Money is being stripped out of a bill aimed at doing right by those wrongfully convicted of crimes in California, even as this year’s legislative clock ticks down.

AB 2937, authored by Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, has until Aug. 7 to make it through this session, and the Assembly passed it on a 64-2 vote back in May, but the state Senate Appropriations Committee voted 14-0 on July 7 to place the bill in its suspense file — a holding place for bills carrying a price tag of $150,000 or more.

That’s because the bill would’ve raised the compensation paid to exonerees. Under current law, a claimant would be awarded $100 per day of prison confinement, or $36,500 per year; it’s the same amount for people who sat on death row. This bill would have increased the prison-confinement amount to $50,000 per year, or about $137 per day; for those who were on death row, it would have increased the pay to $100,000 per year, or about $274 per day.

From the Senate Appropriations Committee summary:

“The average annual claim paid from the General Fund is $671,380 for the years 2002-2006. The Legislature did not approve a claim of $74,600 for David Jones in 2007. This bill would provide for a 37% increase of the amount paid per day of prison confinement. Thus, the state would expect to pay about $250,000 more each year in claims. Since none of the claims in recent history has involved a death row inmate, there would be significant, but unknown costs. If a person had been on death row for 20 years, he or she could claim approximately $2,000,200 under this provision.

“In addition, this bill would extend the timeframe in which a person may file a claim from 6 months to 2 years after his or her exoneration date. This could lead to additional claims filed.”

Now former state Attorney General John Van de Kamp, chairman of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which made the recommendations on which this bill is based, says raising the compensation is basically off the table for this year “simply because of the budget situation.”

“We’re trying to do whatever possible to limit the costs so they can get it out,” he told me this afternoon. “We’re not getting even close to 100 percent of what we’d like, but it’s a start.”

The Commission in February issued a report recommending remedies for wrongful conviction, and the stripped-down bill still includes some of those suggestions, Van de Kamp said. For example, it would amend state law so that people who were coerced into giving false confessions aren’t excluded from compensation; it would require that exonerated people’s criminal records automatically be sealed; and it would require counties to offer exonerated people or those released due to reversal of their convictions the same community re-entry services provided to parolees.

Van de Kamp said Solorio’s office and supporters including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California are working closely with Appropriations Committee staffers to get the bill out of the suspense file; one legislative staffer told me today he’s “unable” to gauge the chances of success.