Sen. Yeager presents amendments for bridge repair, DSP pay raise and community health worker funding

Sen. Yeager, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee, used a committee meeting to present four budget amendments that would fund a county bridge repair, raise pay for direct support professionals and provide state support for community health workers and a men's health education grant.

Yeager proposed budget amendment 73, a $750,000 nonrecurring appropriation to the Department of Transportation to be passed as a grant to the Overton County Highway Department. "The money would be used to replace a flood damaged bridge in the county. They lost a significantly traveled and very expensive bridge there in the county as a result of the flooding," Yeager said. Committee discussion clarified the damaged structure is a county road bridge rather than a state highway.

Yeager also presented budget amendment 173 to increase pay for direct support professionals, the staff who work in group homes and other settings serving people on Medicaid waivers. Yeager described the role of direct support personnel (DSPs) as "the person that we charge with keeping some of the most... Citizens in our state. These are the ones that will stay with folks in group homes 24 20 fourseven. It is a very, very significant, responsibility." He said the proposal would raise an average hourly rate to $16 from a current figure he identified as $15.37; he noted the governor's budget included a smaller increase to $15.68. The amendment text provided in the meeting materials lists an amount of $9,934,400; a later figure in the discussion appears as $9,000,934.04. The proposal was presented as a priority by Yeager and was described as applying to employees serving under TennCare waivers and the state's Choices program.

Yeager described another amendment (listed in the materials as amendment 62) as a $1,900,000 recurring appropriation to TennCare "for the purpose of supporting evidence based community health worker infrastructure." He said the funding would generate a federal match and provide support to 17 organizations and roughly 150 community health workers statewide. He described community health workers as playing roles that include helping people who are homeless or unemployed find primary care and dental care and reducing costly emergency room use.

Separately, Yeager said he was filing a request for a grant to the Men's Health Network to "be used for adjustment for inflation for its health education, primary prevention programs," which he described as on-site, once-a-year free checkups; the meeting transcript did not record an amendment number tied to that grant request.

A member of the committee cautioned about relying on anticipated federal matches. "We need to be careful in the current phase of federal government that we're in that we're relying on federal matches," the member said, urging caution about obligating state funds based on projected federal participation. Yeager responded that the draft materials did not reflect that oversight information when he prepared the amendments.

No formal votes were taken on the amendments during the meeting; committee leadership said there would be additional time before the subcommittee transacted business. The subcommittee adjourned shortly after the presentations.