Commission on Aging seeks one-time ARPA spending, asks for small ongoing inflation increase

The Idaho Commission on Aging asked the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Feb. 24 to approve small ongoing inflation funding and to allow one-time use of remaining federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) balances before the program expiration date.

Colin McGurkin, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee the commission implements the federal Older Americans Act and the Idaho Senior Services Act and provides direct services through six local Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs). He said the commission’s FY 2024 expenditures totaled about $16.7 million, with roughly 88% of that spent as “trustee and benefit payments” to local AAAs — about $10.4 million in federal funds and $4.2 million from the general fund.

The request matters because ARPA funds available to the commission are one-time and expire Sept. 30, 2025, and the commission has used prior ARPA awards for modernization projects, meal programs and caregiver supports. McGurkin said the commission has followed a pattern of requesting one-time federal appropriations since FY 2022 to draw down ARPA for targeted projects and reported approximately $7.4 million in ARPA-related expenditures tied to those drawdowns.

Director Judy Taylor, Idaho Commission on Aging, told the committee the commission has used ARPA for a range of one-time projects including meal service modernization, a pilot to support unpaid caregivers of persons with dementia, targeted caregiver education and some adult protective services work. She said the commission has also used funds to increase meal rates and reduce home-delivered meal wait lists.

"Nutrition is our number one priority," Taylor said. She told the committee that a July 1 appropriation allowed the commission to raise meal rates by 25 cents per meal for congregate and home-delivered meals and that the commission had eliminated its home-delivery wait list.

Taylor said the commission requested $1.8 million one-time in FY 2025 to use remaining ARPA balances before the federal deadline and requested an ongoing general fund appropriation of $162,600 for FY 2026 to cover inflationary increases. Of that ongoing request, $155,000 would fund a 3% increase in trustee and benefit payments to AAAs to address rising costs, and $7,600 would fund a 2% increase in the commission’s operating expenditures.

Committee members asked for more detail about Alzheimer’s/dementia-specific spending and the proportion of staff time charged to ARPA. McGurkin said he did not have a specific Alzheimer’s-dollar total and would follow up. Taylor said some ARPA-funded activities — for example, paying adult protective services workers’ professional membership fees and funding boots-on-the-ground community health workers for a high-risk caregiver program — will reduce or stop when ARPA monies expire. She said the commission planned those uses as one-time enhancements rather than base-funded programs.

When Representative Mitchell asked whether a pilot to expand the public health workforce was a sustainable program, Taylor said community health workers hired with ARPA are currently embedded with AAAs to conduct assessments and planning for caregivers in the high-risk caregiver program and that "those workers will stay" and that the commission has enough money to pay their salaries; however, respite hours funded by ARPA may be reduced after federal money ends.

Vicki Janzick, project manager for the commission, explained that a $25,000 line in the ARPA request covers personnel time spent processing invoices and monitoring subrecipient contracts and that staff time on federal grants is directed-billed to the applicable federal funding source.

Director Taylor closed by saying the commission prioritized safety, dignity and choice for older Idahoans and that all appropriated funds would be used with outcomes monitored and reported.

Looking ahead, the commission and committee staff agreed to follow up by email with more detailed breakdowns on Alzheimer’s/dementia-related spending, the meal program base amounts, and the precise share of staff time charged to federal ARPA funds.