Earlier this month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed and vetoed a number of bills that aim to strengthen consumer protection, improve access to health care, and strengthen access to education.

Bills signed into law:

Consumer Protection and Accountability

• AB 260 (Lieu)will rein in mortgage brokers by requiring them to act in a borrower’s best interest and prohibit them from steering borrowers to loans with worse terms than other loans they qualify for.
• AB 1160 (Fong) will require mortgage lenders to provide translated mortgage summary documents to a borrower in the language in which it was negotiated.
• AB 119 (Jones) will prevent HMOs and insurers from charging men and women different rates for the same health insurance policies in the individual market.
• AB 329 (Feuer) requires lenders to give more and clearer information to those interested in reverse mortgages, which let seniors borrow again their homes’ equity.

Access to Health Care

• AB119 (Jones) prohibits health insurers from charging different premiums to women than to men.
• AB 108 (Hayashi) imposes a two-year time limit in which insurers have to rescind, cancel or limit individual health policies based on fraud.
• AB 359 (Nava) will make modern breast cancer screening available to low-income women. This measure will increase access to digital mammography in publicly supported breast cancer screening programs.
• AB 119 (Jones) will prevent HMOs and insurers from charging men and women different rates for the same health insurance policies in the individual market.

Access to Higher Education

• AB 669 (Fong) authorizes the University of California, the California State University, and community colleges to classify foster youth or low-income student as a resident for tuition purposes until her or she has resided in the state for the minimum time needed to become a resident.
• AB 1393 (Skinner) requires the University of California, the California State University and California Community Colleges to give priority for on-campus housing to emancipated foster youth.

Employment Access

• AB 287 (Beall) establishes a committee to examine strategies and incentives that increase employment and microenterprise opportunities for people with developmental disabilities.

Bills vetoed:

Consumer Protection and Accountability

• SB 20 (Simitian) would have required financial privacy security breach notices t inform potential victims of identity theft about the nature of the breach, and to include contact information for credit reporting agencies.
• AB 943 (Mendoza) would have prohibited a prospective employer from using consumer credit reports in the hiring process unless the report is related to job duties.

Access to Health Care

• AB 98 (De La Torre) would have required most insurers to cover maternity services. This is the third time Schwarzenegger has vetoed this bill.
• AB244 ( Beall) would have mandated most health insurers to provide coverage for all diagnosable mental illnesses.

California is taking important steps towards strengthening consumer protection, particularly in housing. We commend the legislature and the Governor in leading this effort. The picture in health access is mixed with some marginal improvements and some lost opportunities. There were also some positive improvements in educational access and interesting developments to study the employment and microenterprise opportunities in the state for people with disabilities.

Yesterday, President Obama released his detailed budget for FY 2010.

In addition to healthcare reform, efforts to strengthen the economy and strategies to decrease the national deficit, the President has more than doubled funding for some programs and fully funded new programs that provide economic opportunity to low-and moderate-income Americans.

The budget supports asset-building by allocating:

• $24 million for Assets for Independence, the federal program that funds Individual Development Accounts (IDAs).
• $5 million for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher IDA Program, this is a new program with full funding.
• $25 million for microloans as well as support for technical assistance programs that give entrepreneurs access to counseling and business development expertise.
• $7 million to make Pell Grant funding mandatory and increase as well as index maximum awards.
• $2.5 billion Access and Completion Incentive Fund, a new five-year program to support innovative state efforts to help low-income students succeed and complete their college education.
• $2 million to pilot housing counseling program.

Within the next two years, the budget also proposes to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, make the American Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education permanent, expand Child Tax Credit, and increase retirement security through auto enrollment.

We are especially pleased to learn that the administration has expressed an interest in working with Congress to revise asset limits for federal means-tested programs. It also takes steps to reverse the system of upside-down wealth subsidies by capping the mortgage interest, property tax and other deductions at 28%.

Advocates can learn more about this tremendous opportunity to promote policies that help low-income families build and maintain wealth by attending a webinar hosted by CFED. Click here to learn more and register.

For more information on the budget, click here.

A new documentary produced by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) entitled “Mo’Money, Mo’Money, Mo’Money” shows how foreclosures destroy the dreams of California families and threaten the stability of small businesses, city governments, and neighborhoods.

The film reveals how this disaster could have been avoided if regulators and government officials had not ignored predatory lending practices.

California accounts for a quarter of all foreclosures in the country and seven of the state’s cities are consistently in the list of top ten foreclosure rates in the nation. Earlier this year, seven bills were introduced in the California legislature to address the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Despite strong support from community groups, the legislature only passed one meaningful bill.

To view the documentary and learn more click here.