What were we waiting for?

House Appropriations released its operating budget proposal just before 1:00 this afternoon -- and, well it still smells as bad right now as it did three hours ago.  (At least, this is the case for people with developmental disabilities.)  In other words, the Senate funding for developmental disabilities is truly the best of both budgets.

In brief, here are the highlights:

Employment/Day Services
$1.4 m (total sate and federal)
While this is the same amount as the Senate, the money is appropriated for 250 waiver and non-waiver graduates.  The Senate funded 300 non-waiver graduates (as all waiver graduates are assumed to have received funding).

Family Support
$0
This is in comparison to the $1 million the Senate funded to serve an additional 700 families on the waiting list for services.

Increased Community Residential Services
$784 thousand (total state and federal)
This is comparison to $2 million appropriated by the Senate for children and adults who are in crisis and in need of community-based residential services.

Community Residential Provider Wage Increase
$0
This is in comparison to the Senate which proposed $2.2 million (state and federal) to increase the wages of residential staff.

DD Study of Unmet Needs
$0
The Senate proposed $300 thousand to fund a study of the service needs of clients not receiving paid DD services.  It's a beginning step to planning for the future funding of DD services.

Increased DD Case Resource Managers
$614 thousand (state and federal)
The Senate proposed more than double funding at $1.3 million (state and federal) for additional case managers.

DD Community Protection Legal Services
$0
The Senate funded legal services for individuals entering or receiving services in the DD Community Protection program.

Act now... not later!

Soon, House and Senate conferees will begin negotiations on the final budget.  Visit our online action center to send a message to Senate leaders, asking them to hold firm to the Senate funding for developmental disabilities: http://capwiz.com/arcwa/state/main/?state=WA.  Just click on the first alert button and it will take you to a message that you can send as is or edit using your own words.

Look for a more in-depth budget comparison on our website: http://www.arcwa.org/2006_budget.htm

For a comprehensive view of all the budget proposals, visit: http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/detail/2006/proposals.asp