Public Hearings; Private Comments
January 05, 2021
The Regional Public Hearings on the Budget are scheduled for tomorrow:We have pared back our agenda to focus on only a couple of things; this Session, like the Special Session this summer, is likely to be pretty unmanageable for every one! The strength that we bring to the messaging is passion and consistency – so we have narrowed our message to two things!
Messages to Legislators:
We are worried that if the minimum wage goes up to $11/hour in January 2022, we won’t be able to compete with others to recruit and retain staff. We get paid by Medicaid and can’t raise our prices!
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- Background – The minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $9.50 on May 1st 2021, and then again to $11.00 on January 1st 2022.
- While we do not think the first increase will be difficult, and we do support the concept of better wages for our DSPs and frontline behavioral health staff, we think that $11.00 will be difficult to manage – competition will increase and wage compression will make the costs far exceed our rates.
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- Background – The items above were all included in the Biennial Budget passed last winter, but were postponed because of the uncertainty due to the pandemic.
- These, among others, were approved again for delayed implementation during the Special Session and are included in the Governor’s budget – we really need them to stay!