Transcript of “Rights Here, Rights Now - Episode 5: All About The State Budget.” produced by the disAbility Law Center of Virginia. [NARRATOR]: The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. Instead, all information, content and materials available are for general informational purposes only. [Intro Music: Light rhythmic percussion beats, finger snaps & hand claps] **The information provided on this podcast is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead all information content & materials available are for General informational purposes only.** [VIRGINIA]: Welcome to Rights Here, Rights Now, the podcast about disability advocacy and activism I'm your Advocate host Virginia Pharis. [REN]: And I’m your advocate host Ren Faszewski. [REN]: Every two weeks I just will be us this podcast is produced by the disability Law Center of Virginia Commonwealth protection and advocacy Agency for disability rights find out more at dlcv.org. [VIRGINIA]: Okay, Ren, are you ready for a very dense but important topic? [REN]: I'm always ready. [VIRGINIA]: Okay, so today we're going to be talking about the state budget. [REN]: Oh goody. [VIRGINIA]: That's right. We’re talking about both policy and mass! [REN]: Both of my best things! (*V giggles*) So I am equally qualified to talk about none of this. [VIRGINIA]: We were lucky enough to have a professor at VCU, Ronda Thissen (Disability Law Center Advocate) [REN]: She’s so fabulous!- [VIRGINIA]: So fabulous! And she, who actually-understands this sort of thing.. the budget is created and just things that we may not have considered so yeah if it's an important one it's like I'm warning you it's going to get complicated. [REN]: Well I'm very excited to learn a lot apparently this episode but before we jump into that let's get disability in the news: NEWS BREAK: *Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren has just released a plan aimed at tackling issues that affect those with disabilities and a 16 paid policy were an outlined a series of proposals that include areas like Social Security education and employment regarding Social Security reform Warren plans to expand the program by eliminating waiting periods for Social Security disability insurance SSDI and Medicare fixing the SSDI return-to-work benefit cliff and improving the SSI program Orange plants also include the protection of civil liberties including establishing a federal standard on use of force and increasing funds were training stopping the criminalization of homelessness and poverty decriminalizing mental health crises and enforcing the Ada in the legal system and an access to cancel several other Democratic hopefuls including former South Bend Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg former HUD secretary Julian Castro, who dropped out of the 2020 race last week, and Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out in December, release disability policies last year but Warren has previously integrated disability issues into her other campaign proposals as one in four Americans have a disability such policy proposals can make a significant difference in the ongoing Democratic primary. for more go to time.com.** [VIRGINIA]: All right well we are so excited to have a lovely new acquisition to dLCV Ms. Rhonda Thissen here to… tell me (us) what's going on with the state budget, because goodness knows I have no idea? [REN]: Hey Ronda! [RHONDA]: Hey Ren! Hey Virginia- thanks for having me. So, um, for advocates, um, it's really important to understand the state budget- (budget) funds because they’re all operations of state government. And that's important for us because any services, or supports, that people with disabilities need that are state-funded or even federally funded are managed through the state budget. So Virginia has what's called and that's Virginia as it's in the Commonwealth, not Virginia Farris as our fabulous advocate [the person]- Virginia has a biannual budget which means… it’s a two-year budget that the General Assembly adopts every two years in even numbered years and we make amendments in odd-numbered years so in 2020 we will be in the general assembly session which starts on January 1st {…..} January 8th the general assembly will be considering the governor's introduced budget for the state fiscal year that begins on July 1st 2020 and that rolls to June 30th 2021 as well as the state fiscal year that starts July 1st 2021 and runs through June 30th 2022 and so it’s a two year budget. And so the state government budget includes lots of different sources of Revenue income taxes that we all pay there's grants that we receive from the federal government from a variety of sources these sales earnings transfers and balances a lot of economic stuff it's kind of boring for the average person General funds and non-General funds and the difference is that General funds are discretionary funds that we use for a variety of purposes. So, non- general funds are for non- specific purposes either by law or by policy. [REN]: Okay so like what are kind of some examples that people would know about it so people might be familiar with non-discretionary funds because those are funds that for example is that an example of a non-discretionary funding? [RHONDA]: Federal grant finds that the state has to spend for a specific purpose so for example the state receives many millions of dollars in the federal government every year for Medicaid Medicaid is a state and federal match program and in Virginia 50% of Medicaid expenses are funded by federal government revenue- and 50% by state revenue- so the state to has to use the federal revenue that it receives for the Medicaid Program on Medicaid funded services so they couldn't take Medicaid funds …. they can't build Bridges build more roads, -OR like a bridge. So, General funds vs non General funds for the average person is to think about how much money you have left over after you pay all your bills any money that you have left over if that's your general funds. Revenue- is money that you can spend on whatever else you want to spend it on. [REN]: So, how do we decide how it's obviously be like you have to spend it this way? I imagined in those areas like we do so we can determine, specifically where they go, right?. [RHONDA]: That’s right, yeah! So it’s the governor’s administration..So, just like the governor is like the president… is the executive of the state government like the president is the executive of the federal government & the administration administration which is the governor's staff essentially are making those decisions and proposing those ideas. So there's it's kind of like it's a five-phase process the way that the budget the agency state agencies budget preparation….{..} so state agencies every year starting in the late summer generally review their strategic needs which means they look at- What are the administration's priorities? Continued: [RHONDA]: So for example for let's talk about mental health in…uhh.. in developmental disability services. So, the Department of Mental services will talk about what are the things that that day as a state agency would like to accomplish in the coming year or the coming two years depending on which-how many budget years were working on. So, they will say okay so for example we want to increase the number of people that are coming out of state hospitals that are moving into permanent supportive house that's going to take us X number of dollars to do that so we think that we would like to increase the number of people that receive permanent Supportive Housing Services by 400 over the next two years. So they will put in their budget they develop the budget that the department needs for all of its services and supports and expenses into a budget and so that additional funding for example for housing would go into the budget as is part of the agency's budget preparation. For advocates, it's important to understand this process because if you're an advocate and your- your-your organization want to advocate for funding to go into the budget for a specific purpose then you will need that the best thing to do is during agency budget preparation or even before that make contact with somebody in the state agency and say you know so my organization supports for example expanding permanent Supportive Housing and we would like to see the state and they will 500 additional people next year to obtain permanent Supportive Housing so advocacy organizations and self-advocates can have a big role in pushing these priorities so understanding the time frames by which government is working on their budget it gives people a kind of a kick-start to get into that process. [REN]: I think it makes sense that his administration are experts and literally everything that the money will be spent on it so it makes sense that these agencies are the ones who like this is what we're looking for this is how much I need for it, tweaks it and then [RHONDA]: Yeah like that’s a great Segway into…. Advocates and and and other nonprofits you got to get all that money till I get people into the Community member that to each state agency is going through this process in the late summer early fall and then in the late fall so so every state agency submits its requested budget which is the budget that it proposes for the Governor's review to the state budget agency which is called the department of planning and budget or DPP and Saudi PB is responsible for reviewing all of the state agency proposed budget to determine you know so do the does the state agency really need this money what is it that the agency is proposing to do with this money is that are those proposed uses in accordance with the governor's strategic vision for that particular agency. So for example let's go use example of permanent Supportive Housing again so if the governor is planning and budget knows that the governor supports expanding permanent Supportive Housing that it's more likely that dbhds would be able to keep that money that they requested in their budget to expand permanent Supportive Housing items are stricken out of the agency's budgets are replaced with other items that the governor or his secretaries of whatever you know Secretariat we're talking about whether it's helping human resources or Public Safety and Homeland Security whatever the issue is.. They might add other things they might change the dollar amount so the department asks like say let's say they ask for 5 million dollars in permanent Supportive Housing the governor may eventually say well I support this effort but we really can't afford five million so let's put in 2 million which actually happened in the budget development during 2019 on the 2019 session so during the state budget development process that governor and all his cabinet secretaries and all the agencies work together to ensure that the governor is happy with his into his version of the budget which reflects his priorities and then the governor once he makes the final determination yes this is the budget that I want that reflects my administration's priorities… He submits the bill he introduces the budget it's usually usually it's on 3rd December of every year that he releases the budget to the public and it also goes to the general assembly and gets introduced in the form of a built just like all other General Assembly bills come in. [REN]: I kind of had a thought.. and obviously… Virginia for a while was pushing back against the federal Medicaid expansion and was recently did the Medicaid expansion how does the budget cuz again the but it's not really an area.. [RHONDA]: That’s a complicated discussion. But to answer your question so the the original discussions around Medicaid expansion which started in 2011 maybe the concerns that were expressed by members of the general assembly at the time were two things one that they they didn't want to expand Medicaid because of the potential expense to the state now the federal government to the Affordable Care Act was paying but remember I said Medicaid is a 50-50 revenue-sharing tuna sides in the state so headed to do was to four people who were enrolled in Medicaid through expansion the federal share would be 90% so the feds were picking up the vast majority of the cost for the expansion of the general assembly over the preceding in a five or so years during all this discussion were concerned that that money would actually go away because nobody ever really knows what's going to happen at the federal level right so finally in as you refer to in the 2018 General Assembly session there was an agreement between the Republicans and the Democrats in the general assembly that that we would allow Medicaid expansion and Medicaid expansion did begin on July 1st 2019. So what we have learned since then…so since expansion began on January 1st of 2019 thousand people have enrolled in Medicaid from the expansion population which are working adults, well, adults who are having comes up to 138% of the federal poverty level so that's like a family of three $28,000 a year. [VIRGINIA & REN]: Okay [RHONDA]: So Medicaid expenses are higher than what was originally anticipated and so there's been some conversation at the state level but maybe that the department of medical assistance Services which is the State Medicaid agency underestimated the cost for Medicare for Medicaid funded services not not only due to expansion but also due to the fact that Medicaid is the largest public insurer in the state and the the majority of people in the Medicaid Program are people…{ well}… maybe not completely true that a significant percentage of them are older adults and people with disabilities who have higher medical medical expenses so there's been some kind of pushed back in the general assembly on the cost because they're relating the cost of expansion to the unanticipated increase cost of Medicaid so it's a complicated conversation but things that's really important for Advocates to route to realize and and this is something that you know when we think about the budget… So I talked before about General funds vs non General so General funds are the like I said spec the Mad Money that the state has to pay with/ play with so that only comprises about thirty-five 36% of the state budget so the rest of the state budget 65 almost 65% of the budget is already claimed by other expenses. [VIRGINIA & REN]: Right [RHONDA]: So Virginia has a balanced budget amendment in the Constitution which means we cannot run a deficit in our in our state spending like the federal government does so if we have a downturn in the economy for example like happened during the recession the state has to cut expenses and cut Services because we can't we can't spend more than we learned every year and so the big concern about Medicaid expansion going back to your original question is that it's looking like it's going to be more expensive than was originally anticipated and so what's going to happen in the long run with that it will see what what what happens. [REN]: I have a question it's going to sound like a joke but it's not how does anybody know what anything's going to actually cost Ever. When developing a budget. [RHONDA]: Good point I mean it's a really good question I mean I think you know a lot of people will will say well you know we we have long-standing you know like there was a way that state and and a lot of surgery conomic policy, you know is that we look at previous expenses so you know we can the way the state develops a budget part of the what they look at is prior-year expenses- [REN]: Okay. [RHONDA]: …and then the state also the department of planning and budget in the department Taxation and other state agencies do Revenue projections So based on economic activity we can say okay we feel reasonably secure that the state's Revenue forecasts so what we think we may be taking in in the forms of taxes and fees and you know what drivers license you know stuff and it will be x amount of dollars so all of that tune in addition to a projecting how much they might need to provide services at dbhds or figure out how much money are we going to have coming in that will fund these costs because everything has to be what's called revenue and cost neutral so if you're going to spend a dollar you have to have a dollar to come in because we have a balanced budget amendment which means I can't borrow agency preparation second phase was Governor's review and Governor Governors action to introduce a budget so I mentioned that the budget gets introduced into the general assembly as a bill and so the but it's called the budget Bill and so the so the governor and the state agencies are not the only entities that have anything to do with the budget the general assembly also has a lot to do with it I'm in so that really the development of the budget is a joint effort between the administration and the general assembly so the bills go there's two bills there's a the Senate budget bill in the house budget Bill and once they're introducing the general assembly the house bill is referred to the House Appropriations Committee which is the committee in the house of delegates that is responsible for essentially providing input on the budget and in the Senate is referred to the Senate finance committee which is the same Committee in the Senate so so those committees are the money, so every legislator in the general assembly there 140 legislators a hundred in the house of delegates and 40 (…) have the right to to submit amendments to the budget and so and this is sort of where another Avenue where Advocates and self advocates in Organizations can get involved… because you as an advocate and go to your member your your member of the House of delegates or your state senator and ask that he or she introduced a budget amendment. [VIRGINIA]: So it's a little bit like if you ask your dad if you can borrow the car and he says no and then you go ask your mom? [RHONDA]: (Laughing) Kinda, sorta [REN]: Is this where you get into like a pork? Not just obviously this is this is the state budget but this is really we're like individual Representatives can do specific things for their District to follow through with what they're you know what the constituents are asking but they're also called for federal level is when legislators include items in the budget like run says that specifically benefit a of group and organization… [RHONDA]: a community or whatever so what happens went once they have a specific deadline for when they have to submit all budget amendments usually it's like so the general assembly starts the what does the second Wednesday of January every year and generally it's within like a week or ten days all all bunch of them is have to be introduced by all the members and see what happens then it's so delegates are proposing amendments to the house version of budget senators are proposing amendments of the Senate version and then the House Appropriations Committee considers those amendments to the house Bill said it binance considers amendments in the Senate bill and then all of those legislators have to go in front of those committees and justify why they're asking for this perspective if if you're an advocate and you go to your your your member and you say you know delegate Bell I would like for you to introduce the budget Amendment for whatever the issue is you that the member will often ask what why do you want this money and we need to know why you want this money because they have to justify to to the committee why they're asking for this additional money{….} every time there's an increase in the cut someplace else or their revenue because it all has to even out at the end [REN]: One thing… is there like a third phase? [RHONDA]: So once the amendment the amended that so what happens in the committee's is that all the all the members present their amendments the Senate finance committee and the House Appropriations Committee vote and they determine so that they come up with the initial version of the house budget and the Senate budget and then the next thing that happens the next phase of the process is that those bills just like all other bills that make it through committees in the general assembly are introduced on the floor of the house and the Senate and then there's the ability to discuss to complain do I add amendments to change amendments and so finally once each house has come to an agreement on its own version of the of the budget so at this point in the in the session with that three budgets we got the governor's original introduced budget we've got the house version and we got the Senate version and so the next phase in that process is that because there are always differences between the house version of the Senate version after each house has done all of its deliberations then there was a witch call the conference committee gets put together to resolve differences between budget so when there is a split government like what we had last year so meaning split government meaning the general assembly is controlled by one political party and the administration's controlled by the other so is a Democrat since he took office the Republicans were in control the general assembly cuz they have majority in the house and the Senate there's going to be big and so for example in the 2019 session or I'm sorry the 2018 session the huge difference which held up the passage of the final budget was Medicaid expansion and so the budget bill is the only bill so when bills go to the governor once they pass out of the general assembly and they go to the governor for Signature the budget bill is the only Bill any bill can be can can become law without the governor's signature if the how is the general assembly has a majority votes of it an agreement between the governor and the general assembly on the budget if there's not right then there's no state budget so once the conference committee meets at the conference committee includes members of the House members of the Senate they work together to hash out the differences so once the the general assembly approved its version of the budget it goes to the governor and so after the general assembly adjourns and they stay adjourned for 6 weeks I believe and during that 6 weeks….{..} The governor reviews the budget as well as all the other bills that have been passed and so just like other bills that the governor can sign the budget Bill he can say OK this budget looks great to me I'm going to sign this and then it'll become the official budget he can veto the bill or certain parts of it now this is one difference that Virginia has over the federal level is that we actually our governor has a line item veto which means that he can veto a specific line in the budget line items or make amendments to it and many times the governor will make amendments to the budget because basically they changed his budget right so he wants to get back to where he started so he may make amendments to it so if he has the whole bill or it will go back to the general assembly in a reconvene session which happens like 6 weeks after they did then they have to consider his amendments and it goes through the whole kind of process all over again and so finally if they get to a point where the general assembly in the governor and this happens every year because if it didn't we wouldn't have a state budget finally come to an agreement on the budget and then he signs the budget Bill so for 20-20 for example when the governor signs the budget Bill he will that budget will take effect on July 1st 2020 and that's when the state's budget you should have several areas with through this process where you know obviously we have the initials Governor's budget when it goes to the general assembly when the governor reviews it and [REN]: I get this amendment process sounds like there's several different areas where Advocates and people with vested interest in disability rights can make their voices her room and you've already kind of answered that pretty well about you know calling your local representatives and and speaking with the people who interact with the bill and then make those decisions there's [RHONDA]: Actually there's a couple other things people can do as well so you the one thing that people can always do is they can always Reach Out directly to the governor's office so the governor gets many many many Communications from citizens every single day and you could do that by making a call by sending an email on the governor's website which is Governor. Virginia.gov you can fill out a form and the way that when is issuance contact the governor so those requests go down to the secretary's office and then there's other people in the secretary's office, where the budget and where this money is going it is critical. [VIRGINIA]: Yeah as much as I may want to go live in a forest now and survive only on the barter system that's you know maybe not an option magical thinking so we're going to wrap it up but thank you so much for sitting down with Rhonda and has been really education and kind of uplifting kind of demoralizing at least you're not asleep [REN]: I thought about this topic and we're excited to have you back in the future thank you thank you so much!! :D  **And now the dLCV highlight 20 the United States Department of Justice and the Commonwealth of Virginia had their most recent hearing regarding the community integration mandate that arose from the settlement between the United States Department of Justice and the Commonwealth of Virginia the disability Law Center Virginia has previously filed our own briefs with the court to take a position on what would be best for the integration of people disabilities and how this agreement would affect our constituents it seemed in this case that the United States Department of Justice was arguing for measurable standards and a lot of these standards were based on information that the state was already Gathering and it would seem to be no particular hardship for the Commonwealth to turn that information over to the court to the Department of Justice and others one of the biggest arguments that dlcd was able to make that we are and identify Trends and patterns of abuse and neglect and really barriers to integration so for the state to say it's an undue burden for them to turn them over seems like a difficult argument to make in fortunately in this case you'll see he was able to come in with our own experiences our own work using information is provided to us and to make the argument that these medical standards are not only necessary but they're reasonable for Virginia to turn over to the court and to the Department of Justice at the hearing it appeared that the judge had reviewed the DLC be brief and seemed to appreciate our input and I think it says a lot about our status as an essential component to this settlement into these discussions in that it seems now that the courts are willing to accept our input without even requiring a lot of effort to have those briefs accepted and in fact they seem to be quite welcome it's pretty exciting for the LCD to be able to be a part of this case it seems exciting for the court to welcome our participation and we were pretty excited to have not only the brief accepted but to hear references to it in the oral arguments this week that's our update and we'll see you again soon. [REN & VIRGINIA]: I feel incredibly informed! [VIRGINIA]: I feel so informed and also ready to go live in the forest! [REN]: That's super Fair my position on that has not changed it was but it was really important and I'm really glad She's able to talk to us about that simply of the outcome so all this stuff is really important as well as you know we're going to we're going to keep bringing you self-advocacy Tools in ways that you guys can really participate in this process but uhhh…. End statement: **Thank you all for listening to this episode of Right Here, Right Now brought to you by the disAbility Law Center of Virginia. We are available on Apple podcasts Spotify or wherever you get your podcast! Don't forget to subscribe, and leave a review If you need assistance or want more information about dLCV be in what we do visit us online at dlcv.org and follow us on Twitter at disability law VA insurance with your friends until next time I'm Ren F. and I'm Virginia Farris and this has been rights here rights now. **