Governor Walz released his budget proposal this past Tuesday. Included is a Competitive Workforce Factor in DWRS set at 4.7%. Dollars wise, this will equate to about 4% of the 7% DWRS rate cut. This is a great step forward for our advocacy efforts in addressing the wage gap for Direct Support Professionals. ARRM thanks the Governor for acknowledging this should be a priority item for the state of Minnesota.
The Best Life Alliance released a statement in response to the budget.
While the inclusion of the Competitive Workforce Factor in the budget is good news, the proposal also contains licensing fee increases for providers. Under the Governor’s budget recommendations, providers with revenue under $5 million would see their licensing fees go up by about 20%, providers with a budget over $5 million would see increases between 20%-300%. ARRM has advocated against this proposal when it has come up in the past and we intend to do so again this year.
Best Life Alliance
We continue to take positive steps forward in the House in working with the chair of the Long Term Care Committee, Rep. Jennifer Schultz, on potential amendments to her alternative proposal to the Best Life Alliance legislation, HF 168.
As you will recall, last week an amendment was added to HF 168 that would remove the 7% from statute without creating a Competitive Workforce Factor to make up for that loss. Many meetings have been had this last week with Rep. Schultz and she has indicated she will be adding a Competitive Workforce Factor to her bill during its next committee meeting and has been open to working with us, as well as other Best Life Alliance coalition partners, as the bill continues to form and work its way through the committee process.
Other ARRM Priorities
We continue to work with key legislators in both the House and Senate to ensure our other legislative priorities receive the proper committee hearings before the first committee deadline, which is just a few weeks away. We will be keeping you posted as hearings get scheduled.
Questions
Please reach out to me with any questions you may about specific legislation, or any messaging that you are receiving from your legislators that you would like guidance on how to respond. Thanks as always for all you do.
--Sara Grafstrom, Director of State and Federal Policy, sgrafstrom@arrm.org