Family Friendly Budget Briefing
The Budget
process: The Governor released his budget January 21, containing the
budget plus a briefing book. The story is not just the numbers but in the
language of the briefing book. After
this, the legislature starts its work.
The various committees hold Joint public hearings, with members of both
the Assembly and the Senate. They are there to hear from and question the
Department Heads and Commissioners. Often there are opportunities during these
briefings to hear from other interested parties.
At this point the Legislature has finished Joint Budget
Committee hearings, (you can watch them here: https://bit.ly/2PBj6wU )
Now they are discussing what will go into the One House
Budgets, each house submits their One House budget the first week of March. They
are consulting with each other about their priorities before taking positions
on what they want to include. Members send ‘sign on’ letters to their colleagues,
to build consensus for their priorities, these then will go into their One
House letters.
This year:
At first look the Governor’s budget didn’t seem that bad, it
included:
- $5B for OPWDD 3 ½ % raise
- Items in it:
- $6B to make up for FMAP (Federal Medical
Assistance Percentage) because to create the CCOs (Care Coordination
Organizations) the state only had to put up 10% of the cost and the Federal
government agreed to pay 90%. That 90% match goes away July 1 (reduced to
50/50) so to continue the work of the
CCOs the state has to make up the loss in funding.
- $ 66.4M (2%) for Direct Care raises for 1/1/2020
and 1/4/2020
- Up to $120 M in new money but it is more of a
credit card than actual money sent to OPWDD
- $23M so agencies can pay for the mandated increases
in minimum wage
MRT 2 – FIRST WAS 2011
(Medicaid Redesign Team)
The Governor announced that the current Medicaid deficit is
untenable so he created a new Medicaid Redesign Team to look for $2.5B savings
to come out of Medicaid programs. They are supposed to find ongoing savings not
just this time; in other words, structural changes. The savings suggestions are
due at the end of March so they can be incorporated when the budget is due April
1.
The agencies that are under the Mental Hygiene and
Developmental Disabilities committee like OPWDD are supposed to be exempt from
these cuts but there are no guarantees. The bulk of the cuts are to come out of
Dept. of Health (DOH) Medicaid programs which includes CDPAP (Consumer Directed
Personal Assistance Program) a program used by many in the disabilities
community.
CDPAP has been identified by the DOH as one of the causes of
the growth in the deficit. For that
reason that program has been identified at risk of cuts by the MRT2.
