Lawmakers spar over DHS cuts
The House leadership team is divided on whom to blame for program cuts announced last week by the Department of Human Services.
DHS said years of underfunding and growing costs will force it to cut almost $30 million from services that support children, adults and seniors.
Kingfisher Republican Mike Sanders launched the first volley against the agency on Friday. He admonished DHS for cutting services that serve children and vulnerable adults in a year when the Legislature handed out an 8.2-percent appropriation boost.
Sanders is House majority leader.
Also on Friday, House Speaker Charles McCall said the cuts show DHS needs to be audited.
“Frankly, I am perplexed as to why an agency that could afford these programs last year would claim it can no longer afford them this year after receiving a $53 million increase from taxpayers,” said McCall, R-Atoka. “This is an agency that received $700 million in taxpayer dollars last session.”
McCall said he was surprised
by the cuts because the Legislature worked diligently to meet the agency’s needs.
Questioning the fairness of that criticism Monday was House Appropriation and Budget Chair Leslie Osborn. Writing in a news release with two other prominent House budget writers, she said the agency’s costs have grown $175 million in recent years.
“That is obviously far more than the $28 million (overall) increase in appropriations,” said Osborn, R-Mustang.
To cover increased costs, DHS announced a week ago it would have to implement cost-saving measures such as reducing foster parent payments and eliminating roughly 277,000 senior meals.
The agency also will implement a six-month new enrollment freeze in the child care subsidy that helps low-income families afford day care and will reduce the number of hours an in-home caregiver must be with a client.
DHS included a host of other cuts that affect Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, developmentally disabled children and SmartStart. The cuts also will reduce the number of DHS offices and lead to fewer positions at the agency. chair State of Rep.the AppropriationsEarl Sears, and Budget Subcommittee on Revenue and Taxation, said DHS has been plagued by federal funding cuts. In the past five years, he said, Oklahoma’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP, funding drop was greater than any other state. losses “This includesof the revenue federal multi-year shortfall share of Medicaid which has required DHS in previous years to make administrative and rate cuts to cover those losses. DHS has also been hit by the state revenue failures totaling $32 million, along with an unfunded growth in adoption subsidies which now stands at $23 million,” said Sears, R-Bartlesville.
State Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, noted that DHS has been required to spend millions of dollars extra on child welfare services to comply with a class action settlement agreement, necessitating deep cuts in other DHS operations.
Several House Democrats also took Sanders and Speaker McCall to task Monday for their comments.
“The speaker is completely out of touch with the challenges we face in Oklahoma. It was evident during the legislative session and is even more clear now,” said Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City. “DHS has worked to protect child welfare from cuts, but after years of the majority party’s fiscal irresponsibility, it’s simply unavoidable.”
State Rep. Cory Williams, D-Stillwater, said it was “ridiculous” for Sanders and the Speaker to claim the cuts being made by DHS were unnecessary because DHS had received a $53 million increase from last year’s budget.
“The additional funds were a small step in replacing the funding cuts in past budget years,” Williams said.
Over the last two years, cuts to DHS forced the agency to cut 1,200 jobs, roughly 15 percent of the agency workforce, the Democrats said.
Osborn, Sears and Ownbey said that McCall’s legislation creating a regular thirdparty audit of state agencies is a good idea.
Even so, they said the results might be similar to a recent Department of Corrections audit that looked for savings but instead found that the agency needed a drastic funding boost.
DHS Director Ed Lake declined to comment, but a spokeswoman said Lake thought the Osborn, Sears and Ownbey news release summed up the situation accurately.