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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 06232009 - SD.16RECOMMENDATION(S): ACCEPT oral report on the impacts of the State Budget on the County. FISCAL IMPACT: BACKGROUND: CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION: CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT: APPROVE OTHER RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE Action of Board On: 06/23/2009 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER Clerks Notes: VOTE OF SUPERVISORS AYE:John Gioia, District I Supervisor Gayle B. Uilkema, District II Supervisor Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor Susan A. Bonilla, District IV Supervisor Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor Contact: David Twa 925-335-1080 I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. ATTESTED: June 23, 2009 , County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors By: Jane Pennington, Deputy cc: SD.16 To:Board of Supervisors From:David Twa, County Administrator Date:June 23, 2009 Contra Costa County Subject:Update on State Budget Actions CLERK'S ADDENDUM David Twa, County Administrator, introduced this informational update on the ways the State budget activities could affect the County. He introduced the following department heads, who provided the Board with updates on how state actions could affect their county departments: Julie Bueren, Public Works Joe Valentine, Employment and Human Services Dr. William Walker, Health Services Supervisor Piepho noted that Public Works is not a General Fund department and depends on state funding. Supervisor Gioia suggested the Board’s Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee could consider waste pickup charges to make sure we’re current with our fee structures. Supervisor Uilkema requested the Board be supplied copies of the oral reports that were provided by department heads today (see attachments to Minutes). “May Revise” Human Services Budget Proposals Impacts on Contra Costa County June 22, 2009 Program Governor’s Proposal Conference Committee Action Impacts of Accepted Proposals CalWORKS Eliminate the CalWORKS program effective October 1, 2009 Rejected CalWORKS COLA Permanently eliminate the statutory requirement for a CalWORKS COLA Rejected CalWORKS Grant Cut Further Reduce CalWORKS grants by an additional 6% effective October 1. Grants will be reduced 4% on July 1 as a result of the trigger cuts. Rejected the additional 6% Grant cut but let stand the 4% “Trigger Cut”. Over 10,300 CalWORKS families with over 18,000 children will see their grants cuts effective July 1 by 4%. An average family of 3 will see their monthly grant reduced from $723/month to approximately $694/month. CalWORKS “Safety Net” and “Child Only” cases Eliminate benefits for safety net families in which the parent is not meeting work participation requirements. Impose a 60-month time limit on grants for children whose parents are undocumented noncitizens, drug felons, or fleeing felons. Substituted proposal to reduce funding to the counties for child care and employment services by $175 million/ year but allow counties flexibility for a two year period to exempt families from the work participation requirement who have high supportive services costs, e.g., child care for parents with a child under the age of 2 or two children under the age of 6. Our Employment Services allocation for child care & other employment related support services will be reduced by about $3 million a year. This reduction will be offset by eliminating the requirement to provide child care to families with younger children. There will also be some lost of funding for staff who provide these services. TANF Emergency Contingency Fund Accepted the proposal from counties to allow us to access the TANF Emergency Contingency fund with its 80% matching rate to fund subsidized employment slots. Accepted Will allow us to fund over 3,000 paid or subsidized work experience slots throughout the County with non-profit, public, and for-profit entities during an approximate 13 month period (commencing September 1, 2009 and ending September 30, 2010). CAPI and CFAP Eliminate the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants [CAPI] and the California Food Assistance Program [CFAP]. Rejected total elimination of both programs but are proposing some eligibility changes that would reduce number of eligibles Number of clients impacted would be uncertain. However, persons no longer eligible for CAPI might be eligible for county General Assistance. There are currently 217 aged, blind, and disabled legal immigrants who receive CAPI in Contra Costa. Child Welfare Programs Cut child welfare programs across the board by 8.7% Rejected Under the Governor’s proposal we would have lost $3.2 million in revenue for child welfare programs which would have been equivalent to the funding for 18 social workers. Foster Care Rates Reduce by 10 percent the rates for foster family agencies (FFAs), group homes (GHs), seriously emotionally disturbed (SED), supplemental clothing allowance (SCA) and specialized care increment (SCI), effective October 1, 2009 Accepted the 10% rate cut for FFAs and Group Homes but rejected the cut to the supplemental clothing allowance. We currently have 475 children placed in these types of settings. Reducing rates by this much would complicate an already difficult challenge in recruiting foster homes and would reduce the number of placement options for children. Some of the smaller agencies may be forced to close altogether. There will be a savings in county share of cost of about $711,000. IHSS Service Reductions Eliminate all IHSS services to anyone with a functional index rating below 4. This would eliminate services to all but the most disabled. Substituted less drastic reductions: 1. Eliminate domestic and related services only for those categories of services in which a consumer is assessed as having a functional index [FI] score of less than “4”, e.g., housework, laundry, shopping, meal preparation and clean up. 2. Eliminate all IHSS services for anyone with a functional index score below 2 except for recipients with paramedical services or protective supervision. Under the Governor’s original proposal, 6,511 persons, or 85% of our total IHSS Caseload of 7,626 recipients, would have their services eliminated. Under the Conference Committee proposal: 1. Elimination of domestic and related services for categories with an FI score of less than 4 would affect about 8% or about 300 consumers. 2. Elimination of all services with persons with an FI score below 2 would affect 400 persons. Although any reduction in IHSS caseload would save some county General Fund dollars, it’s hard to estimate the downstream costs to hospitals and nursing homes. In addition, there will be an increase in fair hearing requests which will impact staff workload. Finally, the elimination of cases served by IHSS providers would remove health care for these providers and put further pressure on our county health care system. IHSS Provider Wages Limit state participation in wages and benefits to the state minimum wage of $8.00 per hour plus $0.60 per hour for benefits, effective October 1, 2009 Rejected this additional cut in wages but did not suspend the cut in wages scheduled to take affect on July 1 as a result of the earlier “Trigger” Cuts. This will reduce state participation in wages down to $9.50 an hour. In Contra Costa, provider wages are scheduled to drop from the current level of $11.50/hour to $10.32/hour as a result of the “trigger cuts”. The additional cut would have further reduced the wage level in Contra Costa to $9.32/hour effective October 1. IHSS Public Authority Cut the administrative allocation for the IHSS Public Authorities by 20% A 20% cut to the Contra Costa IHSS Public Authority is equivalent to a cut of about $ 390,000. Reductions in operating costs and elimination of vacant positions would be made to absorb the cut. Realignment Increase the county share of Child Welfare Services and Foster Care from 30% to 75% of the nonfederal costs of each program. The realignment savings produced by the elimination of CalWORKS and the IHSS reductions would be captured and applied to cover the new county costs. Shift $300 million of CalWORKS assistance payment costs to the counties to be funded from the Vehicle License Fee reserve. No additional details on this proposal are yet available. Fiscal impact uncertain. However, our CalWORKS caseloads continue to grow. MEMORANDUM (2 pages) To: CHEAC General Membership From: Judith Reigel, Executive Director Date: June 15, 2009 RE: State Budget Update ______________________________________________________________________ Assembly Democrats announced today that they will be proposing a revenue-raising package that will include tobacco and oil severance taxes in order to close the state’s budget gap without completely eliminating safety net programs. The Speaker’s plan reportedly also includes an increase in the vehicle license fee to fund state parks. On another front, the Joint Legislative Budget Conference Committee reconvened this afternoon to close out open items, a task which they anticipate completing tomorrow. A major item that the Conference Committee rejected today is the Governor’s proposal to raid $1.9 billion in local revenue, as allowed under provisions of Prop 1A. The Conference Committee also took up and closed out all remaining health items today, including: HIV/AIDS Package: Approved a package of much more modest program reductions than was proposed by the Governor, and backfilled some General Fund with AIDS Drug Rebate Funds, to save $33.5 million in State General Fund. ADAP was fully protected – the proposals to reduce the formulary and institute new premiums were rejected. Final funding levels (state GF portion) approved for the various other HIV/AIDS programs are: Therapeutic Monitoring Program: $7.3 million ($714,000 reduction) Education and Prevention: $22.4 million ($2.2 million reduction) Surveillance and Epidemiologic Studies: $7.7 million ($1 million reduction) Counseling and Testing: $8.2 million (no reduction) Early Intervention Projects: $7.4 million (no reduction) Home and Community Based Care: $5.8 million (no reduction) Housing: $992,000 ($101,000 reduction) In addition the Office of AIDS State Operations was reduced from $7 million to $3.6 million, which is expected to result in a loss of 36 positions. The Committee also adopted the following Budget Bill Language: It is the intent of the Legislature that this appropriation is utilized to maintain core active surveillance activities to meet federal reporting requirements, and to continue HIV/AIDS prevention and education efforts for which federal funds are not available. Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Programs: Approved an overall reduction of $11.6 million in General Fund (combined local assistance and State Operations) and shifted some Title V funding. Final funding levels (state GF portion) approved for the various MCAH programs are: Local Health Department MCH Grants: Eliminated ($2.1 million reduction) Black Infant Health: $3 million ($900,000 reduction) Adolescent Family Life Program: $9 million ($1.7 million reduction) Provider Training: Eliminated ($250,000 reduction) The Committee also eliminated the entire $3.5 million in MCH State Operations: We are seeking information on distribution of remaining Title V funding for these programs. As part of this package, $3 million in Title V funds was shifted from the MCH branch to backfill General Fund in the California Children’s Services (CCS) program. Healthy Families: Rejected both the complete elimination of Healthy Families and roll-back of eligibility from 250% to 200% FPL. Instead, the Conference Committee reduced the state General Fund appropriation to Healthy Families by $70 million. Please note that this is a greater amount than the $54 million the Administration expected to save by rolling back the program to 200% FPL. The Committee notes that the effect of the $70 million reduction “would be to establish a waiting list unless other funds from philanthropic organizations, donations, or other sources, become available to continue enrollment of children throughout the fiscal year.” They go on to say that “MRMIB has authority to establish a waiting list of children for enrollment into the Healthy Families Program if it becomes necessary.” Although First Five was not specifically mentioned today, Legislators clearly have that particular funding source in mind to potentially backfill the state GF reduction. Medi-Cal: Adopted the Governor’s assumption of $1 billion in savings by petitioning the federal government for “Medi-Cal Flexibility and Stabilization”. Though details on this are still sketchy, the Administration is seeking additional federal funds under various programs, including the Medicare Part D “clawback”, retroactive payment of Medicare Part B Premiums and various other items. Rejected the Governor’s Proposal to restrict State-only Medi-Cal services for new immigrants and PRUCOL individuals. Community Based Clinics: Approved approximately 30% reductions (both from the General Fund and Prop 99 portions of funding) for Expanded Access to Primary Care Clinics, American Indian, Seasonal Migratory Worker and Rural Health Services clinics. Poison Control: Eliminated half of the $5.9 million in state General Fund support for the California Poison Control System, with the expectation that other funding sources could be found, including First Five. Animal Control Mandate: Approved the LAO recommendation to modify the animal adoption mandate to reduce by three days the holding period for stray cats and dogs. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the Conference Committee will take up remaining issues, including Human Services. Please remember that the actions of the Conference Committee do not become truly final until a final budget deal is reached.