Human Services budget overview: $6.2 billion request, major IT, behavioral-health and hospital bond items

Donna, presenting the Human Resources Division budget to the HR appropriation section, summarized the executive budget request and highlighted major decision packages and the division’s plan to use an FTE block grant rather than add new permanent positions.

“What we just added was the 2527 budget base…This would move our total request to $6,200,000,000, of which approximately 2.3 billion is general fund,” Donna said, describing the difference between the division’s base and Governor Armstrong’s executive budget request. She told the committee the governor’s request is about $626 million above the base budget.

The presentation covered decision-package-level items across many program areas rather than final actions. Key requests and funded items in the executive budget highlighted in the overview include:

- Home- and community-based services (HCBS): Donna described a requested cost-to-continue growth line estimated at $64 million to cover anticipated entitlement growth in HCBS over the next two years.

- Adults Adopting Special Kids (ASK): A $4.9 million general-fund request to reinvest the state’s 50% share of maintenance payments back into the adoption program, following a federal match change.

- IT and legacy-sys…