Three guardians for developmentally disabled Idaho residents have dropped their lawsuit against the state over Medicaid changes, reports AP reporter Rebecca Boone; click below for her full report. The attorney for the group said the shift to a single provider of residential habilitation services for such patients statewide will result in more work for law enforcement and emergency rooms.

A group of severely disabled Idahoans is suing the state after the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare cut their Medicaid benefits by as much as 40 percent, then refused to tell them why, saying its formula for the benefits is a “trade secret,” and therefore exempt from release under the Idaho Public Records Law, the AP reports; the secrecy makes it nearly impossible for the patients to appeal the decisions. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Idaho's Department of Environmental Quality has lost a quarter of its budget  to cuts since the recession began, AP reporter John Miller reports, and it's part of a national trend that's seeing conservation programs and environmental regulations pared back significantly as states grapple with budget deficits. Miller reports that because environmental programs are just a sliver of most state budgets, the cuts often go without much public notice, while more attention is focused on larger reductions in Medicaid, public education or prisons. Click below for his full report.

A judge says Idaho can't switch to just one provider for some types of Medicaid services for the developmentally disabled until the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decides whether the practice complies with federal law, the Associated Press reports. The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill was handed down Thursday — just one day before the state's contract with Community Partnerships of Idaho was to go into effect. The ruling keeps dozens of other residential habilitation companies across Idaho in business, at least for now; click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Idaho's recently retired chief economist, Mike Ferguson, asked if he feels vindicated by today's news that fiscal year 2011 tax revenues actually exceeded his much-criticized forecast – rather than running $140 million lower than the forecast, as lawmakers and Gov. Butch Otter predicted – said, “I'm certainly glad that the revenues came in stronger than the numbers the budget was based on. I guess it's essentially about the last forecast I'll probably do, and it's nice to end on a positive note that way. I guess I don't really like to go there in terms of tit for tat and vindication.”

Ferguson said throughout his quarter-century-plus career as the state's chief economist, “I never … had any pressure to modify my forecasts for political reasons. I was always able to produce the best and most honest forecasts that I could produce.” He said, “The thing that I think changed, and that is worrisome, is that the governor and the Legislature have taken to essentially rejecting the work of professional economists that are hired and paid a salary to do that work. And if it was just some kind of abstract thing, it wouldn't really matter too much, but people's lives and health are at stake, people's futures are at stake, in terms of the quality of the education system, the way that people receive services relating to health care, disabilities.”

Ferguson originally forecast $2.43 billion in state tax revenue for fiscal year 2011, but the governor and Legislature instead chose to budget to a much lower estimate of $2.29 billion. In the end,  2011 revenues came in at $2.444 billion. Now, Ferguson noted, it's happened again for fiscal year 2012. “There's no bet – it didn't get the circus effect,” he said. “But the situation is every bit as grave in terms of the consequences for public services, because the year and a half ago that my forecast was rejected, that was the first time ever that a governor had rejected the professional forecast and expressly adopted something different. And that happened again this year. So basically, there's a pattern emerging.”

Lawmakers and the governor this year budgeted based on a prediction of 3 percent growth in state revenue in 2012 over 2011, rather than the 6.9 percent state economists forecast. “Well, that yields a number for fiscal year 2012 that is actually lower than came in in actuality for fiscal year '11,” Ferguson noted, reducing forecasted revenue for next year by $91.5 million to just $2.43 billion. Adding 3 percent to the actual 2011 collections of $2.444 billion would have meant revenues of $2.517 billion for next year. “If you apply the growth rate to $2.444 billion, you get a number for fiscal year 2012 that is considerably higher than the number that the Legislature used and the governor used, and that the school cuts are based on and that the Medicaid cuts are based on,” Ferguson said. Asked if that means Idaho is poised to make painful budget cuts in the coming year that it doesn't need to make, he said, “That would be a logical conclusion.”

The final numbers are in, and Idaho ended the fiscal year well ahead of projections for state tax revenues - $85.3 million ahead of the January projection. That means public schools will get an additional $59.9 million. Gov. Butch Otter said the final figures should also allow the next scheduled increase in Idaho's grocery tax credit, which the state had planned to put off for a year. Otter said he lost his bet with former Gov. Cecil Andrus that state revenues would be closer to retired chief state economist Mike Ferguson's projections than to Otter's and the Legislature's. “I made a silly bet with Andrus. I was hoping that he was right, and then I did everything I could do to make sure he was right,”  Otter said. “It’s a payment that I’m very happy to make.” Click below for his full new release.

Two men with developmental disabilities and their guardians are suing the state over a recent money-changing change to Idaho's Medicaid program, saying the state is violating their right to freely choose providers, the Associated Press reports. The two are seeking class-action status on behalf of all residents of Medicaid-covered certified family homes in Idaho. Idaho decided this year to contract with just one agency, rather than dozens, to oversee the state's 1,800 certified family homes; the move is expected to save the state $800,000, though it also means far fewer inspections of the homes and other changes. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

More than 42,000 poor or disabled Idahoans lost their non-emergency dental coverage last Friday due to state budget cuts, and there's some question about whether the state's expected $1.7 million in annual savings really will pay off in the long run. “Some of this stuff, if you don't take care of it at a certain level, then it gets worse, so it can cost a lot more,” said Dr. Jack Fullwiler, a longtime Coeur d'Alene dentist and current president of the Idaho State Dental Association.

Washington made a similar cut six months ago, but it exempted patients with developmental disabilities and those in long-term care from the cuts. In Idaho, all adults on Medicaid will lose non-emergency dental coverage except pregnant women. Fullwiler said Idaho dentists actually were relieved that the cuts didn't go even further. “At least we got the emergency programs for the adults,” he said.

In 2002, Idaho briefly eliminated non-emergency adult dental coverage under Medicaid as part of budget cutbacks, prompting a statewide outcry after an elderly woman who was denied dentures was told she'd have to gum her food; then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and the Legislature restored the benefit the following year. Now, Fullwiler said, “I know they're not going to pay for dentures. They're going to pay for toothaches, basically.” You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare is suspending payments to hospitals this week due to a budget crunch, the Twin Falls Times-News reported over the weekend; you can read their full story here. The suspension, which just puts off paying bills that still must be paid, comes because of a surge in Medicaid patients, the department says – one that wasn't anticipated in this year's budget.

More than 100 disabled Idahoans and their caregivers, who say state budget cuts could force them out of certified family home care and into costlier institutions, gathered at the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare yesterday to press appeals over the cuts; a hearing officer likely will rule in July on whether the appeals should proceed administratively or go to federal court. The cuts, ordered last year in the Aid for the Aged, Blind and Disabled cash-assistance program, affected 2,000 people, 1,400 of whom lost coverage for their living expenses altogether and another 600 of whom had their payments reduced. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Here's a news item from the Associated Press: LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is being sued by five former workers who say they were laid off because they were closer to retirement and had higher wages than their colleagues. The workers, all from north-central Idaho and eastern Washington, filed the age discrimination lawsuit in Lewiston, Idaho's 2nd District Court. The Lewiston Tribune reports that the workers say they were among 126 employees laid off last year amid budget cuts and office closures around the state, and that the department selected older employees for the layoffs. Juanita Hatke, Judi Lupinacci and Candace Maurer of Lewiston, Patricia Wilkinson of Kamiah and Barbara Swearingen of Clarkston, Wash. are asking for damages in an amount to be proven at trial. They are represented by Lewiston attorney Scott Chapman.

Here's a link to the live webcast of today's State Board of Education meeting in Moscow, at which the board is considering proposed student tuition and fee increases at Idaho's colleges and universities. Lewis-Clark State College, which is presenting now, is seeking a 7 percent increase, as is Idaho State University; BSU wants 5 percent, and the University of Idaho is looking for an 8.4 percent increase. (Note: If the webcast is playing music, they're on a break.)
  

Freshman Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador appeared on CNN's “Situation Room” program just now, in a panel along with three other tea party-backed freshman Republicans, Reps. Ann Marie Buerkle of New York, Tom Graves of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona. CNN said it picked “one from each corner of the country,” and was surprised to find the four split on tomorrow's budget-cuts vote: Two plan to vote in favor, one against, and Labrador is leaning against.

Labrador agreed with the others that the freshmen have made a difference, and helped bump up the level of cuts that now is being contemplated - though they want more. “When we started the debate, the initial offer was $31 billion in cuts. Some of us spoke up and said that it needed to be more,” he told the program. “So we actually got it to $61 billion in cuts. And now we're getting $38, $39 billion in cuts. We're going to vote against these things, but I think we would have had much less.”

At the close of the interview, the four were asked, “So are you crazy, or are you really the sanest people in America?” Labrador responded, “If being fiscally responsible is extreme and crazy, then I think I am.”

Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on how Idaho’s Medicaid program is facing such a big potential shortfall next year that officials are suggesting turning to volunteers to help out the disabled and poor who now rely on its services. State Health and Welfare Director Dick Armstrong told state lawmakers today that back in the 1950s and 1960s, volunteers performed many services that Medicaid provides today - and perhaps they could be recruited again, for everything from driving disabled people to doctor’s appointments to checking on whether mentally ill patients have taken their medication. “I think it’s a good idea,” said Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, the vice-chair of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee. “That’s part of helping our community as a whole. If we don’t all pull together, we have less opportunity to come out of this as a healthy state.” Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, said, “I think there’s some merit there. We all have an obligation to help our fellow citizens - it’s not all a state responsibility. I’m intrigued by his comment and hope there’ll be some ways we’re able to pursue that.”

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is poised to make more than $8 million in cuts to Medicaid programs and services for low-income adults with severe mental illness and children with autism and other developmental disabilities, the AP reports. The agency has drafted a new set of rules that authorize cuts in services or elimination of some programs designed to trim about $1.6 million from its current fiscal year budget. Those cuts, however, would also trigger the loss of another $6.5 million in federal Medicaid matching funds used to reimburse care providers.

The agency has been under pressure all year to find ways to cut more than $57 million from its Medicaid budget in fiscal 2011 to offset the financial pounding to the state general fund amid the economic downturn. The agency has only cut $36.2 million and will ask lawmakers in January for an additional $41.5 million to plug holes in the Medicaid budget. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Todd Dvorak.

Idaho’s planned cutbacks in Health & Welfare programs have run into a snag - a federal judge has temporarily barred the state from cutting a cash assistance program for some developmentally disabled adults. The recipients, who all function at the level of an 8-year-old or below, are part of a proposed class-action lawsuit charging that cutting their monthly payments could force them to become institutionalized, actually costing the state more than paying to keep them in certified family care homes. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

The Twin Falls Times-News reports today that Hal Anderson, head of the planning and technical services division for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, plans to retire next month after nearly three decades with the agency, and that Anderson, 60, is hoping the agency will hire back some of the employees it’s laid off in the past year rather than replace him. “They’re the ones that are keeping our actual programs going,” Anderson told the Times-News, though he’s a top manager with decades of experience in Idaho water issues. “I personally support … keeping as much at the programmatic level as we can.” You can read the full story here by Times-News reporter Nate Poppino.

Idaho’s state prison system is eliminating 24 more staff positions, bringing the number cut in the past two years to 102, and imposing far-reaching furloughs on all prison staffers in the coming year to cope with state budget cuts. Because of shifts of workers from one job to another and non-filling of positions that become vacant, there have been few layoffs, the Idaho Department of Correction reports. “This has been a difficult process especially for the employees whose jobs have been impacted,” said Corrections Director Brent Reinke.  “While almost all of them still have jobs, many of them have had to take pay cuts and demotions.” In the fiscal year that starts July 1, all prison security staff will have to take 32 hours of unpaid furlough, while all other department employees must take 80 hours.

Meanwhile, Idaho’s prison population is forecast to grow by 4.3 percent in the coming fiscal year. Reinke said the growth could be more because of additional cuts in social service programs through the Department of Health and Welfare and the Office of Drug Policy. “The fact is there are now a lot of people who won’t get the mental health or drug treatment they need in the community and run the risk of ending up in prison,” Reinke said. Click below to read the department’s full announcement of its budget-balancing plan.

University of Idaho President Duane Nellis has announced his plan for the 6 percent mid-year budget cut at the university ordered by Gov. Butch Otter. The U of I considered furloughs, but decided against them for now. Much of the UI’s $7.1 million in cuts will come from personnel costs, including eliminating vacant positions and travel; there also will be cuts in operating expenses, capital outlay and reserves. Nellis said the plan “required exceedingly difficult choices, and virtually every part of the university has been impacted.” He also called on the state to “protect the essential nature of its investment in higher education,” and declared, “Continued disinvestment should no longer be an option.” You can read his memo to faculty, staff and students here.

At least a dozen Idaho school districts have declared financial emergencies under a new state law, and more are considering the move as they face their first-ever cut in state funding for schools next year. “There’s no money, so what can you do?” asked Ryan Kerby, superintendent of the New Plymouth School District in southwestern Idaho. In Bonner County, West Bonner Schools Superintendent Mike McGuire said he’s already cut a quarter-million dollars from next year’s budget, and it still hasn’t made up the shortfall. “We aren’t going to have a high school assistant principal next year in a high school of 400-plus students - that wasn’t a luxury,” he said. “We’ve made, I think, some pretty serious reductions throughout the district. We just don’t have anyplace else to look.”

The new financial emergency law lets a school district reopen teacher contracts, to negotiate possible adjustments in pay, hours or contract length. It allows temporary suspension of a state law that requires teachers to be paid at least what they were the previous year. West Bonner and Boundary County school districts already have made the declarations; Coeur d’Alene and Rathdrum schools are seriously considering it. Tom Taggart, business manager for the Lakeland School District in Rathdrum, said, “There’s a lot of potential risks with moving ahead with it, but it’s one of the few tools we have.” You can read my full story here in today’s Spokesman-Review.