JFAC rejects foster-care payment increase

For the Division of Child Welfare, JFAC has approved the governor’s recommendation, which reflects a 0.7 percent increase in state general funds, and a 3.7 percent increase in total funds due to an increase in the federal matching fund rate. The division’s request to increase payments to foster parents by $1.03 million next year was rejected; that would require just $309,000 in state funds, as federal matching funds would pay for the rest.

Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, who crafted the budget with Sen. Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot, said, “It’s the governor’s recommendation - best we thought we could do.” Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, offered a substitute motion to add in the foster care increase, which she noted was identified as a budget priority by the House Commerce & Human Resources Committee in its earlier presentation to JFAC; she called foster parents “among the heroes we have in the state of Idaho,” and said the payment increase would encourage more to provide the service. “This investment right now might very well prevent children from taking the wrong path in life and give them the support they need,” Ringo said.

Two Republicans, Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, and Sen. Mitch Toryanski, R-Boise, joined Ringo, Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, and Sen. Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello, in backing the funding, but it failed on a 5-15 vote. The governor’s recommendation then passed 18-2, with just Ringo and LeFavour objecting.