From the Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers

On Wednesday morning [February 17, 2010], Governor Bob McDonnell released his suggestions for how he thinks the House and Senate money committees should balance our $4 billion budget shortfall. There were quite a few changes that he has suggested that differ significantly from Governor Kaine’s proposed budget. Kaine’s budget is the starting point for House Appropriations and Senate Finance to accept, reject or amend his recommendations for balancing the budget.

What’s important for you to know is that the Governor’s budget recommendations are exactly that—merely suggestions to the legislators on what he’d like to see cut in the budget. It is by no means final. In addition, at this point in the process, the only people that are able to amend the budget are the Appropriations and Finance committee members. To that end, on Sunday, the House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees will release their budgets. NASW-VA will be there monitoring and reporting on their recommendations. It will be at this point in the budget writing process where we will ask you to weigh in with your legislators on the proposed House and Senate versions of the budget.

We thank you for your attention to these critical issues and please look out for action items from us next week on the budget.

Details on the Governor’s Budget Recommendations
There were certainly a lot of serious cuts that were offered by the new Governor that affect social workers and their clients. The highlights are summarized below by category. Click here for a full list of all the Governor’s recommendations.

Education
Cut approximately 750 M from K-12 Education including
§ Exclude Support for Supplemental Salaries when calculating the SOQ ($130.1 million).( This is the piece that was discussed last year that will remove the state funds that can be used for support staff, which school social workers are defined as in the school system. The localities will then decide to backfill the loss of state money with local money or reduce positions. It will vary from school district to school district.)
§ Eliminate Lottery support for certain education programs ($91.9 million) including Enrollment Loss ($17.5 million), Mentor Teacher ($2.0 million), School Breakfast ($5.3 million), and Additional Support for School Construction and Operating Costs ($67.0 million).

Health and Mental Health
Increase funding to community services boards ($13.9 million). Adds funding to provide community based care for patients who would have otherwise been treated on an inpatient basis. This funding coincides with the proposed closure of 232 state mental health facility beds. As state hospitals close, these funds will be used to provide access to crisis stabilization, outpatient and day support services for individuals otherwise served by state facilities.

Freeze FAMIS enrollment ($33.8 million) - Freezes enrollment in the FAMIS (Virginia’s CHIP program) program, which covers children and pregnant women up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The freeze means that beginning July 1, 2010 no new individuals will be covered in the program until the freeze is over. An estimated 28,566 children and pregnant women would not be enrolled due to the freeze.

Reduce community services board funding ($24.4 million) - Reduce funding for CSBs by an additional five percent, resulting in a 10 percent cut when combined with the cut included in the introduced budget.

Reduces reimbursement for community mental health services (i.e. mental health supports, day treatment) by five percent. ($13.7 million). Community mental health services have not been reduced in any previous round of budget cuts and are some of the fastest growing services within Medicaid.

Capture funds generated from sale of Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents ($9.0 million) - Account for the revenues generated from the sale of land after the proposed closure of the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents, located near Western State Hospital in Staunton. The facility is slated for closure before July 1, 2010. Language will be required to divert funds from the Mental Health Trust Fund, which is where the Code of Virginia currently requires proceeds from sale of facilities to be deposited and used for community-based services.

Reduce funding for Comprehensive Services Act ($24.3 million) - Reduce the non-Medicaid general fund appropriation for the Comprehensive Services Act by five percent. The additional reduction will require language that caps state reimbursement for services at the appropriation level. The additional cut, when combined with cuts proposed by Gov Kaine represent a 20% GF reduction since FY 2008.

Reduce funding for chore and companion services ($5.3 million). The chore and companion program provides home-based care services to needy adults.

Virginia Health Care Foundation ($2.2 million) - The introduced budget reduces funding for the Virginia Health Care Foundation by 10 percent each year. This action reduces funding by an additional 15 percent in FY 2011 and 40 percent in FY 2012. The foundation provides access to primary health care for uninsured and medically underserved Virginians.

Child Welfare and Social Services
Eliminate funding for child advocacy centers ($2.0 million) - Child advocacy centers provide services to children and families who experience abuse and neglect.

Eliminate general fund support for local domestic violence grants ($1.8 million) – Funding is used to provide grants to support the victims of domestic violence through local programs, especially victims who have dependent children with them or are pregnant. Domestic violence services include: a 24-hour crisis telephone service; shelter; crisis counseling; supportive counseling; information and referral; transportation; coordination of services; legal advocacy; and basic services for children of domestic violence victims.

Reduce child welfare training and support contract ($0.2 million) - This savings strategy reduces by 50 percent the amount of a contract that provides training and support services to adoptive and kinship parents.

Reduce funding for homeless programs ($6.0 million). General fund support included in the introduced budget bill to supplant the loss of TANF funds for homeless programs is reduced by ½ in FY 2011 and eliminated in FY 2012. Funding for Child Services Coordinators is reduced beginning in FY 2012.

Early Care and Education
Eliminate general fund and TANF support for Healthy Families of Virginia ($9.8 million)
Healthy Families of Virginia is a voluntary program that offers home visiting services for up to five years to high risk families who need individualized and comprehensive support. Services include in-home parenting education, child development, preventive health care and support services.

Reduce funding for the Early Childhood Foundation ($0.7 million)
Established in 2005, the Foundation is a public-private partnership that provides grants, training and technical assistance in an effort to implement long-term strategies for improving school readiness for all young children, age’s birth-5. The Foundation currently receives $1.5 million annually. The introduced budget reduces earmarked funding provided to the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation by 15 percent ($225,000 annually). This strategy will increase that reduction to 25 percent in FY 2011 ($1.125 million) and 50 percent in FY 2012 ($0.75 million).

(NASW-VA, Electronic mail, February 19, 2010)