearst
Director of Communications
mhearst@ocvcd.org
714-740-4150

The purpose of Orange County Vector Control District's Legislative Objectives document is to encourage legislation that will serve the public health mission of the District. The legislation may be related to District operations directly, or have more bearing on the District's administrative policy. The success of the District is due to a combination of operational expertise and administrative support. The legislative goals have been established to assure the continuation of effective cooperation.

The 2009 objectives are again determined in large part by the current fiscal situation in California and are virtually identical to the objectives of 2008. Any proposal that is not revenue neutral still has little chance of support by our elected officials but the District will continue to plant the seeds of change for the future.

Funding Preservation

1. Preserve Existing Funding Levels: The public health role of vector control agencies should qualify them for remaining exempt from future transfers of funds to lessen the State's ongoing structural budget deficit.

Medical Benefits Options

2. Tax Advantaged Status for Health Savings Accounts: Health Savings Accounts (HSA) are a type of tax advantaged account allowing workers to set aside pre-tax dollars for use in funding uncovered medical expenses, including plan deductibles. Unlike flexible spending accounts, these tax deferred savings accounts carry-over from year to year, and can be added to. HSAs would allow more choices for all employees in the area of health care coverage. HSAs are exempt from federal taxes, but California is one of a handful of states that doesn't recognize the tax advantaged status of this innovative strategy to allow more economical retiree health care plans. Any cost to the State associated with recognizing HSAs will be offset by savings realized by lowered health care plan costs for State employees.

3. Optional High Deductible, Low Premium Health Insurance Plans: The value of high deductible/low premium health care plans dramatically increases with the recognition of HSAs. CalPERS should be encouraged to make this type of health coverage plan available. These plans could be structured so that both the employee and employer are able to share the benefit. This is a vehicle to provide increased choices for employees, and should be allowed.

Post Employment Benefit Reform

4. Encourage Later Retirement: Current retirement formulas beyond the standard 2.0% @ 55 encourage early retirement which creates a greater liability for agencies in the areas of retirement and retiree medical insurance. The District supports the development of new formulas to encourage later retirements; i.e. 2.7% @ 65, 3% @ 70, etc. These additional formulas should be available for negotiations between agencies and their employees. Later retirement significantly lowers retirement liability and retiree medical liability.

5. Allow Agencies Latitude in Retirement Formulas: Currently, any CalPERS agency must apply an improved retirement formula to all past time for current employees. Agencies that desire to make retirement formula changes to attract or retain talent are forced to include all past service time in any formula change . This creates a significant “instant” liability for agencies. The District supports the premise that the inclusion of past service time in any benefit package should be part of negotiations.

If for any reason a reduction in the retirement formula would be advantageous to an agency and its employees, the reduction can only be applied to new hires, saving very little money and cresting a two tier system. Any reduction in retirement formula should only apply to future time, but should be available for negotiations

6. Eliminate State Mandates: Eliminate requirements such as the CalPERS rule that mandates retiree medical allowances automatically increase each year until equal to active employee's allowance. The grant amount for retiree medical allowances should only be increased through action of an agency's governing body. Another piece of legislation that was proposed in 2008 would have required employers to provide sick leave for all part-time workers. This type of mandate would most likely result in a variety of unintended consequences, including lower wages and fewer employment opportunities.

ERAF Reform

7. Education Reallocation Augmentation Fund Reform: The current situation with ERAF cannot be continued indefinitely. The amount of each district's contribution continues to grow. Instead of allowing the resources of these public health agencies to grow at the same rate as the population each agency protects, much of the revenue that would be associated with growth is diverted to the State. Currently, the OCVCD is losing 45 percent of its basic property tax revenue. When ERAF was conceived, there were limits to the amount of money that could be diverted. No agency was to lose more than 40 percent of its property tax revenue, or 10 percent of its total revenue. It is assumed that the limits were established to allow agencies the funding needed to continue their roles, in OCVCD 's case, to protect the public health. These limits were left out of subsequent revisions to the Revenue and Taxation Code. This District supports either a freeze on the growth of the ERAF shift, a cap on the amount diverted, or ideally, restoration of the original limits of 40 percent of property tax revenue or 10 percent of total revenue.

Health and Safety Code Protection

8.  Public Health Pesticide Application: Vector control agencies need to respond to public health emergencies promptly in order to be effective, and unnecessary delays could have serious consequences. The District supports any legislation that recognizes the difference between application of vector control materials in the interest of protecting the health and safety of the public and the application of pesticides for other purposes.

9.  Public Health and the Environment: Environmental issues, and their impact on the activities of agencies committed to protecting public health, must be clarified. There is a growing number of occasions when public health and environmental protection are in conflict. Vector control agencies and the environmental regulatory agencies sometimes seem to have differing roles and goals, when in fact, these goals can be compatible. The District supports any legislation that would require the inclusion of public health concerns in any environmental protection regulations.

Government Transparency

10. Government Transparency: OCVCD is a very transparent agency as evidenced by the publication of the District's Annual Budget and District's Annual Audit on the ocvcd.org website. The District supports legislation designed to promote more transparency of financial information by all public agencies for review by the public.