Thursday afternoon the Governor signed the budget bills that the Legislature passed that prescribed budgets for the remaining part of FY 2010 and FY 2011. The deal is complicated and contains lots of details. Most of the provisions for our agency pertain to reductions in services that will begin next fiscal year (which starts July 1)- including orders to reduce mental and behavioral health services that we provide to folks that don’t qualify for coverage under AHCCCS. The Kids Care program was also eliminated, meaning that about 1,000 kids that formerly qualified for benefits under the Children’s Rehabilitative Services program through KidsCare will lose their coverage, and about 2,500 kids that get behavioral health care through KidsCare will also lose coverage. There’s alot more to it, of course, but that’s the thumbnail sketch.
The law include the elimination of performance pay (2.75%). In addition, we will take 1 mandatory furlough day in what remains of FY 2010; 6 furlough days in FY 2011; and 6 more in FY 2012. When you do the math, this is roughly equivalent to a 5% reduction (when you combine the furloughs with the suspension of the performance pay). I believe that the actual furlough dates will be established by ADOA and it’s possible that state government offices would close on those days. Obviously, our State Hospital can’t close for a day, so we’re looking at other options for the Hospital.
