It’s All But Complete!

October 17, 2020

This rather strange and challenging session is suddenly rushing to a conclusion!  Conference committees have met and decided, even a few who met and decided before they were actually formally selected – but regardless, here is where we stand:

• The budget as presented by the conference committee passed.  In addition to those things outlined in the News Post of Thursday, there was an item authorizing the Governor to include in the Executive Budget $25M in retainer payments to come from the Coronavirus Relief Funds.  
• As was indicated on the Member Call of Friday, this budget may have dipped too deeply into the cash reserves that the Governor had sought to protect and may not be approved by the Governor in its entirety. We’ll have to wait and see.
• We do know that Friday’s announcement from the Governor’s office authorizing “hazard pay for home health workers” is both problematic to implement and is being widely misinterpreted.  It will include staff who provide personal care/personal assistance, respite and companion services both consumer-directed and agency-directed and no other services.
• The immunity bill has been signed and was effective 13 October.
• The the differences in the Marcus Alert Bill have been worked out; we will have a better sense of the impact this coming week.
• The telehealth expansion/continuation bill specifically continues the current flexibility until July 1 , 2021.
• And a number of criminal justice reform and COVID related bills addressing Nursing homes or assisted living passed.