DHHS public health services budget largely federal; committee presses on staffing and program moves

The Division of Public Health Services’ budget is small in state general‑fund terms but complex, department officials told the House Finance Division’s Division I work session on the division’s operating budget.

The division’s operations are funded mostly by federal grants and other dedicated revenue; the governor’s recommended operating budget shows roughly $24 million in general funds for the division compared with about $135 million in federal funds, and public health constitutes around 2.2 percent of DHHS general‑fund operating spending, Nathan White, chief financial officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, said.

That disparity helps explain why Division of Public Health Services staff focused much of their briefing on grant dependencies, position counts and how programs were reorganized within DHHS. The division contains about 100 accounting units and more than 50 federal grants, making the appropriation highly segmented and sensitive to federal policy changes, Associate Deputy Commissioner Patricia (Tricia) Tilley said.

Lawmakers sought clarity on several recurring themes: (1) how public health’s budget changed since the pre‑pandemic period; (2) which programs were relocated from other DHHS divisions into public health; and (3) how hiring is being handled while many positions are unfunded.

Tilley said public health’s authorized full‑time staff count is roughly the same as it was in 2018 (about 250 positions), but that federal “tsunami” dollars during the pandemic temporarily expanded what the division could do. Some apparent increases resulted from consolidation — for example, the bureau for emergency preparedness, response and recovery and certain programs previously budgeted under Economic Security or DCYF were moved into Public Health Services, creating the appearance of budget growth when the departmentwide total remained similar.

On personnel, the division reported roughly a 15 percent vacancy rate across its programs. White and Tilley explained that a chapter‑law cap on total DHHS full‑time authorized positions (3,000) will expire June 30, 2025, and that the governor’s operating budget includes unfunded positions that the department plans to manage via flexibility authorities enacted in last year’s HB 2 (authority to fill previously unfunded positions and to move funds between personnel lines).

Members asked whether the division can advertise more recruitments than it has current funding to fill. Tilley said the standard rule is that positions must generally be funded before posting, but DCYF and others have used administrative approaches to advertise additional vacancies; the department will explore expanding those approaches in coordination with the Department of Administrative Services.

Lawmakers also requested that, as the presenters move through individual accounting units in the briefing book, they call out when a program has been moved (for example, from DCYF or Division for Economic Security) and the rationale for the relocation; Tilley agreed to do so.

Ending: Committee members flagged staffing, grant dependence, and program relocations as items for continued oversight as they consider adjustments to the governor’s recommendation during the budget process.