Analysis of FY07 Conference Committee Report

July 7, 2006

OVERVIEW

On June 30, 2006, the appointed Conference Committee released its final FY07 $25.7 billion budget, a 7.5 percent increase over last year. While this budget provides significant increases in local aid, including a 6.6 percent increase for Chapter 70 education funding, there is still little restoration to deep cuts made to many health, education and human services programs since FY03.

The Governor has 10 days to veto items and the Legislature may override any vetoes by 2/3 majority vote.

Below is a more detailed preliminary analysis of those issues critical to the four UWMB impact areas:

Healthy Child Development

• Pursuant to law in FY05, the Legislature established the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). Formerly, child care services for low-income families were provided by the Office of Child Care Services and the Department of Education. The new EEC is responsible for developing a comprehensive early education plan for all preschool children in the state, and will heretofore serve as the sole state agency to administer all early education and care services in the Commonwealth, including school-age care. Child care funding for low-income families is slightly increased to almost $314M, including an annualization of last year’s child care rate increase. Note, however, that the Conference budget split the administration of child care between two line items: child care vouchers for welfare recipients, teen parents, and former welfare recipients (3000-4050 funded at $163.15M), and income-eligible vouchers for low-income families (3000-4060 funded at $150.71M).
• Community Partnerships for Children (CPC) is cut significantly from $68.7M in FY06 to $47.64MM. However, another way of looking at it is that the program is level funded from FY06 but has been divided among separate line items (i.e., CPC grants, quality expenditures toward accreditation, professional development grants for providers, early childhood mental health consultation services for providers, and pilot implementation grants for the Mass. Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program). If you total these line item amounts, it roughly equals last year’s CPC level funded amount.
  • Of note to UWMB is the Conference budget’s investment in the professional development of the early education and care workforce. There is a new line item funded at $1.5M specifically for the purposes of professional development. Additionally, there is an additional $3M for the early education scholarship program created by HWM in last year’s budget, which is also available for afterschool providers.
  • Also of note is a new $1.4M line item within the Department of Early Education and Care (3000-6075) to fund early childhood mental health consultation services for early education and care programs. UWMB has been working with Together For Kids Coalition (a project of central Massachusetts funders and providers, including United Way of Central Mass.) to support a preschool intervention and prevention model of service consisting of community-based mental health consultation, teacher training and parenting skill development that will result in fewer preschool suspensions and expulsions.
• Mass. Family Networks and the Parent-Child Home Program were combined into one line item (3000-7050 funded at $8.4M) under the umbrella of “improv[ing] the parenting skills of participants in early education and care programs ….” Both programs were generally level funded from last year with MFN earmarked at $5.4M and PCHP earmarked at $3M.
• The Reach Out and Read Program, which provides books to at-risk children distributed through community health centers, was increased from $500,000 in last year’s budget to $1M.
• The state supplemental line item for the federal Head Start program is increased by $1M over FY06 to $8.5M.
• Child care resource and referral services are increased by $1.3M over FY06 levels to $11.56M.
• The Healthy Families Home Visiting Program is slightly increased from $12.24M to $12.56M. This is an important priority for UWMB, as we have been instrumental in advocating for this program for first time parents under the age of 21 since its inception.
• Within the Department of Education, the Conference budget increases full day kindergarten by $2M to $27M.
• Within the Department of Public Health, Healthy Start prenatal services are slightly cut to $15.97M, while the state’s contribution to the WIC program is slightly increased to $13.1M. Increases are also included in early intervention (up about $2M to $32.96M), and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, up approximately $1M to $72.54M. These programs address the social – emotional domains of child development and coincide with UWMB’s strategic direction in the Healthy Child Development impact area.
• The Children’s Medical Security Program is decreased by $2.85M from the amount in the FY06 final budget and is funded at $18.23M. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this program, which provides access to health insurance for all uninsured children up to age 19. This law served as a national model for congressional action on children’s health care in 1997.

Youth

• With regard to UWMB’s priority for funding out-of-school time, the Conference budget restores $1M dedicated specifically for grants to afterschool and out-of-school time programs, with a preference given to proposals developed collaboratively by schools and community-based programs. In FY00, this line item was funded at $11.5M, but has not been funded at all since FY03. In the meantime, children ages 0 through 12 (age 16 for special needs children) are eligible for subsidies/vouchers from the low-income child care line item (now in the Department of Early Education and Care). However, this source is distributed to priority families without regard to age except in determining overall eligibility. In addition, youth ages 13 to 18 fall outside this eligibility. In the past, some dollars from the MCAS academic support line item was used for afterschool programming but it is now strictly for tutoring youth with the goal of passing the MCAS. UWMB is extremely pleased to see a reinstatement of dollars dedicated specifically to out-of-school time programming. We are also gratified that the final budget added $50,000 for our partner, the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership, to convene regional networks to enhance school-community partnerships and positive outcomes for children and youth.
• The line item that provides matching grant funding for youth development programs through nonprofit organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs is level funded at $5.7M.
• The Conference budget includes $6.5M for Extended Learning Time grants, to enable districts that applied for planning funding this past year to implement their plans to extend the school day. The Governor’s budget proposed funding these grants at $25M.
• The Conference budget includes $250,000 for the Latino After School Initiative (of which UWMB is a longtime supporter) earmarked within the Department of Public Health, as well as an additional $150,000 earmarked through the Department of Workforce Development.

Sustainable Employment

• The Conference budget essentially level funds Adult Basic Education at $29.52M. In addition, the recently enacted Economic Stimulus bill, so called, increases ABE by $3M to $32.3M.
• The Employment Services Program, which provides education and training opportunities for welfare recipients, receives a $6M increase over FY06 to $27.1M (plus additional funding that could be available in retained revenue from federal reimbursements). While this increase appears large, it can be viewed as level funding when taking into account the FY06 reserve account of $6M that was appropriated to fund major changes to the system (welfare legislation is currently pending in the Legislature to align the state’s work hours to the federal law in order to avoid federal fiscal penalties).
• UWMB is also pleased to report that the recent Economic Stimulus bill includes much of the Workforce Solutions Act (WSA). The WSA is legislation developed by the Workforce Solutions Group, a grantee of UWMB (among other funders) and part of the SkillWorks initiative to improve the workforce delivery system in the Commonwealth. Of note are the aforementioned provisions along with the following additional funding. While the Governor vetoed many of these, we expect that the Legislature will override most, if not all.
  • $2M for One Stop Career Centers (a network of 35 centers across the state that help connect people to job resources and employment;
  • $3M for School-to-Career Connecting Activities to link young people to employment;
  • $11M Workforce Competitive Trust Fund to provide job training in high demand occupations; and
  • Inclusion of a multi-stakeholder taskforce to identify system improvements that maximize resource allocation, prioritize the system’s activities, and define success.
• In addition, the Conference budget included $21M for the Workforce Training Programs line item. This provides for grants and technical assistance administered by the Department of Workforce Development.
• The Conference budget includes $75,000 for the Board of Higher Education’s implementation of a graduation task force initiative designed to improve the graduation rates at state and community colleges. UWMB’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Milton Little, Jr., is a member of the task force.

Affordable Housing

• The Conference budget increases funding for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) by approximately $1M to $27.5M. MRVP subsidizes rent for low-income tenants at an average cost of $478/month, much less than the cost of one month in emergency shelter (source: CHAPA).
• Residential Assistance to Families in Transition (RAFT), a homelessness prevention program, was level funded in the Conference budget at $5M. Since the program began in 2004, RAFT has prevented more than 3,000 families from becoming homeless by stabilizing their housing situations. In FY05 and FY06, RAFT funds were exhausted before the end of the fiscal year.
• The Emergency Assistance account, which provides funding for the family shelter program, has been level funded at $73.65M. The Conference budget preserves the eligibility limit of 130% of the federal poverty limit (FPL), in contrast to the Governor’s proposal to limit eligibility to those families at or below 100% FPL.
• Housing Services and Counseling, including funding for nine Consumer Education Centers has received a $600,000 increase and is funded at $1.82M. The centers provide education, outreach, counseling and materials to tenants, first-time homebuyers, homeowners and owners of rental properties.
• Following the Governor’s proposal, the Conference budget funds a statewide Individual Development Account (IDA) program for households in state subsidized housing (funded through the Department of Housing and Community Development at $500,000). Funds may be awarded to community-based organizations to establish local IDA programs. UWMB has secured a $500,000 federal matching grant to establish IDA programs and we will soon begin implementing these private-public partnerships.