Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Minnesota Legislative Update...
From Child Care Works, the latest update on legislative issues pertaining to children and child care:
The work of the Legislature over the past two weeks has been largely focused on determining agreements between the House and Senate omnibus bills. Several small bills have been finished, while the E-12 and Higher Education bills still await their budget targets. Encompassed in these bills are $1 million one-time funds for TEACH/REETAIN and funds for the After-School Community Learning Grants. Decisions will hopefully be made this week on these items.
For child care advocates, the last two weeks have been spent in marathon conference committee sessions as the House and Senate Health & Human Services conferees worked out the differences between the two bills, both in expenditures as well as policy language. An agreement was finally reached this past Saturday night, and the Health & Human Services conference committee report passed out of the committee late that night. Part of the decision-making process included letters from the Governor and the Commissioner of the Department of Human Services which detailed particular provisions that the Governor especially opposes. Included in that list was concern about both the level of spending in child care and “the focusing of new money to child care providers rather than targeting dollars towards helping children and families access care.”
A result of that letter brought the biggest disappointment in the conference committee’s report. Child care advocates were dismayed to see no progress made in getting the Child Care Assistance reimbursement rates closer to the market rate, nor a reinstatement of the half-day rate.
That said, the bill includes spending in some important areas, both in the areas of access and quality. This report will focus on only the funding items as the final policy language is not available at this writing.
The largest on-going expenditures are in School Readiness Service Agreements (SRSA) and reduced parent co-pays. SRSA, a recommendation from the Governor that Child Care WORKS supported, would create contracts between high quality providers and the state and allow CCAP children access to those providers with more flexibility for their families. The bill reduces parent co-pays from a maximum of 18% of the family’s gross income to no more than 14% of the family’s gross income – a considerable improvement. Other major investments include $6 million of one-time funds for the CCAP waiting list, $2 million in one-time funds for a new Professional Development System, $2 million in one-time funds for Child Care Service Grants and $1.5 million in one-time funds for a new Family, Friend & Neighbor Grant Program. Absent Day Policy changes, beginning July 2007, were accepted, and family child care provider license fees were capped at no more than $50/year. The total in expenditures in FY 2008-09 comes in at about $23 million.
The bill will next appear on both the House and Senate floors. No amendments can be added at that time, so the bill can only be voted up or down. It’s likely that will happen as early as today (Monday), and it’s assumed that the bill will pass both bodies.
Then the bill moves on to the Governor for his decision. The Governor has three days to decide upon his course of action. The bill can be signed in full, vetoed in full, or the Governor can use the “line-item veto.” This last option means simply striking out appropriations that the Governor does not support. This measure can only be used for provisions which are only fiscal in nature, i.e. have no policy language attached which drive the cost. Most, if not all, of the child care provisions are both policy and funding in nature and so, cannot be line-item vetoed. However, the bill spends considerably more than the Governor’s original proposal, and this has been a major focus of the speculation concerning the possibility of a vetoed bill. If that happens, the Legislature can try (but most likely unsuccessfully) to override the veto; otherwise, the bill will need to be created a second time in hopes of finding a formula that the Governor can support.
We’re just two weeks away from the session end-date of May 21, and there is still much work to do! Keep checking the CCW website for updated spreadsheets and other information. We’ll keep you posted!
From Child Care Works, the latest update on legislative issues pertaining to children and child care:
The work of the Legislature over the past two weeks has been largely focused on determining agreements between the House and Senate omnibus bills. Several small bills have been finished, while the E-12 and Higher Education bills still await their budget targets. Encompassed in these bills are $1 million one-time funds for TEACH/REETAIN and funds for the After-School Community Learning Grants. Decisions will hopefully be made this week on these items.
For child care advocates, the last two weeks have been spent in marathon conference committee sessions as the House and Senate Health & Human Services conferees worked out the differences between the two bills, both in expenditures as well as policy language. An agreement was finally reached this past Saturday night, and the Health & Human Services conference committee report passed out of the committee late that night. Part of the decision-making process included letters from the Governor and the Commissioner of the Department of Human Services which detailed particular provisions that the Governor especially opposes. Included in that list was concern about both the level of spending in child care and “the focusing of new money to child care providers rather than targeting dollars towards helping children and families access care.”
A result of that letter brought the biggest disappointment in the conference committee’s report. Child care advocates were dismayed to see no progress made in getting the Child Care Assistance reimbursement rates closer to the market rate, nor a reinstatement of the half-day rate.
That said, the bill includes spending in some important areas, both in the areas of access and quality. This report will focus on only the funding items as the final policy language is not available at this writing.
The largest on-going expenditures are in School Readiness Service Agreements (SRSA) and reduced parent co-pays. SRSA, a recommendation from the Governor that Child Care WORKS supported, would create contracts between high quality providers and the state and allow CCAP children access to those providers with more flexibility for their families. The bill reduces parent co-pays from a maximum of 18% of the family’s gross income to no more than 14% of the family’s gross income – a considerable improvement. Other major investments include $6 million of one-time funds for the CCAP waiting list, $2 million in one-time funds for a new Professional Development System, $2 million in one-time funds for Child Care Service Grants and $1.5 million in one-time funds for a new Family, Friend & Neighbor Grant Program. Absent Day Policy changes, beginning July 2007, were accepted, and family child care provider license fees were capped at no more than $50/year. The total in expenditures in FY 2008-09 comes in at about $23 million.
The bill will next appear on both the House and Senate floors. No amendments can be added at that time, so the bill can only be voted up or down. It’s likely that will happen as early as today (Monday), and it’s assumed that the bill will pass both bodies.
Then the bill moves on to the Governor for his decision. The Governor has three days to decide upon his course of action. The bill can be signed in full, vetoed in full, or the Governor can use the “line-item veto.” This last option means simply striking out appropriations that the Governor does not support. This measure can only be used for provisions which are only fiscal in nature, i.e. have no policy language attached which drive the cost. Most, if not all, of the child care provisions are both policy and funding in nature and so, cannot be line-item vetoed. However, the bill spends considerably more than the Governor’s original proposal, and this has been a major focus of the speculation concerning the possibility of a vetoed bill. If that happens, the Legislature can try (but most likely unsuccessfully) to override the veto; otherwise, the bill will need to be created a second time in hopes of finding a formula that the Governor can support.
We’re just two weeks away from the session end-date of May 21, and there is still much work to do! Keep checking the CCW website for updated spreadsheets and other information. We’ll keep you posted!
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:50 PM 
