The Health and Human Services budget subcommittee appropriates funding for the Department of Elder Affairs (DEA), the Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Department of Human Services (DHS), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including the Iowa Veterans Home (IVH).
Allowable Growth – The legislature set allowable growth rate at 4 percent for the 2009-2010 school year. This was the same rate that was set for the current budget year. When the 1.5 percent across-the-board reductions were made, state aid was cut for the current budget year by 33.4 million. year.
While the majority of programs under the Governor’s budget would receive a 6.5% reduction, the Department of Workforce Development (WFD) would not due to their assistance to provide services to the unemployed. Overall, the department would receive a $1,154,000 increase. Those increases include funding the Governor’s taskforce recommendations on employee misclassification that would enforce unemployment, workers’ compensation, and tax laws on employers that are not claiming certain employees. There would also be an increase to the statewide standard skills assessment. This program started last year to evaluate Iowa’s workforce readiness and assistance to make job placement programs more efficient.
The Administration & Regulation budget is typically one of the first budgets to pass the General Assembly. The Fiscal Services Division has assembled a list of contact information for the committee that handles this budget that is available on the official legislative website. For example, you can find information about the departmental request for the budget in PDF format here. The Administration & Regulation Budget is primarily responsible for the appropriations related to operiting the Department of Administrative Services.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) faced similar cuts to other agencies throughout state government. IDALS and DNR were both cut 6.5% in the governor’s budget recommendation, on top of the 1.5% cut from last fiscal year. For IDALS, the 1.5% cut amounted to $296,153. The 6.5% cut amounted to an additional $1,237,872 cuts to the Department in FY 2010. The governor also proposed $397,559 in additional cuts to the department. This left the total appropriation for IDALS at $19,889,964 for FY 2010, which is approximately $1.8 million below the FY 2009 appropriation for the department.