The legislature went into overtime as of May 2. On May 2, the statutory deadline for the end of the legislative session and the end of daily per diem payments for legislatures, the Senate Republicans and governor were about $96 million apart from House Republicans on the budget. In addition to this spread, there are policy and funding differences that made a deal elusive including continuation of $14 million to school districts to provide payments to non-salaried staff such as paraeducators. The governor had included this funding in her original budget proposal but in making a deal with Senate Republicans, dropped support for the idea. House Republicans have made this a key sticking point in negotiating a deal. There are also a number of major policy differences between the two chambers that remain unresolved. These include: the governor’s energy bill, the opioid settlement bill and increased eminent domain protections. Twelve Republican senators have signed a pledge to not vote for any budget bill until the Senate takes a “clean” vote on the eminent domain bill passed by the House. Other priorities for the governor are also in limbo, including her rural health proposal, unemployment tax bill, fixes to the teacher salary supplement bill and paid maternity leave for state employees. Looming over all of this is the continued effort (largely driven by Senator Dan Dawson) to craft a major property tax bill that reduces residential property taxes.
Two of the issues that are priorities for Rep. Ann Meyer, chair of the HHS budget sub, were included in her version of that bill. This includes allowing an ARNP or PA to testify at a commitment hearing if they were present when a mental health professional did a psychiatric evaluation and the requirement that the ASO for the new behavioral health districts provide a comprehensive discharge plan with accountability standards for individuals being released from an involuntary commitment. The Senate declined to do both bills. Senator Mark Costello, chair of the HHS budget sub in the Senate, included policy language in his bill that would prohibit Medicaid funding for any treatment of an individual diagnosed with gender dysphoria. This vague language could include providing counseling services. It’s likely that both will use their policy priorities are bargaining points. One bullet dodged, however, is that neither included the recommendations to reduce some of the behavioral health codes reimbursement rates proposed by the department.
Speaker Grassley has indicated that he is unlikely to focus on any policy issues until there is a deal on the budget which could signal very little House debate in the next couple of weeks. Senator Whitver needs to figure out how to satisfy his caucus with respect to the eminent domain/carbon pipeline bill to be able to move budget bills. As negotiations progress and we learn more, we will keep you updated.