Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Priorities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee frames budget priorities: keep safety net whole, focus upstream on primary care and prevention
Summary
Senate Health and Welfare members discussed budget principles including prioritizing safety-net programs (food banks, DAs/SSAs, SASH), protecting primary care funding during transitions, and favoring prevention and recovery supports while noting constrained fiscal environment; committee asked staff to draft a priorities memo.
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee held an extended discussion of budget priorities, emphasizing protecting existing safety-net services, investing in upstream primary care and prevention, and targeting limited resources toward proven or evidence-informed programs.
Committee members said the immediate focus should be on maintaining core services that keep people fed, housed and connected to primary care. Senators repeatedly cited food security programs, home- and community-based services (including SASH and adult day services), designated agencies (DAs) and specialized service agencies (SSAs) as high priorities. The committee also discussed recovery supports and recovery residences as important services for individuals with substance-use disorder but asked for clearer outcome data and program definitions before committing additional funding.
On primary care funding, members emphasized the need to ensure continuity for practices receiving OneCare payments during any transition to new payment models or programs (references were made to ACO transitions, SASH and Blueprint programs). The committee flagged a one-time backfill and settlement issues tied to Medicare and OneCare funds and urged language or appropriations that prevent abrupt loss of funding to primary-care providers during 2026 transitions.
Members urged that requests for new programs be weighed against the zero-sum constraints of the current budget environment and suggested several approaches: 1) provide a short memo listing committee principles (upstream prevention, protect safety net, basic needs and recovery supports) for Appropriations; 2) identify a short list of high-priority line items the committee would prefer to protect or increase; or 3) provide a hybrid letter that states principles and flags specific high-priority line items for protection. Committee leadership asked staff to prepare draft language the committee could edit and transmit to Appropriations.
Committee members repeatedly asked for data to support funding choices — for example, counts served, costs per person, and measurable outcomes for recovery residences and other programs — to help prioritize scarce resources. The joint fiscal office and administration will be asked to provide more precise estimates where available. The committee agreed to continue the conversation and to circulate a draft memo reflecting the group’s principles and any specific line-item priorities.
