With the legislature required to adjourn just one week from today there are still quite a few unknowns and a broad budget agreement still yet to be made.
As we shared in past updates, the legislature had set a self-imposed deadline of Monday, May 6th to have an overall budget agreement made between the Governor and Senate and House leadership and budget targets given to the conference committees. That deadline came and went without a broad deal. To date, we are still waiting a budget agreement. Issues of conflict continue to be the sunset of the provider tax, the creation of a new 20 cent gas tax and overall revenue increases.
Despite not having a budget target, the Health and Human Service Conference Committee did meet every day last week to walk through language in both the House and Senate HHS Omnibus bill. Top issues that we are tracking include:
- The creation of the Competitive Workforce Factor in DWRS
- In both the House and Senate omnibus bills with differences in how the and when the CWF is updated into the future
- Allowing for variable rates for all ICFs and changing the Services During the Day rate from 75% to 100% of the DT&H rate
- In the Senate Omnibus Bill
- ARRM’s Policy Bill Priorities
- In the Senate Omnibus Bill
- Licensing Fee Increases
- Fee Increases are in the house Omnibus Bill
- Language stating that fee increases must be paid for through DWRS is in the Senate Omnibus Bill
- Adult Foster Care Bed Closure
- In the Senate Omnibus Bill
- DD and CADI Waiver Caps
- In the Senate Omnibus Bill
These items, along with many other items important to the disability community are still up in the air. The Conference Committee will begin adopting language into their final Conference Committee report this week. Please watch your email for any urgent action alerts that may come out about any of the issues listed above.
We are looking forward to hopefully being able to provide a complete summary of the final Health and Human Service Omnibus bill next week. Thank you for all your advocacy efforts this session!
-- Sara Grafstrom, Director of State and Federal Policy