Upcoming budget has worries and optimism for CCBDD

By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

With Gov. John Kasich’s biennium budget released into the House for debate, it comes some worries, but there is also some optimism at the Crawford County Board of Developmental Disabilities (CCBDD).

While it is still a wait-and-see game until the budget is officially approved in July the first draft of the budget sees an increase of funding for boards of DD through the state. Statewide Kasich recommended an increase of funding by 3.3 percent or $681.6 million in 2018. In 2019 the state’s budget for boards of DD is recommended to go up by 2.8 percent or $700.7 million.

While this is overall good news there are still worries for CCBDD Superintendent Liz Prather.

“You always wonder what is actually going to happen. When the governor’s budget is announced in the House, and then the Senate, then it comes back, and I guess we will find out on July 30,” Prather said.

“When they redid the commercial activity tax years ago, they eliminated tangible personal property tax, and that impacted all of us that run levies. Now they have held us harmless for a period of time, and that time is going to end, and there is no fix for that,” Prather added. “So, that is always a concern, but I don’t see a fix coming. You talk term limits, and everyone that said we needed to have a permanent fix, they are all gone. So, nobody there now is worried about a permanent fix, they are just like figure it out.”

Prather noted that the budget also features waivers to potentially help streamline the waiting list for patient care.

“With this budget there are some waivers to help us with the waiting list, but there has also been language introduced into the House that would modernize our waiting list. So, I am really excited about that, and I am hoping that it makes it through to the end of the year, so that we can support the people that have the most needs with the limited resources we have. There is always going to be people waiting, but it would definitely modernize what the current structure for the waiting list is. So, I am excited about that.”

Prather noted that cuts to Medicaid funding at the federal level has left some worry as well.

“I am a little worried about Medicaid, not at the state level, but at the federal level. So much what we do is funded by Medicaid. So, Medicaid really impacts us,” Prather said. “Most of our adult services is partially funded by Medicaid. So, either the state or local dollars provide the match. That is a little over 60 percent at this point. That is huge. Any cuts in that will definitely impact us locally. I have no worries about the original governor’s budget, but as it goes through the House and Senate they are worried about the amount spent through Medicaid.

“We also have residential support, when I talk about a waiver, it is a Medicaid waiver. It is a waiver instead of living in an institution you would provide the services in the community. So, all of our residential supports, the vast majority of them are paid through the Medicaid waiver,” Prather continued. “So, if the federal government goes to block grants, and capitalizing that where the costs have already been identified which was a few years ago. That would be a real concern because we have expanded since then. The state has expanded the number of waivers it is providing and to go back to those levels would be a huge concern statewide, and I am sure we would feel massive cuts.”

While it isn’t part of the budget directly, Prather also has worries with high turnover of entry level positions at the CCBDD.

“I know one of the concerns we have right now, and I think this goes with anyone who has entry level positions, is that there is high turnover in a lot of the private providers that we have in Crawford County that are providing the direct residential services are finding it difficult to find qualified staff that stay,” Prather explained.  “I know there is some money in the budget to address if the providers have staff that have gone through training that there would be incentives for that, but I know it is a concern. We don’t have very high unemployment right now, which is a good thing, but it makes it very easy to find another job if you don’t want to stick around.”

While the boards of DD are receiving extra funding, other areas of the government will be receiving cuts. These cuts, while not directly impacting the CCBDD, could potentially impact them indirectly.

“There are some cuts to local governments, now it doesn’t directly impact county boards, but county commissioners – it is definitely going to impact them with some of the changes,” Prather said. “They are going to be held harmless this first year, but there are going to be some cuts on the tax that they did on managed care organizations. But when one agency is impacted all of them are.”

Currently the final biennium budget for the Kasich administration is being debated in the State House of Representatives. After being approved it will be sent to the State Senate. After Senate approval, the budget then is returned to the General Assembly, which must approved it by July 30 before Kasich can sign the budget into law.

The full proposed budget can be found at http://budget.ohio.gov/