DISABILITY ISSUES IN THE 2008 LEGISLATURE
FINAL REPORT

By Jim Jackson, Executive Director
PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY SYSTEM
March 7, 2008

Governor Completes Action. The governor has 20 days after a legislative session to act on bills that are passed in the last three days of a legislative session, and Governor Richardson has now acted on all such bills passed during the 2008 session. Most notably, he vetoed a number of capital outlay projects sponsored by Senators, focusing heavily on Senate leaders from both political parties, while approving all projects sponsored by House members. In a rare display of candor, the governor's office acknowledged that this was because the House moved his key proposals along (despite gutting his health care reform bill in the process) while the Senate chose not to.

There has been some discussion of the possibility of a special session of the legislature to address health care reform - when the regular session ended, the governor stated flatly that there would be one - and a recent meeting between the governor and Senate leaders led to an agreement to meet regularly to try to find common ground. It remains to be seen whether this will remain on course in the wake of the capital outlay vetoes.

Fortunately, there were very few disability-related bills still pending final action by the governor and he signed all but one, and the one vetoed bill was similar to a bill that he did sign.

Looking Back on the Session and Its Results. This was a pretty good session for persons with disabilities. On the positive side, legislators addressed the waiting lists for Medicaid waiver programs by adding $4 million to the DD waiver program and $750,000 to the D&E waiver. They added $1 million for the FIT early intervention program, provided start-up operational funding for the Native American Independent Living program, and added over $90 million in new funding to the basic Medicaid program. The TBI Trust Fund will see a one-time boost of over $1 million because of legislative authorization to transfer unspent funds targeted to support persons with brain injuries in the Mi Via waiver into the Fund. And legislators insisted on greater accountability in the managed behavioral health program (Value Options), and called on the state to respond to the disability community's concerns over plans to move many long term service programs into a managed care environment.

Unfortunately, the legislature once again failed to support significant expansion of mental health services, including crisis services such as safe houses and peer response teams. There was virtually no new money for autism services. Medicaid was underfunded despite the substantial increase in its budget.

These results are a reminder of how critical it is to get expansion requests into the initial budget recommendations of either the Legislative Finance Committee or the governor (or both). Without such an opening it is nearly impossible to add new funding to the final state budget. This means convincing LFC members, over the course of the summer and fall, of the importance of supporting disability services. And it means encouraging state agencies to request appropriate expansions of their programs, and convincing the governor to endorse those requests in his final budget proposal to the legislature.

In the coming months we can expect legislative committees to be looking closely at some of the unfinished business of this year's session as well as other on-going concerns, including the public school funding formula, health care reform, oversight of private guardians, and the state's new managed long term services program.

Here's a final review of disability-related legislation that passed in this session, with the governor's action, and a final accounting of additions to disability programs in the state budget. Memorials do not require action by the governor.

BILLS AND MEMORIALS THAT PASSED IN 2008

H 181 Behavioral Health Collaborative Reforms. Rep. Lucky Varela. This bill requires the state purchasing collaborative to submit a combined behavioral health budget that identifies the part of each participating agency's budget that flows through the collaborative for behavioral health services, to develop and issue regulations on quality standards and performance measures, and to provide regular performance reports to the legislature. SIGNED INTO LAW.

H 364 Children's Mental Health/DD Code. Rep. Rick Miera. This bill makes a number of technical amendments to this Code, which was significantly revised last year. A few minor glitches in the language of the Code have been identified and they are corrected in this bill. SIGNED INTO LAW.

HM 4 Medicaid Recertification Pilot Project. Rep. Danice Picraux. This memorial calls on the Human Services Department to report data related to its current pilot project to simplify the Medicaid eligibility recertification project, and to refrain from "autclosure" of cases.

HM 16 Address Concerns in Managed Long-term Services Program ("CLTS"). Rep. Jim Trujillo. The final version of this memorial, based on negotiations with ALTSD and HSD, describes the concerns of advocates and providers about the state's plan to move most Medicaid long-term services into managed care, and asks the state to address these concerns prior to implementation of the program. The memorial also calls for meaningful consultation with advocates and providers, and for progress reports to interim legislative committees.

HM 34 Anti-depressant Task Force and Study. Rep. Tom Anderson. This memorial calls on the Health Policy Commission to convene a task force to study the possible correlation between certain anti-depressants and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

S 116 Raising Income Limits for Property Tax Freeze. Sen. Diane Snyder. This bill provides that homeowners who receive Social Security benefits on the basis of disability, or who are determined "totally disabled" under a Worker's Compensation claim, are exempt from increases in property taxes on their home if their modified gross income does not exceed $32,000. The amount of this income limit will go up in future years based on the inflation rate. The current income limit is only $18,000 and is not "indexed" for inflation. SIGNED INTO LAW.

S 145 Cap on Due Process Hearing Reimbursements. Sen. Cynthia Nava. This bill reduces the maximum insurance reimbursement a school district can receive to cover the costs of a due process hearing, to $100,000. If there is not enough funding from premiums paid by the schools to cover all reimbursement requests, the payments can be reduced proportionally. Due process hearings are the administrative appeals available to families who want to challenge eligibility decisions or services plans for children in special education. SIGNED INTO LAW.

S 355 Raising Income Limits for Property Tax Freeze. Sen. John Ryan. This bill provides that homeowners who receive Social Security benefits on the basis of disability, or who are determined "totally disabled" under a Worker's Compensation claim, are exempt from increases in property taxes on their home if their income does not exceed 235% of the federal poverty level. POCKET VETOED in favor of S 116 (see above).

SM 9 Anti-depressant Task Force and Study. Sen. Joe Carraro. Same as HM 34.

SM 10 Medicaid Recertification Pilot Project. Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino. Same as HM 4.

SM 17 Address Concerns in Managed Long-term Services Program ("CLTS"). Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino. Same as HM 16.

SJM 9. Monitor Pre-special-education Services. Sen. Cynthia Nava. This memorial calls upon the Public Education Department to monitor the implementation of the "response to intervention" approach by school districts and to evaluate the impact that this approach has on the academic progress of students and on the identification of students as needing special education and related services. This approach requires schools to use specific intervention methods for students with academic delays, and only refer for special education assessment and services if this intervention fails.

SJM 31 Behavioral Health caucus. Sen. Mary Kay Papen. Calls on the legislature itself to form a behavioral health caucus of Senators and Representatives interested in substance abuse and mental health, to increase knowledge related to mental health issues and hopefully result in increased appropriations for mental health services.

THE FINAL STATE BUDGET

HB 2 General Appropriations Act. This is the bill that funds the main operating budget for all state agencies. The list below focuses on the changes to the state agency budgets that affect programs serving persons with disabilities.
" Medicaid. There is over $92 million in additional state money (which will generate around $230 million in additional federal funding) for the Medicaid program, but this is about $11 million short of the amount requested by the governor and as much as $30 million less than what HSD now thinks may be needed in the coming year. However, there is considerable controversy over these budget projections, because HSD's estimates are based on projected growth in enrollment which some legislators (and others) believe are too optimistic.
" Developmental Disabilities. $4 million more to reduce the waiting list for DD waiver services, and $1 million for FIT early intervention services. Another $750,000 was added to the budget to provide rate increases for agencies providing services through state funds (not Medicaid), but this provision was vetoed by the governor.
" Long-Term Services. $750,000 to reduce the waiting list for the D&E waiver program, plus funding to pay for 6 new employees at ALTSD to oversee the new managed long-term services program called CLTS (which is scheduled to begin July 1), and funding for 3 new staff positions to manage Mi Via, the self-directed waiver.
" Brain Injury. $600,000 to HSD for outreach and services to veterans with behavioral health issues, including TBI or post-traumatic stress syndrome. HB 2 also includes language allowing the transfer of any unspent FY 08 funds, earmarked for persons with brain injuries in the Mi Via waiver, to the state TBI Trust Fund. A significant portion of the $1.9 million earmarked for TBI/Mi Via will not be spent this year because of slow and limited enrollment.
" Mental Health. $500,000 for state-wide mental health services, and $350,000 for a mental health triage center in Dona Ana County.
" Independent Living. $105,000 for initial operational expenses of a Native American Independent Living program. Authorization for a full-time position at GCD to provide an adaptive driver-training program; an additional $2,000 for this program was included in SB 165 (see below).
" Miscellaneous. $150,000 for additional legal services to low income New Mexicans. $267,000 in additional funding for the DD Planning Council for guardianship services provided by its contractors. Reimbursements to public schools for the cost of certain services provided to home-schooled special education students were funded with an appropriation of $160,000, but this funding was vetoed by the governor. An appropriation of $100,000 to ALTSD for the purpose of studying and promoting the use of "microboards" as an alternative to guardianships was also vetoed.

SB 165 ("HB 2 Junior"). Supplemental Appropriations. This bill provided an opportunity for each legislator as well as Governor Richardson to spend a little money on their favorite programs or local or statewide needs. Several disability programs have received funding in this bill, which has been signed into law by the governor with some line-item vetoes. The bill includes:
" $171,700 to NMSU for speech/language pathology and autism outreach services
" $50,000 to GCD for community outreach for deaf persons.
" $50,000 to the Roswell branch campus of ENMU for counseling and other services for students in the special services program
" $40,000 to HSD for behavioral health and support services to Native Americans in northwestern New Mexico.
" $30,000 to Santa Fe Community College for a sign language interpreting program
" $25,000 for rehabilitation training at the Commission for the Blind
" $25,000 to ALTSD for a brain injury clubhouse program
" $25,000 to CYFD for a program in Dexter for children and young adults with autism spectrum disorder, including staff training.
" $20,000 to DOH for telehealth psychiatry in the Carlsbad area
" $20,000 to NMSU to expand the communication disorders (S/LP) training program
" $20,000 to DOH for a residential summer camp for children with autism
" $20,000 to the General Services Department for a full-time employee to implement the State Use Act.
" $20,000 to DFA to develop and implement an early childhood program for hearing impaired children in Bernalillo County.
" $15,000 to HSD for a clubhouse rehabilitation and socialization program for persons with mental illness
" $15,000 to DOH for a horseback riding program for special needs children
" $15,000 to DOH for Special Olympics in the city of Las Vegas.
" $10,000 to 13th judicial district for mental health court
" $10,000 to the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired for the low-vision clinic.
" $7,000 to PED for the Fiesta Educativa conference in the Gadsden area
" $2,000 to ALTSD for a traumatic brain injury awareness program.
" $2,000 to GCD for adaptive driver's training program for seniors and persons with disabilities.
" $1,000 to DOH for autism spectrum disorder groups and/or diagnostic services