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GENERAL ASSEMBLY SENDS FY 2015-2016 BUDGET BILL TO GOVERNOR
Legislation to restore funding for
FY 2015-2016 that Governor Wolf had line-item vetoed in December is now back on his desk, although as of publication of this Bulletin the Governor has indicated his intent to veto the legislation.
On March 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee
amended appropriations into HB 1801 that would restore funding for certain lines that were reduced or eliminated by the Governor's line item veto of HB 1460, including funds for the state's correctional institutions and programs within the Department of Agriculture. Included is the Agricultural Land Scrip Fund that funds Penn State Extension. In addition, HB 1801 not only would restore the 50 percent cut in the basic education line, it would provide an additional $50 million for basic education in FY 2015-2016 beyond what was originally approved by the legislature in HB 1460. Despite adding new basic education funding, the bill is not similarly generous for counties, failing to include the first year of a three-year restoration to key county human services lines as called for in CCAP's top priority.
The full Senate approved HB 1801 by a 31-18 vote on March 16, followed a few hours later by a 128-63 final passage vote in the House. The House also reconsidered legislation that would provide funding to the commonwealth's state-related universities (Penn State, Temple, Lincoln. and Pitt), which requires, and achieved, a 2/3 vote to go to the Governor's desk. Gov. Wolf issued a statement on March 16 indicating that he planned to veto all of the bills.
The General Assembly also sent amendments to the Fiscal Code,
HB 1327, to the Governor's desk. The bill includes language to implement rebalancing, attempting to address the issue by creating a special process for Department of Human Services' certification of the funds. The latest version of HB 1327 does not contain state reimbursement to counties, municipalities, school districts and nonprofit organizations for interest charges incurred as result of the budget impasse, which had been in an earlier version of the bill. Recovery of interest paid, or foregone interest earned, was another of counties' top asks as part of the final FY 2015-2016 budget agreement. Gov. Wolf had not indicated as of the publication of the Bulletin what action he intends to take on HB 1327.
Additional information on both the FY 2015-2016 and FY 2016-2017 budget process will continue to be provided on CCAP's Budget News and Updates web page.
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HOUSE, SENATE HOLD BUDGET HEARINGS WITH DHS
In the final week of budget hearings in early March, Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Ted Dallas appeared before both the Senate and House Appropriations committees to discuss the Governor's proposed FY 2016-2017 budget for his agency.
Of note to counties, both Sen. Vance (R-Cumberland), chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, and Rep. Keith Greiner (R-Lancaster), asked Sec. Dallas whether he would be willing to consider expansion of the Human Services Block Grant, speaking about the positive impacts the flexibility has offered to the 30 counties currently permitted to participate. The Secretary responded that he would be willing to look at expansion as a means of giving counties more freedom to innovate and provide higher levels of care, and reiterated that message when speaking at the CCAP Spring Conference the following week. Counties have called for expansion of the Block Grant to all willing and able counties as part of their priority on the commonwealth budget.
Both committees also discussed Community Health Choices, the administration's proposed plan to deliver managed long-term services and supports through capitated Medicaid managed care programs, rather than through the commonwealth. CCAP affiliates PACAH (Pennsylvania Coalition of Affiliated Healthcare and Living Communities), PACA MH/DS (Pennsylvania Association of County Administrators of Mental Health and Developmental Services) and PACHSA (Pennsylvania Association of County Human Services Administrators) have all submitted comments and questions related to the implementation of Community Health Choices, including how changes to Medicaid rate setting would affect nursing homes and others, and how coordination would be achieved with existing programs.
Sec. Dallas further noted the collaboration and coordination between DHS and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) to address the heroin and opioid crisis. In a separate budget hearing with the House that week, DDAP Sec. Gary Tennis also stressed that investments need to be made to expand the addiction treatment infrastructure.
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CIVIL SERVICE MODERNIZATION BILL MOVES FORWARD
The Senate State Government Committee recently reported
SB 1154, which represents a first step in reforming the civil service system and will provide much needed options for counties as they work to fill key staffing positions in county government.
For many years, counties have shared their frustrations with the antiquated rules and procedures for civil service hiring. Senate Bill 1154, sponsored by Sen. Randy Vulakovich (R-Allegheny), would make three changes to that system that will benefit the counties as well as the state. First, the legislation would permit applicants to be notified by email (currently, applicants must be notified by U.S. mail). Second, it would allow a county to expand on the "rule of three," permitting a county to consider a wider group of candidates and resulting in better choices. Finally, SB 1154 would allow for vacancy based hiring, meaning that specific open jobs would be advertised instead of a general listing of job titles. Sen. Andrew Dinniman (D-Chester) recalled his experience as a county commissioner and indicated the latter provision would be helpful because the list that was provided by civil service often contained names of individuals who had no interest in being considered for the position but had not known the particulars of the vacancies.
The bill was unanimously reported by the committee and now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
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SENATE PANEL ADVANCES CLEAN AND GREEN CHANGES
On March 15, the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs committee unanimously reported HB 806, sponsored by the chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs committee, Rep. Martin Causer (R-McKean). The bill would amend the Clean and Green law to prohibit the application of use values that result in assessments higher than fair market values, and would require a county assessor to pull both the use value and fair market value for each property in the program and apply whichever is lower.
While counties support the legislation's goal of assuring that a program designed to provide property tax reductions does not in effect lead to property tax increases, counties having properties where use values are higher than market values report that this does not occur across all properties within the same use. In this situation, the provisions of HB 806 effectively require counties to apply two different sets of values within the same category of use, raising concerns about potential violation of the state constitution's Uniformity Clause.
The committee also amended the bill to clarify that the calculation of total land area for purposes of determining eligibility for Clean and Green would include a public or private road, right-of-way or easement on the land.
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SUNSHINE LAW AMENDMENTS CONSIDERED
The House State Government Committee has advanced HB 340, sponsored by Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny), making several amendments to the Sunshine Act regarding executive sessions.
The option to hold executive sessions for employment-related discussions would be maintained for employees but deleted for public officers and appointees, while narrowing the scope of executive sessions relating to matters of employment to only those involving a specific individual. The legislation also would add a new executive session option for the purpose of developing and reviewing plans related to security and emergency preparedness that, if disclosed, would "definitely" jeopardize security and preparedness; prior versions of the legislation used a "reasonably likely" standard instead. The bill also would require recording, and maintenance of the recording, of an executive session, as well as consultation with a solicitor or a statement by the person in charge of the meeting that the executive session is necessary.
House Bill 340 was reported by a 17-10 vote with clarifying amendments.
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EXTENSION FUNDING DISCUSSED IN HEARING
The House and Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs committees held a joint hearing on March 15 to discuss the impacts that the budget impasse, and particularly the line item vetoes to the Department of Agriculture budget in December, has had on the agriculture industry, including Penn State Extension. CCAP provided written testimony to the committees, noting the benefit of Extension's university-county partnership which is designed to provide all Pennsylvania communities access to the University's resources.
Many counties provide funding or staffing for their local Extension programs, or in-kind services such as office space. Noting that counties must often make hard budget decisions in the face of state mandates and that they are not required to provide funding to Extension, counties still do so because they see value in the program. CCAP shared with the committees that despite this historic support it is unclear how many counties, in the absence of state appropriations for FY 2015-2016, would have the funding resources to fill the gap for the programs Extension provides, even though Extension offices are already seeing impacts such as a new travel policy, canceled meetings, delayed equipment replacement and job security worries.
Additional information on the hearing is available on the Senate website.
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