by Rachelle Hadland, AAPPD Staff | May 31, 2018
Comments: 0
If you’re an AAPPD member, you’ll know from our communications that the 2018 Legislative Session wrapped up a few weeks ago and that all bills have been passed and are now signed by the Governor.
Here is what was included in the budget related to I/DD that AAPPD supported:
- $11 million in one-time funding related to the impacts of Prop. 206. This is $1 million more than the one-time funding received last year. This is matched with $25,460,100 in federal funding.
- $2 million in one-time funding for room and board. This prevents cuts to room and board.
- $3.9 million for Prop. 206 Min Wage increase (this is the annualization of the 1/1/2018 increase and is the 1/1/2019 increase). This is also matched with federal funds.
- $6.4 million to address a structural shortfall in room and board funding (does not change rates but prevents cuts).
- $2.4 million for state-only case management (addresses structural shortfall in funding).
- $1.9 million to address a structural shortfall in the AzEIP program funds (does not change rates but prevents cuts).
- $34.1 million for growth in the DD program (this accounts for growth in members and growth in utilization of services). This money does not affect rates, but keeps the program running and prevents cuts.
Please Say Thank you
AAPPD was very pleased to see the additional one-time funding in the budget. While we will continue our advocacy work to make the one-time funding permanent (on going) in order to help us address low caregiver pay, we would like to thank our members and all those who advocated for DD funding in this year’s budget.
If you care about this issue, or did outreach during this legislative session, please take the time to send your elected officials a thank you email or note. In particular, please thank the following legislators for their support and work to keep DD funding in the budget. All of these members helped out in particular ways throughout session and championed our cause:
Senator Kate Brophy McGee - KBROPHYMCGEE@AZLEG.GOV
Senator Nancy Barto - NBARTO@AZLEG.GOV
Senator Sylvia Allen - SALLEN@AZLEG.GOV
Senator Steve Smith - STSMITH@AZLEG.GOV
Senator Karen Fann - KFANN@AZLEG.GOV
Representative John Allen - JALLEN@AZLEG.GOV
Representative TJ Shope - TSHOPE@AZLEG.GOV
Representative Regina Cobb - RCOBB@AZLEG.GOV
Representative Jill Norgaard - JNORGAARD@AZLEG.GOV
Representative Rusty Bowers - RBOWERS@AZLEG.GOV
Representative Heather Carter - HCARTER@AZLEG.GOV
Only Have a Few Minutes to Say Thank You?
AAPPD member Arizona MENTOR, has provided access to an outreach tool to communicate with legislators.
Using this outreach tool is easy.
We have written the thank you letter to some of our legislative champions for you. Follow the directions below to send your thank you letter today:
1. Click here.
2. You will be taken to a landing page where you will input your information and click submit. This information is used to identify your legislators and is not used for any other purpose.
3. After submitting your information, you will be taken to the draft email that we have written for you. You have the option to add in your personal story or thoughts to the message. If you do so, please proofread to make sure your additions flow well. You can also change your closing from “Sincerely” to something else of your choosing.
4. Once you have reviewed your letter and are satisfied, simply click submit. The advocacy system will deliver the message.
You can also help by sharing on social media - here's a suggested post:
We just thanked our legislators for state budget funding included for the intellectually and developmentally disabled – if you support funding for the I/DD community, click here to thank your elected officials today - http://bit.ly/AAPPDThanks
Please make your voice heard and click here to take action now!
If you are not an AAPPD member, but are interested in AAPPD membership, please check out the “join us” section of our website for more information on membership and who can become a member or contact our staff at info@aappd.org or 602-510-9373.
Tags:
