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House Republicans, Gov. Nixon clash on use of Social Services money for National Governors Association dues (VIDEO)

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State House Republicans  are criticizing Governor Jay Nixon (D) for the use of more than $390,000 in the past three fiscal years’ budgets for the Department of Social Services to pay dues to the National Governors Association. More than $206,000 of that has come from the Children’s Division within the Department of Social Services to pay dues to the National Governors Association.

The office of Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) has offered documents it says show how that membership was paid for. They show money was taken from the appropriations to several agencies, but in fiscal years 2012, 2013 and in the current budget, the greatest amount came from the Children’s Division. About $69,000 was taken from the Division’s budget in each of those years. $32,000 was taken from Missouri Healthnet administration in fiscal years 2012 and 2014 and about $29,000 was taken from Missouri Healthnet administration in fiscal year 2013 and $28,000 from Family Support administration.

The National Governors Association is a bipartisan organization of the nation’s state governors. Through it those governors discuss policy and priorities and share best practices, and the association advocates on federal issues impacting states.

Allen, House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) say Nixon’s actions violate the title clause of that budget bill, that says, “no funds from these sections shall be expended for the purpose of costs associated with the offices of the Governor,” or the other elected officials of the state.

“The Governor and his staff know that we appropriated the money for a specific purpose; for children, for Children’s Services,” says Stream, “and they deliberately spent it somewhere else. To me that’s just deceptive.”

Stream adds, “[Nixon] basically misspent the money, and we’re hoping that he will not continue to do it.”

Jones says it’s an issue of transparency.

“There’s nothing wrong with the National Governor’s Association,” says Jones, “but if [Nixon] wants to spend money on that it should come from a delineated line item in his budget.”

Representative Sue Allen (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Sue Allen (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Allen took the issue up Wednesday at a hearing by the Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health, and Social Services, which she chairs. Department of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade told the committee the National Governors Association deals with federal issues, including those related to his department’s functions.

“One that has been worked on recently is the Prison Rape Elimination Act,” says Kinkade. “NGA’s been involved in advocacy with the states on that issue.” Kinkade says that act is related to the work of the Division of Youth Services.

Kinkade says the proposal to take the Governors Association dues came from the Office of Administration’s Division of Budget & Planning.

Troubles for Children’s Division answered with money this year

Nixon proposed and legislature appropriated an additional $5.1 million Children’s Division to create two new positions on its career ladder for child abuse investigators and other changes, meant to improve the Division’s response to child abuse investigations. That proposal is part of the Fiscal Year 2015 budget proposal that is awaiting action by Nixon.

Deparrtment of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade (right) and Department of Mental Health Director Keith Schafer

Department of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade (right) and Department of Mental Health Director Keith Schafer testify to the House Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health and Social Services.

Republicans have pointed to that appropriation and asked whether there would then have been a better agency to have taken money from to page the Governors Association dues.

“Federal funds are as important for the Children’s Division as any in our Department, so in looking at how to allocate that across our Department that’s not an unfair allocation,” says Kinkade.

Kinkade adds, “I need to be very clear though: this in no way jeopardized direct services or field service for our child welfare program.”

Allen says that still is not the appropriate place to draw those funds from.

“They still used funds from a very, very, I’ll say ‘weak’ program; Children’s Division, because over the past few years we’ve had children die,” says Allen.

Kinkade says the money came from the Department’s central administration and would have gone unused if not used to pay for the Governors Association membership.

Allen isn’t satisfied with that answer.

“If these people were incapable of recognizing ways to go beyond and further support these children,” with that money, Allen says, “that’s a problem.”

House Republicans say they also want to know if other money being appropriated in the budget is being used for purposes they aren’t aware of or don’t intend.

“We’ll certainly take a look. A much closer look,” says Stream.

In a statement, Nixon says the same funding source has been used in past years and calls the issues the House Republicans raise a “diversionary stunt,” that will “fall flat with Missourians wondering why their elected representatives refuse to reform our ethics laws, rein in wasteful tax credit expenditures or provide health coverage to 300,000 working Missourians through Medicaid expansion.”

The documents provided by Allen’s office and communication with a then-staffer for former Governor Matt Blunt (R) suggest that the dues for the Governors Association were not taken from the Social Services budget by administrations prior to Nixon’s.

Nixon adds, “I urge these legislators to set aside these desperate distractions and use the time they have left in the session to work on making a real difference for the Missourians we serve.”

Senate budget committee criticized for pulling money for child abuse investigators

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Governor Jay Nixon (D) is lending his voice to those concerned about the removal from the budget of $4.6-million for the state Children’s Division by the Senate budget committee.

Advocates for children and prevention of abuse say the money would have supported efforts to retain investigators in the division and allow for more expedient response to reports of abuse. They say high turnover and low numbers among investigators as well as slow response has resulted in a backlog of abuse reports and some causes going uninvestigated.

The items eliminated included more than $2.2-million for the Children’s Division Career Ladder including the creation of two new levels of caseworkers, more than $1.5-million for a “mobility project,” involving the use of I-Pads and WiFi for investigators to be able to respond to and deal with reports more quickly and $828-thousand for student loan forgiveness for new investigators.

The Governor included those amounts in his budget proposal and House budget makers kept it in theirs, but this week the Senate budget committee removed it.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says the career ladder increase would have gone above-and-beyond an overall 1-percent increase in pay for state employees that is included in the FY-15 budget proposal. 

Schaefer acknowledges the argument that the state needs to do more to retain child welfare investigators, but says, “This late in the process with that coming up when it did I think that would be difficult … pay increases for employees and additional things for employees that are presented to us as an incentive to give to those employees, those are intriguing ideas but I think we need a little more information on that.”

The Senate committee did not remove $347-thousand dollars for secondary trauma and child abuse training.  “Our concern is making sure we’re getting money on the ground for services,” says Schaefer. 

The removal of that money disappointed Emily Van Schenkhof, Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First. She says it would allow Missouri to do a better job of investigating reports of child abuse.

“These increases in Children’s Division are vitally important for the safety of Missouri’s children and for us to make positive steps forward in improving our response to investigating.”

Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee for Health, Mental Health and Social Services, Sue Allen (R-Town and Country), says she will fight to restore the funding for the I-Pads and WiFi for investigators.

“Possibly, maybe there is a level of looking at either the loan forgiveness or the career ladder,” says Allen. “We probably can’t do it all, but we kind of prioritize and figure out which things we can do now, and then maybe we put the next things on the burner for next year.”

Told of Schaefer’s concerns with the budget items, Governor Nixon was asked what his message to Schaefer would be.

“Follow the House position and have a little discussion in your committee on stuff this important,” answers Nixon. “The House had interim committees about it. We all have. Everybody here is well aware of the challenges that are faced, the difficult situations that occur in the Children’s Division and are aware that we worked hard with a number of policy makers as well as folks in the legislature to come up with a solid set of recommendations.”

Once the Senate budget committee completes its work on the proposed budget, the full Senate will vote on the proposal and then conferees chose in the House and the Senate will meet to work out differences between the two chambers’ proposals. A budget plan must be sent to the Governor by 6 p.m. May 9.

Plan to save money on Medicaid expansion would mean reduced eligibility to children

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Some state lawmakers are balking at the concept of saving the state money to expand Medicaid by eliminating coverage for some children.

Representative Jay Barnes (right) presents concepts for reform of Medicaid to the Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation.

Representative Jay Barnes (right) presents concepts for reform of Medicaid to the Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation.

Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) has outlined his idea to the House Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation, which he chairs, to increase Medicaid eligibility enough to draw federal dollars as Democrats have wanted to do. To do it, he proposes the elimination or reduction of coverage for some groups including some children in low- to middle-income families.

Barnes calls the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), “more liberal than the Affordable Care Act,” and he says that is why the state can pare it back. It currently extends coverage to children in families with income that is up to three-times the federal poverty level.

Barnes notes that families making more than one-and-a-half times the federal poverty level pay a premium on S-CHIP coverage, and says it would cost less for those families to buy a federally subsidized health insurance program on an exchange.

Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) says she would rather continue the coverage to families whose spending habits are based on having it.

“We take care of children now better than some able-bodied adults,” she says. “Children have no way control or ability to impact the way a parent or two parents utilize their family resources.”

Representative Keith Frederick (R-Rolla) expresses his concern that Barnes’ plan would free up money in the state budget at the expense of piling on to the nation’s debt.

Representatives Keith Frederick (left) and Jay Barnes.

Representatives Keith Frederick (left) and Jay Barnes.

“The savings to us is by virtue of offloading the expense to basically our future generations. That’s a philosophic difficulty for me. If we carry it out to its logical conclusion, then in every instance that a state or any entity can save money if they offload it to the exchanges, they save money in their own little world, but as a nation it sinks us.”

Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) responded to Frederick, noting the origin of Medicaid, “We are unloading our cost from one aspect of a federal program to a different aspect of a federal program. Missouri didn’t invent our current Medicaid scheme. The feds did. Now the feds are saying, ‘You can do this differently and we’ll pick up more of the cost.”

Barnes defended the concept. He tells the committee, “I’m comfortable with saying the State of Missouri should not pay for health insurance for a family that makes 300-percent of the federal poverty level.”

Barnes says a bill could be ready by some time in January. His overall plan would also eliminate or reduce coverage in the areas of care for the blind and women’s health, and projects a savings by Fiscal Year 2021 of more than $42-million.

His committee will meet again November 19, and then with its Senate counterpart and the Governor November 26.

Chairman wants to look for more opportunities for government downsizing

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The chairman of a committee that held hearings during the summer on downsizing state government has a list of things he wants it to dig more deeply into.

Representative Paul Curtman (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Paul Curtman (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Paul Curtman (R-Pacific) has given House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) a list of the things he wants the Committee on Downsizing State Government to spend more time investigating. Curtman says many of those could save the state money, such as implementing audits that compare state agencies to one another looking for opportunities to increase efficiency.

He says comparative audits have saved money in the State of Washington.

“Over the course of five years they realized about a billion dollars’ worth of savings to taxpayers. So, I think that on that particular issue that’s something that we can look at, we can see what other states have done.”

Comparative audits have been proposed in legislation in the past, most recently in the House by Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country).

Curtman says other areas that could be looked at are upgrades in information technology and management of the state’s motor vehicle fleet and facilities.

He expects the committee to hold more hearings once the legislature reconvenes in January.

Efficiency Committee questions state handling of child abuse cases

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A House Committee on government efficiency is looking into how the Department of Social Services handles child abuse cases.

The House Interim Committee on Improving Government Responsiveness and Efficiency begins a two-day hearing at the Capitol. (Photos courtesy: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The House Interim Committee on Improving Government Responsiveness and Efficiency begins a two-day hearing at the Capitol. (Photos courtesy: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The Interm Committee on Improving Government Responsiveness and Efficiency heard from Springfield law enforcement officer Tim Bruce, who says he has been trying for years to get the Division of Family Services to investigate claims three of his grandchildren are being sexually abused.

“It was not confirmed through an investigation and through a CAC interview that my oldest grandson was, in fact, sexually molested. All of this while DFS had continually told me that there was no concern, there were no issues, and the mother to this day still has those children in her care.”

Acting Department of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade says his agency’s top priority is child safety. He says it responds to 50-60 thousand abuse hotline calls a year.

“I would contend that in the vast majority of those cases, our division, the law enforcement, our doctors, our juvenile courts are taking the actions to keep our children safe.”

Several lawmakers expressed concern at Bruce’s story and Kinkade later met with him privately.

Chairwoman Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) also expressed interest in how the Department handles information on abuse cases.

The case of 4-year-old Lucas Webb of Holt gained attention when the Department refused to release information to the Kansas City Star for months. Allen asked Kinkade about the handling of that situation.

Kinkade tells her, “We are always concerned about taking an action that would jeopardize the prosecution of someone who has hurt or murdered a child, so our immediate action is always going to exercise extreme caution because if we were to do something to release information that would somehow jeopardize a situation like that, then you can’t pull that back, you can’t correct it, you can’t fix it.”

The Committee is also discussing eligibility for food stamps and temporary benefits for needy families. Its hearing continues today.

Lawmakers discuss status of bullying issue

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Legislative attempts to set in state statute how school districts should define and deal with bullying have come and gone for another session without a bill being passed.

Representative Mike Colona (left) talks to Representative Sue Allen (right), whom he praises for her work on the bullying issue, saying it is a real issue for her and not politics. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Mike Colona (left) talks to Representative Sue Allen (right), whom he praises for her work on the bullying issue, saying it is a real issue for her and not politics. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The key dividing issue remains whether to allow schools to enumerate, or to list groups of individuals that are protected from bullying based on things like sexual orientation, race or religion. Several versions of the bill would preserve current statute that disallows such lists of protected classes.

Democrats maintain that such lists are necessary to deal with issues that vary from district to district across the state. Republicans say enumeration would give preference to certain groups and argue that current statutes protects all students equally.

Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis City) says in the final days of the session there was agreement reached between the two sides on letting local school districts decide whether to enumerate. He says that would be a good compromise.

“Every school district’s unique … as to their geographic location and, in essence, their constituencies. The folks that go to school in the City of St. Louis is a different constituency than the folks that go to school in Ladue, than the folks that go to school in Springfield, than the folks that go to school in Liberty. The issues are different.”

Sponsor of bullying legislation Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) says she suspects the only

reason some of her fellow House Republicans were willing to vote for a bill that would let local school districts choose whether to enumerate was because they expected enumeration to be rejected in the Senate.

“I think the fact that we passed it in the House may be a bit deceptive.”

Senator Ed Emery (R-Lamar) confirms there is still division in the Senate, saying he will block any bill that allows enumeration.

“The identification of special groups by local school districts is not allowed is the language that is currently in statute and I am in favor of leaving that language in statute.”

Senator Jolie Justus (D-Kansas City) on the other hand says she will block any bullying bill that does not allow enumeration. She says leaving that up to local control is the right approach.

“I think it makes no sense to pass a state law that says a specific school district can address a specific issue, and it’s not just a gay and lesbian issue. It’s the disability issue, it’s poverty. It’s all sorts of different things.”

Allen says in days after the session ended she was ready to give up on the issue, calling it a “lose-lose” situation. Now she says she’s contemplating a different approach in 2014.

“Maybe next year, just look at the definition of bullying and cyberbullying and make it short and sweet, and not make it as all-encompassing as what we had, but try to come up with a way that everybody is going to see what is really important here. In my opinion it’s a safer school environment for all kids.”

Allen says if she can pass a simpler bill in 2014, she might try for the broader legislation if she is back in the legislature in the 2015-16 term.

Social Services welfare recipient shift scaled back (VIDEO)

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A contract between the Department of Social Services that came under fire from House Republicans has been restructured.

Representatives Sue Allen (left) and Jay Barnes (right) join House Speaker Tim Jones (center) and other House Republicans in announcing changes in a DSS contract the caucus had concerns with. (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representatives Sue Allen (left) and Jay Barnes (right) join House Speaker Tim Jones (center) and other House Republicans in announcing changes in a DSS contract the caucus had concerns with. (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The contract with Boston-based Public Consulting Group outlined how it would look for people receiving state assistance that could be shifted to federal disability payments. Republicans said the original arrangement would have reached out to too many people, including children and those who could still work, and said it would have moved people off of welfare that requires recipients to actively look for jobs to a program where having a job could result in lowered benefits.

Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) said documentation of the company’s proposed procedures raised concerns it would use aggressive tactics to get people to switch programs. He’s pleased with the new contract.

“For kids, who should not be in this process, they are no longer part of this contract, PCG will not be making cold calls to individuals, PCG will not be making any threats to those people already categorized as ‘disabled’ if they refuse to cooperate with this and PCG has agreed that they will have all phone calls recorded so that we can spot check what they’re doing.”

The new contract will limit the scope of the company’s search to people with disabilities and serious medical conditions.

The original contract would have also sought to move people whose transfer might have had to go to an appeals process because it would have been less clear the shift would be appropriate.

PCG will make $2,300 for every person moved off of Medicaid.

House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) commended Governor Jay Nixon and the Department for making these changes.

The situation came to light on a national radio program before PCG’s work began. Jones says it raises a question of whether such contracts need to be subject to legislative review earlier.

“There obviously needs to be some more oversight on these large-scale contracts that do affect thousands, if not millions, of Missourians.”

On the subject of oversight, Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) says she told the Department’s representatives in a recent hearing of her Appropriations Committee she was surprised they didn’t bring the issue up.

“I do expect them to bring these issues to the committee and I had some anxt about that. That is an ongoing issue of trust … but they heard a very strong message and I think we got the good solution.”

See the House Republicans’ media conference below:

House approves legislation to battle bullying in public schools

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The House has sent the Senate legislation to have school districts add discrimination to anti-bullying policies.

Representative Sue Allen (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Sue Allen (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The proposal sponsored by Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) says those policies should bar bullying on school grounds, at school events and on school buses, and defines cyberbullying. It also lays out what should go into a policy and would require the State Board of Education to develop model policies by September 1.

The debate in recent years in the House has centered on whether an anti-bullying bill should specify who it protects by listing factors for discrimination: things like sexual orientation, race or religion.

Allen’s bill does not. She says a blanket approach means no children will be left out.

“I contend there is no specific profile or picture of any student, girl or boy, who is potentially a victim of bullying.”

Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis City) references an unrelated piece of legislation filed last year in the House in arguing that enumeration is needed.

“Fifteen or twenty co-sponsors on a bill that says we can’t say ‘gay’ in school, and I’m supposed to trust school administrators to make sure that LGBT students aren’t bullied? It doesn’t fly. It doesn’t fly.”

Representative Margo McNeil (D-Florissant) says children would be made safer and better able to learn by a bill that includes specifics about who it protects.

“Because it fails to define who or what is considered bullying it leaves huge areas of gray. I maintain that murkiness is one reason why so many children are bullied because of their sexual orientation and religion.”

Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) says attempting to list all possible factors for discrimination would surely miss some children who also need protection.

“If I see somebody hurting a child I’m going to be out there taking care of them and protecting them, and I don’t care if it falls in a category or not. That’s not the issue. The issue is that we’re supposed to be here protecting our children.”

The House voted 141-10 to send the proposal to the Senate.

House budget subcommittee shuns Medicaid expansion, finds mental health money

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A House budget subcommittee has rejected including federal money for Medicaid expansion in the budgets for the Departments of Mental Health, Social Services and Health and Senior Services.

Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country)

Representative Sue Allen (R-Town and Country)

Representative Judy Morgan (D-Kansas City) proposed a return to Governor Jay Nixon’s plan to use $1 billion in federal dollars for those departments, freeing up general revenue to use in other areas. Her amendments were defeated in 9-5 partisan votes.

Nixon says if Missouri accepts Medicaid expansion the federal government will pay for it for the first three years, then Missouri will begin picking up a portion of the cost that would eventually grow to ten percent. Democrats say Medicaid expansion will save the state money, extend healthcare to an additional 300,000 Missourians, create jobs and keep rural hospitals from closing.

Chairwoman Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) says Missouri can not afford to accept that plan.

“There will be a time the feds will back off. Missouri is in as good a shape as we are financially because of hard decisions that were made in 2005 to reign in cost, and we have a natural growth of Medicaid which we struggle with every year anyway within the current eligibility.”

The state legislature approved and then-Governor Matt Blunt signed a cut back in Medicaid in 2005. At that time, 100,000 people lost eligibility.

Allen says Medicaid reform would be the more responsible route.

“I would say, first of all, we improve and we correct where you could have greater benefits. You get that taken care of and you move forward, and you do it one step at a time but you don’t jump in a swimming pool without any water in it.”

The plan approved by the committee does shift about $25 million to the Department of Mental Health. Allen says that money came from places in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget where Governor Nixon had withheld money, or where money that was appropriated was not spent.

She says in finding that $25 million, “I don’t know if any services that were cut.”

Allen says she hopes more money can be found for mental health when her committee’s proposal reaches the full budget committee.

House Republicans to craft budget without $164 million from Medicaid expansion, legislation

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House Republican Budget Leaders say they will begin work on the next state spending plan without including about $164 million dollars found in the Governor’s budget proposal.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Of that, $46 million is projected new tax revenue and savings resulting from Medicaid expansion and the rest relies on passage of legislation: $52 million from passage of an amnesty period for people to pay overdue taxes, more than $10 million from a proposed law encouraging collection of sales taxes on online purchases and more than $56 million from the elimination of a tax break for low-income renters.

Rep. Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) chairs the budget committee on health, mental health and social services.

“From the perspective of my committee, that [money] may or may not be real,” Allen says. “I’m not going to waste my time incorporating budget recommendations that very likely are not going to be there.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says if any of those pieces of legislation or policy changes advance, planners can put it back into the budget, but he says banking on it is not fiscally responsible.

“Any country that is borrowing over 40 percent of every dollar it spends is in a disaster mode,” Stream says. “Missouri is not that way. We don’t go into deficit spending like that. We don’t want to contribute to the deficit spending of the government.”

Tax amnesty legislation has cleared the House before but not become law.

Stream says so-called circuit breaker tax credit for renters “really never passed the House before to my knowledge and certainly not the Senate.”

Rep. Jeanne Kirkton (D-Webster Groves) is the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. She says her caucus will just have to keep working on advancing Medicaid expansion.

“We’re certainly in the minority but I think that we try the best we can to make the case both from an ethical and a financial standpoint and hope that by the end of the day we can sift through all the facts and get this put back in the budget,” Kirkton says.

Kirkton says she hopes this won’t start off the budget process on a bad tone, after the last couple of years have been smooth and marked by bipartisanship.

“I’m hoping that we will still continue to work in a bipartisan manner and I do think that because we are in a minority that we will have a more uphill battle to get things that are near and dear to the Democratic principles into the budget.”

Nixon’s budget is $25.875 billion, more than $1 billion higher than it was last year, most of the increase coming from Medicaid expansion. Stream says he doesn’t know what number House budget makers will be working with.

“We don’t get the budget books until Monday,” Stream says. “Once we get those we’ll start going through them.”