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California Research Bureau Reports
The California Research Bureau (CRB) provides nonpartisan research services to the Governor and his staff, to both houses of the legislature, and to other state elected officials. The Bureau's published reports are available in PDF format for printing using the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free utility available from Adobe.

• The National Housing Crisis and its Impact on California—Conference Presentations
  On September 18, 2008, the California Research Bureau partnered with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) to present a conference on the national housing crisis and its impact on California. The morning presentations examined the scale of the crisis, economic forecasts, and trends in home prices and foreclosures. Speakers in the afternoon discussed removing barriers to home ownership, the crisis in credit availability, new federal and state laws, and policies to mitigate the risk that vacant foreclosed homes will contribute to blight and crime. The CRB’s work in this policy area is in response to a request from the Assembly Banking Committee.
• Health Information Technology-Electronic Health Records: A Primer (pdf)
  Achieving universal health care coverage will require significant changes in the health care system. There is an expectation that widespread adoption of Health Information Technology-Electronic Medical Records will play an important role in transforming the delivery of health care by improving the quality of care and reducing costs. However physicians lack an incentive to invest since the benefits accrue largely to insurance companies and health care plans. The role of federal and state governments in establishing standards and providing financial resources for expansion of health information technology is another issue of importance. This background paper reviews and summarizes many of the issues that providers, payers and government will have to address in incorporating health information technology into the health care delivery system.
• Estimated Water Use on Large Projects in 2004-2006 (pdf)
  Senator Sheila Kuehl asked the California Research Bureau (CRB) to provide analysis about the impact of two bills enacted in 2001: SB 221 and SB 610. These bills require local agencies to determine that a reasonably reliable water supply exists before approving new large projects including residential subdivisions with over 500 units, and large industrial and commercial projects. CRB estimated the number of subdivisions and dwelling units that were subject to these two bills from 2004 to 2006, estimated the amount of water used by these subdivisions and evaluated how the estimates would have changed if the law were lowered to apply to subdivisions with over 250 units. CRB also estimated water use in large industrial and commercial projects.
• Financing Delta Improvements and Environmental Mitigation (pdf)
  Resolution of the Delta's water supply, water quality, and fish problems may involve building various structures, possibly including gates, pumps, canals, levees, and dams, and undertaking landscaping rearrangements to improve habitat for several species of flora and fauna. Resolution also involves changing water flow regimes in ways that would make more or less water, but probably less, available for human uses. This work and these changes will cost serious money. Cost estimates for many of these actions have not yet been developed.
• Homeless Youth: Bibliography and Resources (pdf)
  The CRB and the California Council on Youth Relations, with support from The California Wellness Foundation, are conducting a major research and policy initiative to identify and bring to the attention of state policymakers the serious issues facing homeless youth in California. This report is a resource document and includes an annotated bibliography drawn from a wide range of academic and program-based research, agendas from CRB public policy seminars held over the last year, and contact information for the seminar presenters.
• Security and Privacy Recommendations for Government-Issued Identity Documents Using Radio Frequency Identification Tags or Other Technologies (pdf)
  This report was produced in response to a request from Senator S. Joseph Simitian to provide policy recommendations regarding the use of technology-enhanced, government-issued identification documents. After examining the technical and personal security issues and concerns of these next-generation documents and their accompanying electronic infrastructure, assembling an expert advisory panel, and holding a series of public meetings to obtain input, CRB developed the report's recommendations for the selection and use of these technologies by state and local government agencies.
• Hepatitis C: Public Policy Implications of a Silent Virus (pdf)
  More than 5 million people nationwide are infected with HCV; including 600,000 Californians. Due to the insidious nature of the virus, it is believed that fewer than half of them know they are infected. For many individuals the infection is discovered after the development of advanced liver disease, leaving some patients with no treatment option other than a liver transplant. Even when discovered early, the costly, often debilitating treatment process is successful in less than half the patients who are treated. The paper begins with a brief overview of the discovery of a hepatitis-related virus in the blood supply and how the cause of the virus, now known as hepatitis C, was discovered. The overview continues with detailed discussions of the risk factors and sources of infection for HCV, the diagnostic process, pathways of disease progression, and potential treatment options. A review of the prevalence and the direct and indirect costs associated with HCV are also included. The second half of the paper contains detailed discussions of the policy issues related to HCV including disease tracking and surveillance, a historical timeline of prevention and control efforts, workers compensation and presumptive infection, and access to care and insurance.
• Foreclosures in California: The current housing crisis is more severe than previous corrections (pdf)
  The Chair of the Assembly Banking Committee requested that the California Research Bureau prepare estimates of the number of housing foreclosures in California. Our estimate of the number of housing foreclosures in the State during the current cycle (2006 – 09), varies from 170,000 to 434,000. Foreclosures will affect between 3.0 and 7.8 percent of all homeowners with mortgages (depending on the underlying assumptions, as discussed in the Note). CRB also presents a range of estimates for metropolitan counties. As the credit and housing crisis plays out, CRB plans to update this Note and publish similar quarterly estimates throughout the year.
• Voices from the Street: A Survey of Homeless Youth by Their Peers (pdf)
  Homeless youth are a hidden population. To shed light on this group of vulnerable young people, CRB conducted a survey in which homeless and formerly homeless youth completed over 200 interviews with their homeless peers across the state. The youth interviewed describe their experiences – how they became homeless, what life on the street is like, their interactions with police, their education and aspirations, their mental health experiences, how they go about getting help – the services they need, and the changes they would like to see happen in policy or law. The majority come from the hardest-to-reach and least-studied homeless populations: youth who sleep on the streets or in cars, squat in abandoned buildings, or "couch-surf." Most left their families because of violence or abuse or were kicked out, and many are surviving on the streets in the neighborhoods in which they grew up. This report presents the survey responses and findings. It is a primary component of the California Homeless Youth Project, a major research and policy initiative undertaken by the CRB and California Council on Youth Relations, with support from The California Wellness Foundation, to bring attention to the serious issues facing homeless youth in the state.
• Student Loans for Higher Education (pdf)
  Student loans are a rapidly growing $85 billion a year industry fueled by the substantial higher economic returns associated with a college education, increased demand from students and their parents, and grant and scholarship funds that have not kept pace with rising school tuition and fees. This report describes federally subsidized and guaranteed loans, examines the private student loan industry, and discusses issues relating to student debt and financial counseling. We describe practices that have led to allegations and findings of fraud and abuse in the student loan system, and recent federal and state legislative and administrative responses. The report was requested by Assemblymember Sally Lieber in order to better understand the national student loan scandal and responses to it.
• Actuarially Speaking: