Drug abuse treatment funding approved

BOISE – Lawmakers stuck by their plans to invest in substance abuse treatment in Idaho Wednesday as they set the budget for the giant state Department of Health and Welfare.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to spend $6.5 million in state funds next year on treatment for low-income Idahoans with addictions. That’s roughly what a federal grant has been providing, but that grant is expiring in August.

The department had wanted to double that amount and hire dozens of new state employees to expand treatment services, but Gov. Butch Otter, in his budget proposal, didn’t recommend any funding at all. Now, however, the governor and his drug policy chief are looking favorably at the treatment funds.

“He realizes there’s a problem,” said Otter’s press secretary, Jon Hanian. “It’s definitely a priority for him.”

Overall, legislative budget writers set a budget for Health and Welfare that’s nearly identical to the governor’s recommendation – an 8.3 percent increase rather than his recommended 8.2 percent increase in general funds. That’s because caseloads for Medicaid and other social services now aren’t expected to grow as much in the coming year as originally thought.

“That’s a guess, but we’re looking at trend lines,” said Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, who worked on the budget bills.

Idaho saved millions this year because Medicaid caseloads didn’t grow as much as expected, largely because of the state’s strong economy.

Lawmakers from throughout the state have been working on plans to better coordinate Idaho’s substance abuse and mental health treatment efforts for several years, and a joint committee that met over the summer made extensive recommendations for expansion of the state’s efforts in those areas. Part of the hope is that such efforts can reduce Idaho’s fast-growing prison population.

Already, lawmakers have decided to expand mental health and substance abuse treatment for prison inmates as part of the corrections budget. The Health and Welfare funding for treatment is another key piece.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, called it “critically important.”

Henbest said, “I think it’s huge.”

Idaho is just finishing up a three-year federal “Access to Recovery” grant that upped the state’s substance abuse treatment efforts for low-income Idahoans from less than $2 million a year to more than $6 million a year. But that grant expires in August, so that federal funding will drop to zero.

“It’s heartening that so many legislators, I think, are understanding our effort to deal with the substance abuse treatment needs of those in our community who can’t afford treatment,” Henbest said. The federal grant program, she said, “has helped us to understand the magnitude of that need.”

A bipartisan group of JFAC members worked on various pieces of the large and complicated Health and Welfare budget, and made many changes aimed at allowing lawmakers to more closely track just where dollars are going.

Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, noted that by the time all the various budget motions were debated and voted on, Idaho spent just over $543 million in state general funds on Health & Welfare programs – almost exactly what the governor recommended. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some variations within the parts of the budget, said Wood, a physician. “We’ve paid particular attention, tried to make sure that the taxpayer’s dollar was wisely spent,” he said.

Henbest, a nurse practitioner, said the reorganized budget includes “some really important shifts.” The money in the department’s budget is now more specifically targeted, she said, so lawmakers will be able to tell if they’re spending the right amount on specific items like substance abuse treatment.

Approval from both houses and the governor’s signature are still needed for the bills to become law, but budget bills rarely are changed once they’re set by JFAC.

Henbest praised Otter’s new drug policy coordinator, former state Rep. Debbie Field, R-Boise, whom she said has been “a great liaison.”

Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, praised Henbest, Wood, Keough, Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, and others who put many hours of work into the Health and Welfare budgets. “They’re very complicated, and very difficult to understand and get our arms around,” he said.

Henbest said, “I have some comfort that we are moving along a track that is much more coordinated … than it had been in the past.”