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BY Matt Keppler
February 15,
2006
Illinois Association of
Rehabilitation Facilities
We have been
preparing you for months now that the focus around state government this
year would be on children. Today was a continuation of the banter. The
Governor’s Budget Address was delivered today to a joint session of the
Illinois General Assembly and it sounded a lot like a re-election speech.
For those of you who watched the address, you know that there was no mention
of services and supports to persons with disabilities as a priority. The
silver lining in the cloud…there were no reductions. Basically, it is
another maintenance budget proposed for community services.
The Governor
made mention that some (presumably in the General Assembly) may not agree
with his priorities for spending. To them – and to those areas of the budget
that were not “prioritized” – he emphatically said, “Who do you say ‘no’
to?” Following up, he stated that he is not afraid to say no to areas of
spending that are “not doing good things for people.”
At the DHS
briefing after hearing the details, Janet Stover expressed the
disappointment of the Association to Secretary Adams. Her question after
outlining the need for a rate increase for early intervention, cost of
living adjustments for staff providing supports and services, services and
supports for individuals on waiting lists, cost of doing business increases,
and critical infrastructure improvements in the divisions of the Department
to deal with ongoing delivery of services and transition to fee-for-service
was this – what does the Governor’s
Office and his Office of Management and Budget say to you when you, as our
partner and state advocate, ask why those needs are being ignored?
As you might
expect the response from the Secretary was a non-answer suggesting that
there are always more priorities than there are resources. Stover replied by
saying that clearly when the Governor asked, “Who do you say ‘no’ to?” This
administration is saying ‘no’ to persons with disabilities and the
individuals and programs that support and serve them. The Governor also said
today that the budget “comes down to making choices”- let’s remind him how
important it is to choose to
make a financial commitment for community services.
We have our
work cut out for us to ensure that all
community services receive a 5% CODB, but we can persevere if we
commit to the hard advocacy work that needs to be done to ensure a
successful outcome. More than ever, we need your support and participation
here in Springfield this year because due to the compressed session
timeframes, legislators are here more than in their districts. They are
also spending less time at their desks, so they are not able to read their
letters or e-mails as diligently as usual. The Association will be
presenting a plan to our Board next week with events that you should
seriously consider attending. One main event you should have on your
calendar is IARF’s annual spring meeting. It will be held on Wednesday,
March 22, 2006.
Here is a
rundown of the Governor’s Budget Address. After that begins our summary of
the department budget briefings. We will continue to further analyze the FY
2007 budget. As always we will share further details as we uncover them.
Education
·
$45 M a year for the next 3 years
for the Preschool for All program to offer preschool for all 3 and 4 year
olds.
·
$400 M increase for K-12
education. If this increase is approved by the General Assembly, the state
will have spent $3.8 B in new funding for school over the past four years.
·
New program to reduce K-3 class
sizes. He proposed earmarking $10 M to award to schools to pay for new
teacher salaries and benefits. The $10 M would be distributed as $50,000
grants equally among suburban, downstate, and Chicago Public Schools.
·
$1,000 College Tuition Tax Credit
for public and private school students who maintain a “B” average.
·
$8 M to expand Illinois’ MAP
(Monetary Assistance Program) to help 13,000 more college students and their
parents afford college.
·
$40 M to increase higher
education funding.
·
$18 M to help universities
attract and retain faculty.
·
$7 M to increase community
college grants.
Healthcare
-
$45 M to cover
children who enroll in All Kids health care plan. The cost will be paid by
savings generated by implementing a program care case management model (PCCM)
for participants in the state’s FamilyCare, Medicaid, and All Kids and a
disease management program for those suffering from chronic illnesses such
as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease.
-
$7.8 M through
the Department on Aging (DoA) to begin developing the first phase of a new
case management model and to begin training case managers.
-
$2 M in new
funding to use for one-time home modifications that will help seniors stay
at home longer before entering nursing homes.
-
The state will
also continue exploring ways to expand DoA’s Community Care Program in FY
2008 by adjusting asset limits to increase enrollment in the program.
-
$10 M to launch
a new healthcare program called Veterans Care to cover veterans who are
below the federal poverty level and who live 50 miles or more from a VA
hospital.
-
Reduce the
nursing shortage by:
-
Developing the
Center for Nursing charged with developing a strategic plan for nursing
manpower in Illinois.
-
Offering
nursing educator scholarships ($1.3 M in FY 2007).
-
Making changes
to the existing nursing scholarship program to allow merit in addition
to financial need to be taken into consideration when determining
recipients of nursing scholarships.
-
Creating a
student loan program for nurse educators. (Program up and running in FY
2008).
-
$100 M over five
years to fund stem cell research.
Public Safety
·
$7.3 M to reduce DNA backlog so
samples are processed more quickly.
·
$19 M for a state-of-the-art
emergency operations center.
·
$3 M to train 100 new Illinois
State Police cadets.
·
$1.9 M in state funds for meth
unit at Southwestern ($4.78 from the federal government in FY 2007).
Other
-
$20 M to help
clean-up environmentally contaminated riverfronts across Illinois.
-
Flat 20% film
tax credit.
-
Proposal to
guarantee pensions by:
-
Using proceeds
from sale of 10th casino license.
-
Create
incentives for employees to work longer.
-
Contribute the
sale of surplus property.
-
Identify new
sources of revenue for pensions.
Revenue
-
Revenue growth
-
Transfers from
excess balances in special interest funds
-
Closing the
retail rate loophole which currently means double payment by the state
to landfills that sell electricity produced by methane gas.
-
Closing the
Net Operating Loss loophole which would allow the Department of Revenue
to verify that losses claimed by businesses from more than three years
ago actually occurred.
-
Closing the
canned software loophole, which gives a tax break to big businesses that
buy software licenses but not small businesses that purchase software
over the counter (Illinois is the only state with the canned software
loophole and the retail rate loophole).
·
Stem cell research- tobacco
settlement funds.
·
Streamlining state government
services further could save $115 M.
Department of
Human Services (DHS)
Overall, the
DHS budget contains a $58.1 M increase for personal services to fund
collective bargaining wage increases, annualization of the FY 2006 merit
compensation increases and higher retirement rates. Obviously, we are
disappointed that one segment of the service delivery system continues to
receive higher priority than another.
Also, there is
no mention of the Children’s HCBS Waiver Initiative that the Association as
well as other groups has been advocating for as a mechanism to expand
children’s community-based services. In addition, there is no additional
funding in the Governor’s budget to address the demand for services to
children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
On the Mental
Health side, the Association is disappointed that no money was appropriated
to assist with the conversion to fee-for-service. This is despite
recommendations in two reports (Field Test Evaluation Report and the State
Readiness Report) from DMH consultants, Parker Dennison and Associates.
Division of
Developmental Disabilities
-
$11.6 M to
annualize the 2.69% increase given to ICFDD providers effective January 1,
2006.
-
$6.5 M
community-based funding to help 200 former DCFS wards transition into CILA.
-
$3 M to
annualize the cost of FY 2006 DD CILA placements.
-
$5.6 M to
support the opening of Lincoln Estates (formerly Lincoln Developmental
Center) in FY 2007 ($990,000 in FY 2006).
Division of
Mental Health
-
$2 M to move
forward recommendations of the Children’s Mental Health Partnership. If
you will recall the Children’s Mental Health Partnership requested $19 M
for various children’s mental health services.
-
$4.2 M expansion
for MI supportive housing.
-
$7 M to support
relocation of the Sexually Violent Persons program from Joliet to
Rushville; they anticipate the relocation to occur by July 1, 2006.
-
$1.1 M reduction
for Tinley Park ($19.3 M total funding in FY 2007).
-
$1.2 M for MH
transportation to community/state-operated hospitals. This is a result of
PA 93-770 which requires DHS with the responsibility of transporting
persons with mental illness in counties with a population under three
million to mental health facilities. Previously this was the
responsibility of local Sheriff’s Departments.
Division of
Rehabilitation Services
-
$33.1 M for the
Home Services Program over FY 2006 spending.
-
Agency is
beginning a re-determination effort for the TBI waiver program.
-
$827,700 to
restore previous fiscal year reductions in match line for federal
vocational rehabilitation awards to achieve maximum federal match.
-
$1 M for home
modification to prevent unnecessary institutionalization.
-
$2 M to support
the DRS community integration program.
Division of
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse
Division of
Community Health and Prevention
-
$3 M increase
for early intervention to serve 17,000 additional children aged birth to 3
years. This is NOT funding
for a CODB – it is funding to serve additional children and respond to
growth in the program. (You will recall that included in the Governor’s
budget last year there was a $3 M cut to the EI budget).
-
$50,000 increase
for the Teen REACH program.
Human Capital
Development
Department of
Healthcare and Family Services (HFS)
-
Healthcare is
still a big priority for this administration, and the Department of
Healthcare and Family Services’ (HFS) budget reflects that with increased
funding for the creation of the All Kids insurance program. The specifics
of this program are still limited, however, HFS has been pre-registering
children for this program and is planning implementation by July 1st.
-
Rumors have been
circulating that HFS was looking at rolling out a program similar to the
children’s mental health SASS program but for adults. At the HFS budget
briefing, when questioned by the Association about the program, Director
Barry Maram stated that no funding is in the FY07 budget for such a
program. However, Medicaid Director, Ann Marie Murphy, commented that
they are looking into such a program, but no specifics were given.
Department of
Children and Family Services (DCFS)
·
DCFS plans to target a
significant portion of the approximately $26 Million currently spent on
“counseling” services to provide treatment for childhood traumas identified
in the Lifetime Approach.· DCFS
plans to redesign the existing Transitional Living and Independent Living
Programs. The result of this redesign will be the development of a seamless
continuum of services transitioning youth to adulthood.
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