Committee reviews Human Services budget priorities: 4% COLA for community providers, shelter funding, ERAP extension and H91 transition

A Department of Human Services staff member told the House Committee on Human Services that the department is proposing a 4% cost-of-living adjustment for preferred substance‑use providers, mental‑health partners, recovery centers and recovery residences.

The recommendation, the staff member said, is intended to be applied “across the board” so that community partners that provide direct services are treated consistently. “What we’re looking to see is if we may be able to implement a 4% cost of living increase in regards to our preferred substance use providers, mental health, as well as our recovery centers and recovery residences,” the staff member said.

Committee members discussed how to fund that increase within the governor’s budget. One option described was a $1,000,000 general‑fund increase to the Home/Outreach/Prevention (HOP) base line; committee staff calculated that $1 million would approximate a 4% increase for existing HOP providers. Committee materials cited a HOP base of $30,798,061 (presented as $30,798,061 in the working document) and noted an increase of roughly $3.7 million in the governor’s proposed base compared with FY25 in some documents.

Why it matters: committee members said community providers have not received systematic inflationary adjustments in recent budgets, unlike state employee compensation that the governor’s budget already reflects. Committee members framed the 4%…