I managed to get my hands on a leaked draft state budget this morning. Word on the street (from reliable sources) is that this version has the support of legislative leadership & the governor’s office but not necessarily support from enough rank-and-file legislators.
I went through the changes from last year’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee in the health and human service areas & found some encouraging increases in several areas. I don’t know if the dollar figures noted in this draft are sufficient, but it was encouraging to see that there is some support in the governor’s office and among leadership for some important changes. Note: I didn’t go through the list of needs for public education- I just stuck to my wheelhouse in the health and human services sector.
Here’s a link to the leaked spreadsheet. Below are some bullets summarizing the increases over last year’s baseline (I highlighted the health and human service line items in green):
AHCCCS
Postpartum Care ($2.7M)
Pregnancy Care Rate Increase ($10M)
ALTCS Elderly Rate Increase ($24M)
Allowing Kids Care to Stay Eligible for 1yr ($600K)
Secure Behavior Health Facility Rate Increase ($10M)
Behavioral Health Worker Training ($5M – Federal)
Clinical Rotations ($27M – Federal)
Secure Behavioral Health Facilities ($25M)
Department of Economic Security
More Adult Protective Services Staff ($11.2M)
Early Intervention Rate Increases (Federal)
Developmental Disability Provider Rate Increase ($56.7M or 9.7%)
Other DD Rate Increase (efficiency) ($7.2M)
ADHS
Behavioral Health Practitioner Student Loans ($2M)
AZ State Hospital Hiring Bonus ($700K)
AZ State Hospital Increased Staffing ($6.9M)
Department of Child Safety
Healthy Families Expansion ($10M)
Foster Care Stipend Increase ($4.8M)
Kinship Stipend Increase ($19.8M)
Note: We’re not endorsing this as a final budget but at least there are some encouraging new increases in the health and human services sectors. Of course, more analysis needs to be done… but I wanted to get this out in the public domain for all to see for analysis and advocacy purposes
