Maine Disability Alerts - supplemental addresses wages, partially addresses 29 wait list. More work to do in upcoming special session

Dear Friends of Mainers with Disabilities,
 
The legislature has passed an amended supplemental budget, pared way way down due to the covid-19 emergency. A couple of issues of interest to the disability community (dollar figures refer to general fund amounts):

1. It includes money ($500K in Section 21, $268K in Section 29) to raise rates, including the statement "This funding is intended to be applied to the wages of direct care workers."
2. It includes $2.6M to take some people off the Section 29 wait list. This, unfortunately, was only the amount that Gov Mills requested that would not actually clear the 29 wait list, because it would not address the 1 person-per-day increase in 29 wait list from roughly the start of calendar year 2020 through 6/30/2021. (It's a bit less than half the money that would be required to clear the 29 wait list by 6/30/2021.) There was no money to address the other wait lists.

A joint communication from Speaker Gideon and President Jackson (item 2-1 in this senate calendar supplement) says that "unfinished matters will be carried over until the Legislature reconvenes. We will evaluate on a bi-weekly basis when it is safe and responsible for the legislature to return."
 
The means that LD 1984 (the wait list bill) will be carried over. (That bill has been amended by the HHS committee to clear the 29 wait list, take some people off the 21 wait list, and temporarily raise the per-person expenditure limit in Section 29.)
 
So we will have to return to the wait list issue whenever the legislature convenes for the special session.
 
The Governor has issued a press release that ends by saying "she intends to call the Legislature back for a Special Session as soon as is safe and prudent and that it is her strong preference that during such a session priority attention be given to only the most pressing matters." She said the same in item 2-2 in the same senate calendar supplement referenced above.
 
It will be up to the disability community to ensure that the legislature recognizes the unfinished business on wait lists as such a most pressing matter.
 
Thank you for your work to date. May you and everyone you care about stay safe and healthy throughout the covid-19 crisis and into the future.