February 17, 2017
Today we delivered letters (posted on the Legislative Agenda Page under “News”) to the members of the Conference Committee on the Budget; we hope that they will adopt the requests that we have made to support several of the items in the Senate Report [See News Post on “
Money Committees Report Out” for details].
While it is unlikely to garner support in both House and Senate, we did suggest added language in the Senate item which described the use of the Trust Fund to include the following:
“designate $1,000,000 to make grants to providers to assist with the financial burden incurred while transitioning from center-based to community-based day services; it could be used to cover such items as the “pay-out” to end a lease on a building previously used for center-based services, costs associated with leasing smaller vehicles, recruitment costs to increase staffing ratios, etc.”
The Conference Report should be ready by mid-week; there is a “rumor” that they may adjourn before the 25th so stay tuned for further updates!