Advocates for people with disabilities were grinning when the session ended Wednesday night. For the first time in years, they "won big" in the human-needs arena.
Lawmakers put serious money into waiting lists for services like respite for families who care for a disabled relative at home, community residential placement, supported living and day services.There were no twinkles in the eyes of people who work with substance-abuse programming, however. They not only didn't gain ground, but $400,000 was taken from the Division of Substance Abuse base budget.
"The high point was (legislative) recognition of the need to provide services for a population who can't be educated out of their problem or trained out of it or health-cared out of it," said Human Services director Kerry Steadman of the more than $2 million put into services for people with disabilities. He credited the emphasis the governor's budget proposal placed on providing help to families in crisis and the hard work of advocates for people who have disabilities with making those programs a priority early in the budgeting process.
Steadman predicted the substance-abuse budget cut would have "some detrimental impact" and may result in higher costs "at the other end."
Human Services officials and advocates agreed it was an up-and-down session. With a funding cap imposed early on and later adjusted, the budget looked pretty bleak for new programs or growth in services. In the end, things came out "about even with the governor's budget, although some priorities changed," said Steadman.
"The longer the session went, the more valid the governor's budget became."
Lawmakers put more than $9 million into the Division of Family Services budget to satisfy an agreement that settled a lawsuit against the state's child welfare system and meet the terms of last year's Child Welfare Reform Act. They also created a "judicial child-welfare M*A*S*H unit" that will help the state deal with a serious backlog of children in crisis in the system.
While legislators expanded slightly respite care and in-home services for elderly Utahns, it ignored an increased need for protective services for senior citizens. The Legislature funded less than half of a proposal to expand community services statewide for people who have been certified to go into nursing homes but with help could stay in their own homes.
Children will get more mental health services. And after several attempts, mental-health officials finally got a law so parents don't automatically give up custody of their child if they try to have him committed to the Utah State Hospital.
Janina Chilton, legislative liaison for Human Services, said the decision not to build a forensic facility for criminal mentally ill offenders was a major disappointment. And Steadman said the present facility "is unsafe."
Steadman called the dedicated band of advocates who lobbied for various human-needs programs "a class act." Not once did one group suggest funding of its pet needs at the expense of another group's needs.
Lawmakers also moved the Office of Recovery Services budget back into the general fund. It has been in a separate account, based on the child-support collections made by the office. Now, ORS must compete for funding just as other divisions do.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Winners and losers
Winners:
- Families who care for relatives with disabilities at home. They got healthy increases in support services.
- Young people in the child-welfare system, which will provide more services such as mental health and medical care.
- The Emergency Work Program, which dodged another bullet.
Losers:
- Welfare families, who didn't get a cost-of-living adjustment.
- Substance-abuse programs, which lost part of their base budget.
- Patients at Utah State Hospital, where there will be no secure forensics unit for people who have committed crimes.