It is likely that Arizona legislators and the Governor will hammer out the details of a comprehensive plan to fix Child Protective Services within the next two weeks, there is bipartisan dissatisfaction of the budget they hammered out on Monday.
Representative Livingston blasted the budget before the vote. “The people in this state need to know that this is not a conservative budget. This isn’t even close to a conservative budget. This isn’t even a balanced budget. It’s not even close to a balanced budget,” Livingston said. Livingston complained that the structurally imbalanced budget would add “hundreds and hundreds” of new government employees.
“At least the people of this state can go on the website and can read the numbers themselves and look at the real numbers and not all the mumbo jumbo we’re hearing tonight. And that’s what most of this is,” Livingston continued.
The most fearless or reckless man in the Arizona Legislature depending on your point of view, Carl Seel said, “I’m going to cite some things that I commonly and regularly fight for in this budget and past budgets. I’d like to return the over $2 billion to the taxpayer that they’ve been overcharged in the K-12 system. I’ve had bills to return that in the form of tax cuts and property tax cuts that according to experts would create tremendous numbers of jobs here in Arizona. But I’m told that’s too difficult, it’s too complicated, it’s too late although I’ve been talking about it for well over five years now.”
“We won’t spend money to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in our state. We won’t spend it on a computer system that will save us countless numbers of hundreds of millions of dollars, and according to the FBI, will reduce people of interest trying to steal money from our Medicaid programs, and funding their operations, said Seel. “God, I don’t want to be here the day we deal with that – when we have concrete proof that al Qaeda and Hezbollah are defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid system and funding their operations with it.”
House Minority Whip Eric Meyer, seemed to agreed with Seel when he said, “All this budget does is protect the status quo” and was short-sighted.” However, Meyer complained about the Republicans’ “trend of prioritizing tax cuts and funding for special interests.”
Senate Democratic Leader Anna Tovar said after the budget vote, “For the last few weeks, we’ve watched as Senate and House Republicans have haggled behind closed doors, attempted to give away tax dollars to private prison corporations, ignored input from the people of Arizona and failed to make many of the investments that our state needs to succeed. The ramifications of this short-sighted budget will affect every Arizona family.”
Tovar ignored the work of a handful of Republicans and all Democrats in the Legislature last year to buy into the Obamacare Medicaid expansion which will surely enrich corporate health care organizations at the expense of Arizona’s middle-class families.
The COS plan is due in May. The state’s 2015 General Fund budget increased funding to CPS by nearly $60 million.
This $60 million increase follows a combined federal and state increase of $130 million to the Division of Children, Youth & Families, which comprises CPS functions primarily, over fiscal years 2013 and 2014 – the DCYF budget was $550 million in 2012 and rose to $680 million in 2014.
“To truly transform child protective services, the funding has to be there, but a plan to fix the problem also has to be there,” said Speaker Tobin.
For fiscal year 2015 the General Fund budget funds an additional 242 child safety staff and 20 investigators for the Office of Child Welfare Investigations:
• $20 million to create a standalone agency for Child Protective Services
• $15 million for additional child safety staff
• $6 million for adoption services
• $6 million for children support to families with in-home and out-of-home services
• $5 million for automation and computer upgrades
• $3 million for Intensive Family Service that provides intensive services to families whose children are at imminent risk for out-of-home placement
• $2 million for additional staffing for the Office of Child Welfare Investigations, which reviews cases where criminal conduct has been alleged
Representative Ethan Orr, a republican who threatened to join the democrats in opposition to the budget if he didn’t get the funding he wanted for JTED, succeeded in securing funding. The 2015 budget increases funding to the educational districts that feature shop classes by $3 million:
• Fund JTED………………………………$1.5 million
• Rural JTEDs Soft Cap/Equip………….$1.0 million
• JTED Performance Funding…………..$0.5 million
Another winner for Orr was increased funding by $3.5 million for the Cooperative Extension Program at the University of Arizona, adding 28 full-time employees.
The budget appropriates $9 million for construction of a 90-bed veteran’s home in Yuma, $3 million for Adult Protective Services and over $1 million for autism programs, assisted living programs and homelessness grants.
Pima County officials will see an $.25 million in additional monies for the Military Installation Fund, which has become a slush fund of sorts for the County.
The Department of Public Safety will receive $3.3 million, counter terrorism (ACTIC) will receive $0.8 million, and $30 million in HURF funds will be restored.
The budget now heads to the Governor for her approval.