This last week saw important milestones hit for two of ARRM’s legislative agenda bills. Both our ICF/DD legislation and our DWRS legislation, which makes changes to Unit Based Respite and the Absence and Utilization factor for the future Individualized Home Supports (IHS) with Training were heard in the Senate Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee.
Due to both pieces of legislation having a cost, the bills were laid over for possible inclusion in the final omnibus bill. More details on the hearing are below as well as some additional good news on the economic front in Minnesota.
ARRM’s ICF/DD Legislation:
ARRM members and ICF/DD Task Force Chairs Rod Carlson from Living Well Disability Services and Don Priebe from Homeward Bound attended the hearing along with myself. During my testimony I was able to share the growing rate disparity between ICF/DD Service Rates and Waiver Service Rates. Overall, committee members understood the need to provide for an increase in rates.
ARRM’s DWRS Legislation:
Joe Cuoco of Supportive Living Solutions testified alongside myself about the need to remove Unit Respite from the framework and increase the IHS with Training Absence and Utilization rate as a response to the dropping ILS rates and unsustainable IHS rates. Committee members were upset to hear about the dropping rates and were supportive of our proposal.
ARRM’s Policy Bill:
Our Policy bill received a second reading in the Senate. The next step following a second reading is to have the bill discussed on the floor. We are still awaiting a hearing in the House to move our bill out of committee in that body.
Updated Economic Forecast:
On February 27, Minnesota Management and Budget released their updated economic forecast for the state. This forecast, called the “February Forecast” is what the Governor and legislature will use to determine any potential supplemental spending bill that they propose this session. The forecast showed an increase of $181 million from the past November forecast, for a total of almost $1.5 billion surplus.
Many legislators have cautioned that much of this surplus only represents one-time dollars and they should proceed with caution with any additional spending this session.
Questions:
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you have about any items on ARRM’s legislative agenda or other pieces of legislation that you are tracking.
--Sara Grafstrom, Director of State and Federal Policy