Senate HR panel trims proposed FTEs, reduces salary block-grant increase by $4.0 million

The Senate Appropriations Human Resources Division on Tuesday moved to reduce the reinserted salary funding for the department’s block grant and to remove specific full-time-equivalent (FTE) counts from the budget long sheet.

Committee members said the change is intended to preserve dollar flexibility for the department while avoiding an appearance that the legislature is authorizing a precise headcount within a block grant. “I’d like to reduce it by 25% on the salaries,” Senator Sharon Cleary said, proposing a $4,000,749.32 reduction to the line reflecting the department’s requested restoration. Keith, the committee’s budget analyst, confirmed the cut and that the FTE positions on the long sheet would be shown as zeros.

The revision follows debate about whether to restore all 103 positions the department had requested after the House’s larger reduction. Senators said they want to give the department spending flexibility for the block grant while avoiding the optics of approving hundreds of specific positions with unclear funding. “I think we can shave a little bit off there and still meet the goal of getting folks hired,” Cleary said. Several members said they were comfortable keeping the dollar pool but not showing a definitive FTE count on the long sheet.

Department staff told the committee the block grant is intended to give programmatic flexibility and that the department can report hires and turnover quarterly under language in section 5 of the bill. “With the block grant we’re not given an FTE number. This just represents the number of positions that we put into a system, and their position numbers,” a department official identified in the record as Donna said, adding the agency will provide quarterly reports showing hires, vacancies and separations.

The committee also discussed a related revenue estimate: the certified community behavioral health clinics (CCBHCs) could generate about $4.7 million in fee-for-service revenue that would reduce general-fund need, a number staff said should be moved from general fund to other funds on the long sheet. Members asked staff to correct matching lines so the long sheet reflects generated revenues and the intended fund split.

The committee did not take a roll-call vote on the change during the morning session recorded in the transcript; staff implemented the reduction in the long-sheet worksheet during the meeting and confirmed the $4,000,749.32 change with the committee.