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Show "ifc'ehouse Report Public Welfare Deficit Problems Build for 1971 Lawmaker Session Ev r. SHARP A ce:Vc:t ia state pib-t pib-t a?;j;.ir.i o spontiir.jr is t.ir.g eJ will roach J rahon by next June ) ::!rs jreoi'.y nr. J dras-t dras-t sre ir.:u'.e. ?;:s w-.i? reported t W;t SO locUV.ers; at a S t'-T briet:r.r meet ir. ' ir.t 7 in the State Capita. Cilvin L. Ear.pton ii:e ""very tou-h" .-ui-r "rJt'.ve decisions ir.ar re to be rr.a.ie before January when the Lotrisla-taro Lotrisla-taro will meet in regular session. He reiterated b.is earlier decision net to call a special spe-cial session to appropriate more for welf.ire in view of opinions of lawmaker. nit.iir.st such a sos-ion. I1KW Promise Ward C. Holbrook. cx-cvutive cx-cvutive director. Social Services IVpartmort, said rr.en-.her of the Pernor Staff of the I. S. Pepart-rr.er.t Pepart-rr.er.t of Health, Education and Welfare (1IF.W) have said that after the state completes two months of spending at the present ?'.l'.l per month individual Kiar.t. the rate may be reduced re-duced to fit available money. mo-ney. This would cut the ttrant to js t which is $1 less than was paid last fiscal year. On compassionate grounds. grou-nds. Hampton spoke against agai-nst such a cut. Recipients would be asked to cut their spending back to 10(10 and 1'.V1 levels when prices pric-es were r.O to -10 per cent less than today, he said. I.ockstep Programs Marion K. Skinner, Denver, Den-ver, associate commissioner commission-er of Rehabilitation Services, Ser-vices, HKW. answered many questions as to possible pos-sible "trimming" of the state program. He said the state program is tied into in-to federal reputations, which leave the state very litle leeway if it wants to continue to receive federal feder-al money. Skinner urped that the state embark on a pood statistical and management manage-ment system, cross - check its welfare expenditures and provide documental records to justify the level of nursinp home and related re-lated care being provided for recipients. He also proposed tightening tight-ening rules for determining determin-ing eligibility of welfare recipients. He promised a report and recommendations recommenda-tions by Sept. 4. Rampton told the legislators legisla-tors he would invite them to n.nother briefing session ses-sion early in October when Congress probably will have acted upon welfare proi'i'Miu revisions. Doctor Shopping (leorj'o l.ovc, assistant to Skiuuer, ndvocnlod requiring re-quiring welfare reripienls to designate n single doctor doc-tor lo serve theni, avoiding avoid-ing expensive "doctor shopping," shop-ping," and holding hospital hospit-al care down to 10 days except upon ndditionnl certification cer-tification by a doctor. Arthur Poigen, Washington, Wash-ington, D. ('., analyst for 1 1 KY, said t be Family Services Ser-vices Division has no controls con-trols or cheeks upon its public assistance epen-1 epen-1 it tiros and needs badly an adequate dala computer system. Holbrook agreed that lidded lid-ded data computer services servi-ces are needed. He said these cannot be obtained this year and that any economics eco-nomics through tighter management will be minor in character. ?:t7.S." Million Progmm Richard P. Lindsay, Family Fa-mily Services Division director, di-rector, said public assistance assis-tance spending for the fiscal year which began July 1, if continued at tho present rate, will result in total spending of $'!7.8. million by next July 1. The Legislature appropriated appro-priated $:!:!. S." million About two-thirds of this is federal money. Medical assistance, if carried on at the present rate, will mean spending ?:;7.S." million in the present pres-ent fiscal year compared with an appropriation of only $1-1.15 million. These figures, he said, include in-clude savings which are anticipated by shifting many recipients in nursing nurs-ing homes from high skilled skill-ed homes to homes demanding de-manding less attention. Rampton said the economic eco-nomic recession has cu', wages to the point that many more persons are going go-ing onto relief. At the same time, state revenues have dropped, he said. Liberal Program Steep increases in costs for hospitalization, new programs under which recipients re-cipients may keep the first ?M0 ef their monthly earnings earn-ings and one-third of the remainder, medical care, plus obtaining free child care and costs for transportation trans-portation to and from work have accelerated the welfare wel-fare costs. Rampton said. ! ! ! The State Tax Commission Commis-sion Aug. 8 fixed the state school levy on property at $7.2 mills' (7.2 per $1,000 valuation). From this the state anticipates an-ticipates $12.S'.l million toward to-ward paying $111.51 million mil-lion for state support of public schools. The school program is costing $G million mil-lion more than last year. -The remaining money will come as follows: $1.95 million from corporation franchise tax, $G0.7 million mil-lion from state income lax; $140,000 from federal feder-al leases of public land, )$ 100,000 from unclaimed property and miscellaneous and $22.4 million from direct di-rect appropriation by the budget session of the Leg-islatu Leg-islatu re. A balance of $4 million wdli await transfer from general funds by the Legislature. Leg-islature. Rampton agreed to recommend such an appropriation ap-propriation in his budget message to the 1971 Legislature. |