Volume 11, Issue 2 January 13, 2006 Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities for Georgia ~ Unlock the Waiting Lists! Campaign The 2006 legislative session began on Monday, January 9th. Legislators met for 4 days this week, will take Monday, January 16th off for Martin Luther King's birthday, and spend the rest of the week in budget hearings to review the FY'06 supplemental budget and the FY'07 budget. See the meeting schedule below. Governor Perdue gave the State of the State and budget address Wednesday at 3 PM. The Governor proposed to use the additional 1.25 billion dollars in revenue that the state has collected to fund teacher salaries, smaller class sizes, economic development, prison beds, growth in Medicaid, and a variety of other improvement initiatives across the agencies. Only half of the 1500 waiver slots that DHR requested will be funded. See the budget breakdown and contact your legislators. Budget Overview Fiscal Year 2006 Budget DHR: Annualize the cost of the 925 waiver slots for the MR/DD waiting list in the community services adult program [$2,720,005] and child and adolescent community services program [$564,592] State funds: $3,284,597 Total funds $8,302,823 Fiscal Year 2007 Budget: DHR Olmstead - Fund 750 MR/DD slots to Unlock the Waiting Lists; Adult services, $5,277,697; Child and adol. Services, $1,080,974. State Funds: $6,358,671 Total funds $13,281,233 Contact Information Questions for House Members: 404-656-5082 Questions for Senate Members: 404-656-0028 General Mailing Address Information: Representative or Senator (Last Name) Georgia House of Representatives or Georgia Senate State Capitol Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Senate Leadership Presiding: Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor Senate President Pro Tempore: Eric Johnson, 1st Senate Majority Leader: Tommy Williams, 19th Senate Majority Whip: Mitch Seabaugh, 28th Senate Minority Leader: Robert Brown, 26th Senate Minority Whip: David Adelman, 42nd House Leadership Speaker of the House: Glenn Richardson, 19th Speaker Pro Tempore: Mark Burhalter, 50th Majority Leader: Jerry Keen, 179th Majority Whip: Barry Fleming, 117th Minority Leader: Dubose Porter, 143rd Minority Whip: Carolyn Hugley, 133rd House Appropriations: Chair--Ben Harbin, 118th Vice Chair Education--Jan Jones, 46th Vice Chair Health and Human Services--Jeff Brown, 69th Realize savings by reducing non-psychiatrist physicians at Central State Hospital in the adult mental health sub-program ($900,000) Central State Forensic Secure inpatient services ($300,000) and State Institutional Services Adult Developmental Disabilities subprogram ($900,000) Total: (2,100,000) ] Realize savings by consolidating the Craig Nursing Center and the Nursing Home Center in the State Hospital Services-Adult Mental Health subprogram ($1,041,854), the State institutional Services-Adult Developmental Disabilities subprogram ($307,269) and the Direct Care Support Services subprogram ($150,877) of the Adult Services program and eliminate 38 positions. (1,500,000) Transfer 19 mentally disabled and seriously emotionally disturbed child and adolescent consumers from Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital to the community in the Child and Adolescent Services program and eliminate 32 positions. (1,002,687) Annualize the cost of 925 waiver slots on the Mental Retardation/Development Disabilities Waiting List in the Adult Services program, $2,648,987; and the child and adolescent community services program, $548,430. $3,197,417 Total funds: $8,302,823 Provide community services and forensic placements for consumers at West Central Georgia Regional Hospital through the following strategies: (3,062,846) a. Transfer 20 adult mental health beds to Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital by October 1, 2006 b. Transfer 35 adult mental health consumers to the community by 3-1-07 c. Provide community adult crisis stabilization services by establishing two 16 bed units by October 1, 2006 d. Transfer 40 forensic beds to Georgia Regional Hospital Savannah by 6-15-07 e. Provide community forensic transition services, 6 bed transition community integration home by 2-1-07 f. Provide court ordered community placement for 35 forensic consumers by 6-1- 07 g. Transfer administration of 8 adolescent transition beds to Southwestern State hospital Senate Appropriations: Chair--Jack Hill, 4th Sub Com. Chair Education--Dan Moody, 56th Sub Com. Chair Community Health--Greg Goggans,7th Sub Com. Chair Human Develop.--Renee Unterman, 45th Legislation Tracker You may view any bill in its entirety at: http://www.legis.state.ga.us This is the second year of a 2 year session. SB 84: Amendment to the Voter ID Act, HB 244: to change provisions relating to required presentation of identification by voters; to specify the types of identification which may be used; to provide for Georgia voter identification cards to be issued by each county board of registrars to persons who do not have a valid drivers license or identification card issued by the Department of Driver Services; etc. Status: House Committee Favorably reported. Transfer the American Association of Adapted Sports Program contract from DOL's Warm Springs program to the Community Services Program, Child and adolescent services $248,069 Provide funds for an additional 500 slots in the Community Care Services Program for eligible elderly clients to enable them to be cared for at home. $1,446,132 Total Funds $1,725,750 Brain and Spinal Chord Injury Trust Fund; to annualize salary increases employer's share health insurance $7,691 Governor's Council Budgett: to annualize salary increases employer's share health insurance $464 DCH FY07 Fund the projected growth in Medicaid Benefits State: $221,163,251 Total: $648,561,287 SB 367: Georgia Accuracy in Elections Act; require all electronic recording voting systems to produce a permanent paper record. Sponsors: Stephens 27th, Staton 18th. Status: Senate Prefile HB 959: Mallory's Act: relating to parking permits for persons with disabilities, so as to change certain provisions relating to permits for permanently disabled persons; to provide for permits issued to permanently disabled minors. Sponsors: Maddox 172nd, Lindsey 54th, Fleming 117th, O`Neal 146th, Roberts 154th, and others. Status: House First Readers Contract with an enrollment broker to assist the care management population in the selection of a CMO plan $8,460,000 Reduce Medicaid costs generated in the Aged, Blind and Disabled populations through the provision of better business practices to ensure that the member receives the right services at the right time for the right cost (20,000,000) Replace Tobacco funds with state funds for the Independent Care Waiver slots. (This does not reflect an increase in slots) $2,143,025 Transfer state funds from the Department of Human Resources community services adult program to implement Georgia Healthy Families which serves Medicaid clients who receive mental health services. $17,910,517 Additional costs associated with savings estimates for the FY 2006 budget cuts that will not be realized for Disease Management, Emergency Room Pilot Expansion and with the transfer of nursing home residents to the SOURCE program. Yes DCA FY07 Provide grants for accessibility improvements at owner-occupied homes in which an individual with a physical disability resides $300,000 DOE FY 07 Redirect $500,000 from Curriculum Development to Testing to align the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) with the new Georgia Performance Standards Curriculum YES Provide funds for QBE enrollment growth of 2.5% and increase in teacher training and experience $201,590,474 Provide funds to reduce the individual maximum class size for Grades K-8 $163,164,787 Provide for an increase in equalization grants $46,575,439 Improve graduation rates by providing grants to school systems to fund 1 HS completion counselor for every HS $21,175,000 Provide funds for academic coaches in Needs Improvement Schools $2,467,578 Further details on the budget will follow. For the compete budget reports, go to: http://www.opb.state.ga.us/ Budget Hearing Schedule for the week of January 16th: Tuesday, January 17, Joint House and Senate, Room 341 Capitol, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (DCH and DHR budgets included here) Wed, January 18th, Joint House and Senate, Room 341 Capitol, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM (remaining agencies) Thursday, January 19th. Social Service Block Grant Hearings, 10:00 AM, room 341 Capitol Thursday, January 19th, 2 PM: Senate Subcommittee on appropriations for Health, Room 403, PUBLIC HEARING on KATIE BECKETT Program. Sign up to speak by contacting rashidah.hardwick@senate.ga.gov Disability Day at the Capitol! February 23, 2006 RSVP On-Line at www.gcdd.org Invite Your Legislators! For current advocacy alerts, fact sheets and other information regarding the waiting lists go to www.unlockthewaitinglists.com, or the DD Council Website, GCDD/ Public Policy. Moving Forward is published by the Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities as a public information source. Please visit the Council's website for additional resources and tools to utilize in your advocacy efforts. 2 Peachtree Street, NW Suite 8-210 Atlanta, Georgia 30303 http://www.gcdd.org 888.ASK-GCDD TDD 404-657-2133 FAX 404-657-2132 Moving Forward e-Updates available at http://www.gcdd.org/publicpolicy/index.htm To receive Moving Forward via email, send a blank email to ga-advalert-subscribe@egroups. Return service requested ( ) Please check here and return to your mail carrier if you no longer wish to receive Moving Forward.