State Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 Votes to Approve a Minimum 8% Rate Increase and Restore Recession Era Cuts to Developmental Services.

TAKE ACTION NOW: Make Three Calls to Governor Newsom, Your State Assemblymember and State Senator, and Tell Them To Support Budget Increases to Developmental Services. It only takes a few minutes!

Thursday, May 16, 2019: In dramatic fashion the State Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 voted to approve an 8% spending increase for services and supports for Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), adopting a request pushed this year by people with disabilities, families, direct support professionals, service providers, and regional centers throughout the state.

The committee’s agenda originally proposed to adopt the Governor’s May Revise budget proposal which included an average 18% increase, or approximately $330 million ($200 million General Fund), increase per year for only select services, including Residential, Supported Living Services, Supported Employment, Supplemental Services, Personal Assistance Services, Family Home Agency, and Transportation Assistance (the “average” increase means that some providers of these services would see no increases and some would see increases much higher than 18% – all in an effort to somewhat standardize the rates). When it came time to vote, however, Senator Jeff Stone (R – Riverside) and Senator Melissa Hurtado (D – Fresno) made motions to instead fund a minimum 8% increase for all services while also approving funding for those services identified in the Governor’s May Revise that would have seen higher than 8% increases. The motion, which was also supported by the committee Chair, Senator Richard Pan (D- Sacramento), added an additional approximate $340 million ($210 million General Fund) to the total approved budget for IDD services and supports.

In addition to the rate increases, the Committee also voted to adopt several proposals that advocates have highlighted are impacting the IDD community – many of them cuts that were made during the Great Recession. Those adopted proposals include:

• Restoration of Social Recreation and Camp services;
• Elimination of the 14 day mandatory holiday schedule, and removal of the sunset language proposed in the Governor’s May Revise
• Elimination of half-day billing;
• Correction for the minimum wage “quirk” which currently restricts service providers in ares with minimum wages that are higher than the state minimum wage to receive increases when the state minimum wage goes up;
• Enable regional centers to make Early Start co-payments on behalf of privately insured families;
• Require the Department of Developmental Services to submit a place for system-wide rate reform, considering the recommendations of the rate study and impending HCBS final rules, with stakeholder input, by January 01, 2020, with a planned beginning implementation date no later than January 21;
• Rejection of the Governor’s proposal to sunset the rate increases on December 31, 2021.

These proposed increases come after years of crisis in community-based services and supports for Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilites as guaranteed in the Lanterman Act. The crisis was confirmed in the recently released rate study performed by the Department of Developmental Services which concluded that the state is underfunding services by $1.8 billion. The funding increases adopted today by the Senate represent a first step toward full funding. The State Assembly will next vote on the budget on Tuesday, May 21, and will have the chance to adopt the same budget as the Senate; however, if it is different in any way from the Senate’s version then it will move to the Conference Committee, where a final adopted budget will be negotiated and eventually sent to the Governor prior to the June 15th Constitutional deadline.

Jordan Lindsey, Executive Director, The Arc of California