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By JUDY LIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SACRAMENTO — Women on maternity leave from their jobs would be entitled to retain their health insurance under a bill passed out of the state Senate on Tuesday.
The bill by Sen. Noreen Evans, SB 299, prohibits employers from canceling health insurance for female employees who are on maternity leave for up to four months. Current law does not require health coverage for an employee who is on leave.
The bill passed 26-11 and now moves to the state Assembly.
Evans, a Democrat from Santa Rosa and chair of the legislative women’s caucus, said the bill seeks to close the gap in health insurance for women on maternity leave by bringing the state’s pregnancy disability leave in line with related state and federal family and medical leave laws.
“It’s important for women of the state of California and their children,” Evans said.
The bill would allow employers to recover insurance premiums from the employee if she fails to return from maternity leave for a reason not covered under the state’s family rights act or some other health condition.
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Oops! My previous post says that last year the state enacted budget of $127B. It was actually $125.3B. So, Brown’s proposed budget increases spending 5.7% over the previous year, not the 4% I said. It makes my point stronger.
@Not a Chance,
Last year the state enacted a (all funds) $127.4B budget. Brown’s revised budget (May) plans to spend $132.5B. That’s a 4% increase, which I know is small by California standards.
The cuts you refer to are necessary because of automatic cost escalators the legislature refuses to bring in line with revenue growth. It looks like the state needs yearly double-digit revenue increases to sustain its current spending habits.
That’s nuts. Sorry, but there’s no polite way to say it. Yes, I’ll give you that Brown has been more honest about the budget than Schwarzenegger. But that’s a rather low standard of comparison. And, sadly, Brown too has adopted Schwarzenegger’s habit of borrowing from dedicated funds so he just kicks the problem down the road a little farther.
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/Revised/agencies.html
@Common Sense(lol)
The Republicans are obstructing the process year after year because they are otherwise irrelevant, this is where the debt and deficit have grown worse and worse. The Democrats would have passed a “balanced budget” seven years ago if it weren’t for the tyranny of the minority and an awfully under qualified Governor. Untwist your panties for a second and understand that holding the majority hostage by requiring that we do away with collective bargaining and/or pension for public employees isn’t productive and is very unrealistic. That is a lack of negotiating prowess, your friends in the minority could live up to their responsibilities and actually negotiate with the Democrats on tax hikes and budget cuts (just how they did under a Republican Governor, proving that its all politics with them).
As for the DUI bill, it doesn’t cost the tax payers and frankly in the end it will likely save localities money.
The DREAM act was just one phase of the proposed legislation, it is allowing PRIVATE scholarships not public, so this also doesn’t cost the state a dime.
And as for Evans bill, its a human rights bill in my mind. California has enjoyed a rich history of supporting womens rights at any cost because states like Florida and Texas are dead-set on taking them away. Someone has to protect womens rights, California will always be at the front of that line. Cost or no cost; its the right thing to do.
@Not a Chance
Take your own advice and do a little research. Proposition 25 includes a little escape hatch. It only requires that “a” budget bill be passed, not the state constitutional requirement of a balanced budget. The legislature passed a partial budget bill in March to deal with just a portion of the state deficit. So, technically they could continue to receive their pay under Proposition 25. One need just read the plain language of it and the current articles questioning whether the State Controller will in fact continue to issue pay checks past the due date for a balanced budget to discover that interesting little fact.
In response to your other point, just take a look at the state legislative analyst’s office web page or the governors budget web page, and you will note that they are still attempting to deal with about 20 billion in debt, despite their March bill. So, in fact, while they are passing the state dream act bill, the above healthcare protection bill and the new dui checkpoint bill, they really should be spending a little more time on the fiscal issues facing the state. It appears that they are looking for ways to spend the recent higher then expected tax revenue when they should be using it to pay down our state debt and produce a balanced budget.
@Paul I
“What about doing an on time budget or we cut the pay of the Senate and Assembly”
HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prop 25 passed in November by the people of California states that without a budget the elected legislators DO NOT RECEIVE PAY! Again I ask you to research things before you come on here a spew false information. Just so you know, Evans and Allen both supported prop 25 (one of those facts I’m sure none of you payed attention to!)
Read it and weep: http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_25,_Majority_Vote_for_Legislature_to_Pass_the_Budget_%282010%29
What about your money for your car expense Hon. Evan’s. Why not just go away. Oh we are stuck with you.
What about doing an on time budget or we cut the pay of the Senate and Assembly. I know we got a budget and we will continue collecting our pay.
The folly of a broke California.
@constituent
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
The state legislature has helped bring our 27 billion dollar deficit down to under 10 billion since January. They have cut vital services in order to bring the deficit down; currently sitting on the table is referred to as an “All Cuts Budget”, all they have done this session is cut cut cut so get out of her face about one piece of legislation that gives security to NEW mothers. Our state elected officials are working extremely hard on the budget crisis, harder than any legislative group prior.
I once again charge all of you on WSC with the task of doing a little research and providing a little forethought.
All of this is covered by federal law. Why is Evans duplicating federal bureaucracy and creating more enforcement jobs at the state level in California? Or is that her goal?
This is another one of those useless, unnecessary state laws that duplicates something that already exists.
Evans and her democrat cohorts needs to be addressing the state budget deficit and forget grandstanding.
Another good example of democrat fiddling while Rome burns.
When is she up for reelection?
@Constituent:
Chop the budget???? Cut taxes? You MUST be joking! Anyone who would dare say such things must be a racist, homophobic, child hating, woman hating, self loathing republican!
Noreen Evans has never and wlll never cut anything from the budget. She can come up with 10 new taxes for you to pay but, don’t even think of cutting her car allowance!
when this type of law is deemed necessary by the all intrusive government, it says a lot about our legislative body . . . it’s easier to focus on the little things than the big things.
Note to Noreen Evans – get a clue and start chopping the budget. You are avoiding/ignorning the obvious and spending too much time on frivilous non-issues.
When we ran our company we paid for the health care of employees out on maternity.
Seemed like the right thing to do.