Committee reviews DHW indirect support services request including vehicle replacements and IT upgrades

Legislative analysts and agency leaders reviewed the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's indirect support services budget on Jan. 13, focusing on one-time replacement needs and information-technology upgrades.

Analyst Alex Williamson told the committee the division requested one-time replacement items totaling roughly $2.8 million, including $1.8 million to replace 60 state vehicles, $648,000 for office remodels and furniture, and about $384,000 for visitation-room improvements. The department also requested roughly $1.8 million in Office of Information Technology hardware replacement, including funds to upgrade laptops and replace servers, and asked for $711,000 to replace legacy SQL Server software (they currently run the 2017 version and want to upgrade to 2022). The governor recommended the agency's requests except for a line for cloud server capacity and support that the administration zeroed out after the agency found alternatives.

Williamson said indirect support services had an authorized 259.6 FTP with 29 vacancies as of the budget submission and that, in fiscal year 2024, the division's expenditures were about $40.2 million, primarily personnel and operating costs.

Director Alex Adams explained state fleet needs and the department's priorities: DHW manages about 435 state vehicles statewide and aims to replace the fleet on a seven-year cycle. Two-thirds of DHW's vehicle use is tied to child-welfare work (transporting children for visitations, court appearances and medical appointments), Adams said. He described the vehicles slated for replacement as having model years ranging from 2007 to 2017 and mileage between approximately 105,000 and 159,000. "Goal as a department is to replace the entire fleet every 7 years," Adams said.

Adams also described hiring tied to the Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) project: the MMIS replacement was described as a major IT upgrade (an earlier estimate cited about $180 million), and he said the department posted six MMIS operations/IT positions and expected hires to be in place in February.

Why it matters: The vehicle replacements and IT hardware requests are tied to direct service delivery—child-welfare operations depend on safe, reliable vehicles and MMIS staff are needed to manage a large Medicaid IT transition. Committee members pressed for more detail on fleet composition, mileage and replacement timing; analysts and the director said they would provide a full fleet list and more specifics to support appropriation decisions.

Ending: The committee scheduled program-detail and work-group reviews this week and will consider the replacement and IT requests as it finalizes the department's program-maintenance and enhancement appropriations.