Budget Matters: changes in the state budget

A couple weeks ago the Joint Finance Committee held meetings around the state to gather input on the governor’s proposed budget. If you want to know what came of those meetings and other deliberations, please read the following message passed along by Barbara Beckert, Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations. It’s long but full of useful information.

(The report was sent to members of the Make It Work Milwaukee! Coalition in which the Milwaukee Aging Consortium participates. The group includes organizations serving older adults, people with disabilities, children and families who want to “strengthen Milwaukee County through better health and human services.”)

From: Michael Blumenfeld

The Co-Chairs of the Joint Finance Committee (Representative Rhoades and Senator Decker) sent the following memo on Friday to committee members. Here is a link to it.

The memo basically does two things:

1) It outlines 48 non-fiscal policy items that will be removed from the budget and considered as separate legislation. These items reference the Legislative Reference Bureau's summary of the Governor's budget proposal that can be found here.

Some items of interest are:

BOARD ON AGING AND LONG-TERM CARE

* CBRF Requirement to Post Contact Information on the Ombudsman Program (Page 63, #9)

EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

Repeal QEO Provisions (Page 137, #3; Page 138, #4; Page 464, #9)

HEALTH AND FAMILY SERVICES
Medical Assistance - Long-Term Care
* Statewide Licensed Nursing Home Bed Cap and Bed Transfers (Page 290, #7)
* Repeal Nursing Home Bed Bank (Page 291, #8)
* Nursing Home and CBRFs -- Contesting Actions and Receiverships (Page 291, #10)
* Community Relocation Initiative -- Authority to Provide Services to Additional Clients (Page 292, #13)

HEALTH INSURANCE RISK-SHARING PLAN AUTHORITY
* Authority to Designate Insurance Types for Eligibility Purposes (Page 343, #4)
* Eligibility for Premium Subsidies (Page 343, #5)
* Pharmacy and Pharmacist Participation (Page 343, #6)
* Provider Rates (Page 343, #7)
* Fiscal Agent Responsibilities (Page 344, #8)

INSURANCE
* Minimum Coverage Requirements for Treatment of Mental Health and Alcohol and
Other Drug Abuse Problems (Page 362, #16)
* Required Health Insurance Coverage for Autism Spectrum Disorders (Page 363, #17)
* Health Insurance -- Insurer Disclosure of Current Procedural Terminology Code Changes and Explanation of Restriction or Termination of Policy Coverage (Page 363, #18)

2) It also lists what parts of the budget will be using the 2006-07 (current fiscal year) adjusted base as a starting point and what parts will use the Governor's proposal as a starting point.

This is a very important distinction. For items that use the current base as a starting point, the Committee will entertain motions to amend current law or the adjusted base rather than the recommendations of the Governor. Although the Governor's recommendations will be before the Committee, it will take a majority vote for them (or any other proposal) to be adopted.

For items using the Governor's proposal as a starting point, the opposite is the case; it will take a majority vote to remove the Governor's proposal from the
budget. Remember that the Joint Finance Committee is evenly split, 8-8, for
this budget deliberation. The bottom line: base budget items-majority vote
needed to add anything to the base; Governor's proposal items-majority vote
needed to remove a proposal contained in the Governor's budget.

Almost all of the DHFS budget, including Family Care, BadgerCare and other Medical Assistance expansions, will be "Governor's proposal" items, which will require a majority committee vote to remove. Among the "base budget" items is the "Health" section of DHFS. This can be found on pages 304-314 of the Fiscal Bureau summary.

The entire list of base budget items is on page 2 of the memo. For all other agencies, the Governor's budget (known as SB 40) will be the starting point.

In addition, the memo makes these points:

Children and Families. SB 40 recommends that portions of the Departments of Health and Family Services and Workforce Development be transferred to a newly-created Department of Children and Families. The Committee will consider the programs to be transferred within their respective agencies and will separately determine whether the new Department should be created.

Programs Funded with New Revenue Sources. There are a number of programs in a variety of agencies that are funded under SB 40 from new or expanded revenue sources. They include: (1) programs funded from recycling fees; (2) the county aid fund (real estate transfer fee); (3) provisions funded from increased vital records fees; and (4) the health care quality fund (cigarette tax, tobacco products tax, hospital assessment, and injured patients compensation fund). Rather than consider these items under each affected agency, executive sessions will be scheduled for each of these four funding sources. At those meetings, all items related to the use of those funding sources will be considered.

Action begins on SB 40 Thursday, April 26. For agendas and information go here.