Revenue and Taxation committee advances CalABLE, pediatric research fund; sends multiple bills to suspense file

The California State Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation on April 2025 advanced AB 1076, a bill to expand outreach and funding tools for the CalABLE savings program, and AB 703, which would create a voluntary state tax contribution fund for pediatric cancer research. The panel also referred multiple bills to its suspense file to allow broader cost and policy review.

Why it matters: The committee’s actions keep funding and tax-policy proposals moving through the legislative process while using the committee’s revived “suspense file” tool to group higher-cost measures for later deliberation. The CalABLE measure and the pediatric cancer fund would affect different constituencies — people with disabilities and families affected by childhood cancers — but both drew supporters who said the state can and should create more predictable funding or outreach paths.

AB 1076 — CalABLE outreach and fundraising Assemblymember Addis, the bill’s author, told the committee AB 1076 clarifies CalABLE’s ability to accept philanthropic grants and legislative appropriations and requires that information about CalABLE be included in state tax return instructions. "CalABLE accounts are tax advantage savings accounts for people with disabilities that allow them to save a hundred thousand dollars," Addis said during her presentation.

Connie Chan, legislative manager for the state treasurer (the bill’s sponsor office), said CalABLE has over 13,000 accounts and about $180,000,000 in assets but remains accessible to less than 1 percent of the state’s eligible population; she also cited a treasurer’s office survey that found only 22.6 percent of respondents with a disability were familiar with CalABLE. Chan said the bill would enable CalABLE to solicit philanthropic support for outreach and to use modest tax-return language to raise awareness similar to the ScholarShare 529 approach. Anne Osborne, deputy…