Medicaid, SCHIP and local budgets: fighting for fairness
It's spring in New England. That means that trees and flowers are in bloom, the Red Sox are playing again, the days are getting longer and towns in the Commonwealth are trying to finalize their budgets. Many towns have either already had their Annual Town Meetings or will have them before the end of this month. This careful process of preparing the budget requires funded departments and agencies to get their fiscal requests together for the coming year. These requests are adjusted and then sent on to the Town Meeting for approval.
This process depends on some stability in terms of what the costs are going to be. Schools are usually the major component of any town's budget and can consume more than 75% of the expenses for a community for the year. These are tight budgeting times for MA schools. Many are facing teacher layoffs and a decrease of course diversity because of a lack of funds. The last thing this process needs is uncertainty in federal funding or a sudden cutoff of funds targeted to specific services.
Last year, the Bush Administration sought to stop reimbursing certain local school expenses. Families USA, a health care organization that monitors federal spending, said the cuts would "prohibit federal funding for transportation and administrative costs related to Medicaid services that some children receive at school." This would have left local communities to shoulder these costs. The Congress was able to put a freeze on this funding cut for a year. That freeze is is due to expire soon.
The US House of Representatives recently passed a measure that would extend this reimbursement freeze until April of 2009. The US Senate has a similar measure on the legislative calendar that is scheduled to be voted on soon. Senator Kerry is a lead co-sponsor on this bill and strongly supports this measure. The cities and towns of Massachusetts need this to pass. They can't afford to pick up the pieces after the federal government bails out of a commitment again.
It is often said that the "devil is in the details" on legislation. In this case the details reveal an Administration that wants to solve it's reckless spending problems by 'nickel and diming' local school systems and local budgets. This effort not only is short-sighted it also forces fiscally strapped cities and towns to shell out more money for services the federal government wants to back out of funding. Senator Kerry understands the damage this does to children's health services and to the bottom line for school budgets in Massachusetts communities. The Senator supports a freeze on these cuts until next year.
This process depends on some stability in terms of what the costs are going to be. Schools are usually the major component of any town's budget and can consume more than 75% of the expenses for a community for the year. These are tight budgeting times for MA schools. Many are facing teacher layoffs and a decrease of course diversity because of a lack of funds. The last thing this process needs is uncertainty in federal funding or a sudden cutoff of funds targeted to specific services.
Last year, the Bush Administration sought to stop reimbursing certain local school expenses. Families USA, a health care organization that monitors federal spending, said the cuts would "prohibit federal funding for transportation and administrative costs related to Medicaid services that some children receive at school." This would have left local communities to shoulder these costs. The Congress was able to put a freeze on this funding cut for a year. That freeze is is due to expire soon.
The US House of Representatives recently passed a measure that would extend this reimbursement freeze until April of 2009. The US Senate has a similar measure on the legislative calendar that is scheduled to be voted on soon. Senator Kerry is a lead co-sponsor on this bill and strongly supports this measure. The cities and towns of Massachusetts need this to pass. They can't afford to pick up the pieces after the federal government bails out of a commitment again.
It is often said that the "devil is in the details" on legislation. In this case the details reveal an Administration that wants to solve it's reckless spending problems by 'nickel and diming' local school systems and local budgets. This effort not only is short-sighted it also forces fiscally strapped cities and towns to shell out more money for services the federal government wants to back out of funding. Senator Kerry understands the damage this does to children's health services and to the bottom line for school budgets in Massachusetts communities. The Senator supports a freeze on these cuts until next year.
