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Tags Posts tagged with "PA State Budget"

PA State Budget

Secretary Val Arkoosh and leadership from the Department of Human Services (DHS) will host a webinar to discuss the proposed 2025/26 budget for the department. The briefing will take place at 10:00 am on Friday, February 7. If you are unable to attend, the briefing will be recorded and available for viewing afterwards on DHS’ YouTube channel.

Register here for the briefing. All who plan to attend must register individually. A link for the webinar will be sent Thursday evening. You are encouraged to submit questions ahead of the briefing so staff can prepare as much information as possible. Follow up will be provided on any questions that are unable to be answered during the webinar. Hope you are able to join and look forward to the conversation!

(If the registration link above does not work, please try copying this link directly into your browser: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=QSiOQSgB1U2bbEf8Wpob3tuk6VNEbjZIvvnDA4XOB-dUNVlFUVRMQUVBMzhPWVpRNjNFODQ1OUlaTy4u)

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Governor Josh Shapiro delivered his 2025/26 budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly at the State Capitol in Harrisburg. The Governor’s $51B budget plan seeks more money for underfunded public schools and public transit in his budget proposal unveiled Tuesday, while he is also hoping to win support for legalizing marijuana and introducing taxes on skill games viewed as competitors to casinos and lottery contests.

A key factor is that the Pennsylvania revenue for the fiscal year has flattened out, and without the American Recovery Act surplus and the Rainy Day Fund, expenditures related to “cost to carry”; that is inflation, are not projected to be met. Once those sources are used, they are gone, but the legislature could decide to spend an additional billion or two of General Fund revenue on an infusion into the Rainy Day Fund. While the legalization of marijuana and regulation of skill games could address some of this, both sources have unpredictable revenue returns.

The Governor’s proposed budget priorities align with several of the RCPA strategies as outlined in the 2025 Legislative and Administrative Priorities.

What was not clear were the defined spending pathways or line item allocations. RCPA is hoping that the DHS Budget Address on Friday from Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh will provide clarification on the human services budget. It should be noted that at this point, while we understand the governor’s priorities, details are not yet apparent. In fact, many of the areas related to RCPA members have more questions than answers and will evolve as the discussion continues between the administration and the legislature.

Behavioral Health
As an example, one area of concern is that the Medicaid Behavioral Health Capitation system experienced a shortfall of several hundred million dollars in the current fiscal year. There are significant dollars noted in the various spreadsheets related to the capitation, but again the detail is not there. In one document, it is noted that “In total, over $2.5 billion is needed to meet actuarially sound rates in the remainder of the 2024/2025 fiscal year and into the 2025/2026 budget year.” Is it solely to replenish lost dollars for the primary contractors? What is the breakdown between behavioral health and physical health? RCPA will be looking for more clarity.

Legalization of adult-use recreational marijuana is a priority for the governor, who is estimating more than $500M in revenue in 2025/26. None of that revenue is projected to be shared, however, with the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

The proposed budget would also expand existing loan forgiveness initiatives, to incentivize more health care providers and behavioral health specialists to take jobs all across Pennsylvania.

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Additionally, there is no apparent delineation of funding for IDD services, and while it has a line item placeholder indicating a $175M increase, it remains unclear if this is new or previously allocated funds from last year’s budget. Or simply the cost of maintaining current programs but not new individuals or services.

School-Based MH Funding
Governor Shapiro is again proposing Physical Security and Mental Health funding in the FY 2025/26 budget, proposing $100M in funding to school districts across the Commonwealth. This proposal is flat funding from FY 2024/25 and, if enacted, new investments in school safety and mental health will total approximately $350M in the governor’s term to date.

County Funding
$20M is proposed in continued additional investment for county mental health based services funding. This would represent a total new investment of $60M over three years. While this marks the third year of increased funding to the counties, it remains far short of the needed investment for these critical services. It has been reported that there is the need to invest nearly a billion dollars to level set the current county based mental health system.

Early Intervention
Early Intervention will see a proposed increase after a year of no rate adjustments. OCDEL did complete a rate methodology study in 2024, but it is unclear regarding the impacts of the study on the new proposed budget. The overall proposed funding for Early Intervention Part C represents an increase over FY 2024/25 of $16M (+3.5%), including $10M to provide a rate increase for early intervention providers in Part C, birth to age three programming.

Other DHS Related Human Services Funding Areas:

  • $10M in dedicated funding to support the 9-8-8 hotline network.
  • $5.75M to expand discharge and diversion programs for individuals with mental illness in the
  • criminal justice system.
  • $4.8M to provide reentrants with MA services and continuous eligibility after incarceration. This is a component of the recently approved Section 1115 CMS Waiver, Keystones of Health.
  • $5M to continue funding for walk-in mental health crisis stabilization centers supporting multiple counties.

DHS Budget Briefing Friday, February 7, 2025
Secretary Val Arkoosh and leadership from the Department of Human Services (DHS) will host a webinar to discuss the proposed 2025/26 budget for the department. The briefing will take place at 10:00 am on Friday, February 7. If you are unable to attend, the briefing will be recorded and available for viewing afterwards on DHS’ YouTube channel.

Use this link to register for the briefing. All who plan to attend must register individually. A link for the webinar will be sent Thursday evening. DHS encourages submission of questions ahead of the briefing so they can prepare as much information as possible. They will follow up on any questions that are not answered during the webinar.

(If the registration link above does not work, please try copying this link directly into your browser: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=QSiOQSgB1U2bbEf8Wpob3tuk6VNEbjZIvvnDA4XOB-dUNVlFUVRMQUVBMzhPWVpRNjNFODQ1OUlaTy4u)

RCPA will continue to update members as further details develop on the proposed budget, including information on specific policy areas. If you have additional questions, please contact your respective RCPA policy director.

By John Finnerty
Capitolwire.com Bureau Chief

HARRISBURG (June 30) – The race to finish the state budget begins with a staring contest – Senate Republicans on Thursday passed a controversial but potentially historic school voucher bill that House Democrats say they won’t take up.

Both chambers recessed Thursday without taking further action on the budget, leaving the spending plan and related code bills unfinished as the time before the deadline to get a plan in place dwindles to hours.

Of course, missing the June 30 deadline is hardly unprecedented. Last year’s budget was eight days late and former Gov. Tom Wolf’s first budget resulted in an impasse that dragged on for months – it wasn’t finally resolved until March.

Senate Republicans have been pressing to get the provisions in House Bill 479 included in the budget and Gov. Josh Shapiro has repeatedly said he supports the concept while saying he thinks any move to allow vouchers must also include a number of other initiatives to better-fund and otherwise improve public schools.

The Senate approved HB 479 (after amending the voucher language into a House bill aimed at changing the reimbursements for ambulance trips) on a mostly party-line vote. The Democrat who supported the bill was Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia. Williams delivered a fiery speech on the Senate floor in defense of his support of the measure, saying he’d been targeted in the primaries over his support of school choice options for family but won re-election decisively nonetheless.

Williams, like Republican proponents, said his support of the measure was focused on providing opportunities for families who feel trapped by unsafe or otherwise failing public schools.

Under the measure, families that live in poor performing school districts would be eligible for state-funded scholarships — $5,000 a year for students in grades K-8; $10,000 for high school students; and $15,000 for special needs students – that could be used to pay private school tuition.

The legislation would provide $100 million in scholarships.

But House Democrats insist that the measure won’t get a vote in that chamber and if it did it would fail, despite Democrats narrow 102-101 majority in that chamber.

House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, said his caucus is “united” in opposition to the bill.

“There are not the votes for it, it’s not coming up and, if it comes up, it will be defeated,” Bradford told reporters late Thursday.

Bradford blamed the impasse on Senate Republicans who have yet to move any budget-related bills. The House passed a spending plan in early June.

But House Republican leaders said House Democrats are causing the impasse by their unwillingness to compromise to get a budget deal in place.

“They are hell-bent on passing a budget with 102 votes. If they don’t move off that position, we may never get a budget,” said Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Lawmakers return to Harrisburg to begin the monthlong process of crafting and passing a final state spending plan for the 2022/23 fiscal year. The next few weeks are crucial.

Lawmakers need to hear from you right now! Contact your state senator and representative and tell them to increase funding to support human services professionals, so individuals and families in need get the assistance and care they deserve.

Pennsylvania has billions of state dollars in surplus, plus additional federal money, but it remains unspent as the needs of our most vulnerable residents go unmet.

Over the past few months, our coalition has sent more than 6,000 messages to the General Assembly and administration. We aired TV commercials and shared our message on social media. We rallied at the Capitol Building in Harrisburg. We have been seen and heard.

But all that matters now is what happens during these next few weeks as the budget is finalized. There is no slowing down now. Use this link to learn how you can help and urge your networks to do the same. Most importantly, if you haven’t already, take action today.

This workforce crisis is affecting our most vulnerable individuals and families, as well as the providers and professionals who serve them. Lawmakers have a big role to play in solving this problem. But they need to hear from you. Thank you for your continued support; now, let’s finish strong!

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The Pennsylvania budget is set to be completed towards the end of this week. On Monday, June 24, the House voted HB 790, the state general fund budget bill, out of the House Appropriations Committee. The House will take a final floor vote on HB 790 today and it will then go over to the Senate. The Senate is expected to take a final vote on HB 790 on Thursday, June 26.

After the House voted the general fund budget bill out of committee yesterday, the House released the 2019–20 General Fund Budget House Appropriations Analysis, the 2019–20 Budget General Fund Appropriations Spreadsheets, and the General Fund Financial Statement.

Yesterday, the Senate voted HB 33, the Health and Human Service Code bill, out of the Senate Health and Human Service Committee on a party line vote. HB 33 eliminated the general assistance fund for the disabled, and the bill should have a final vote on Wednesday. SB 695 is another Health and Human Service Code bill, which is on Second Consideration in the House.

The other code bills should be finalized sometime this week, but as of late yesterday, the Fiscal Code bill still had numerous issues that need to be resolved. All four caucuses and the Governor’s office continue to work on the Fiscal Code. Contact RCPA Director of Government Affairs Jack Phillips with any questions.

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Terry Madonna interviewed Richard Edley on June 1, 2017, for the political/public policy TV program Pennsylvania Newsmakers. Edley discussed several topics with Mr. Madonna, including the state budget/funding for health and human services, the increasing opioid crisis, and unification of state agencies. Video streaming of the entire program is available here (Richard Edley’s segment begins at 13:00). @terrymadonna