Legislature(2005 - 2006)CAPITOL 106
05/03/2005 03:00 PM House HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB150 | |
| HB288 | |
| HB271 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 288 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 150 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 271 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 150-ALASKA CHILDREN'S TRUST FUND GRANTS CHAIR WILSON announced that the first order of business was CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 150(HES) "An Act relating to the Alaska children's trust grant awards." 3:30:10 PM JASON HOOLEY, Staff to Senator Fred Dyson, Alaska State Legislature, presented SB 150 on behalf of the Senate Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee, sponsor, which is chaired by Senator Dyson. He said that in the late 80s, the Alaska Children's Trust was created by the legislature to provide start-up funding to community-based programs dedicated to preventing child abuse. The amount of the grants is prescribed in state statute. Since then, he said, "the board of trustees has requested some additional flexibility in determining the amount of grants that they award." The proposed legislation would meet that request by: removing the $50,000 annual cap on the grants; refining the funding formula set in statute; including a four-year limit on the grant awards in order to enforce the original intent to provide seed money to the community organizations; setting up a requirement that applicants include a self-sustainability plan in their proposal; and giving the board of trustees the authority to reduce or eliminate grants in order to enforce program requirements or performance goals. 3:31:36 PM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER asked what triggered the bill. 3:32:06 PM JOEL GILBERTSON, Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), said the commissioners of the Department of Education and Early Development and the Department of Health & Social Services, by their office, were appointed to the Alaska Children's Trust when it was initiated; however, the bulk of the members are not state employees. In response to Representative Gardner's question, he said what prompted the legislation to move forward was a strange circumstance, which is that the trust has not done any new grants in over two years. Because the funding doesn't go into operations, but rather is used to start up innovative programs, getting them up and running, and moving on to something else, the original statute contemplated a step-down in funding support over a four-year period. Some legislators assumed that by the fifth year, the program being funded would be on its own; however, the statute is vague. As a result, there are programs that have continued to receive a base amount of approximately 25 percent into the eighth year. COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON said the challenge with the Children's Trust is that the principal of the fund has not grown drastically and has a fairly conservative investment strategy. The grant making comes solely from the interest that the fund earns; the principal cannot be touched. Because the market has been fairly flat, there has been a relatively fixed amount of money that comes out of earnings of the fund on an annual basis; it has ranged from between $210,000-$240,0000 per year. He said there comes a point in which a 25 percent obligation to 30 to 40 grants fully utilizes the money and doesn't allow for new funding. The key element of SB 150 is to clarify what Commissioner Gilbertson said was the intent of the original legislation, which is that after the four years of step-down funding, the amount goes to zero. He described the process as a natural attrition every four years, which would allow new grants to be brought onto the program. COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON noted that the trust has received an earmark in the last federal fiscal year for specific programming; however, that funding doesn't go into the corpus of the fund. He offered further details. 3:37:02 PM CHAIR WILSON directed attention to a booklet in the committee packet, entitled, "Alaska Children's Trust Annual Report 2004," and noted that on page 12 the grantees are listed. 3:37:15 PM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER noted that the bill would also repeal the cap on grants, and she asked how that fits in with the idea of trying to make money for new programs. COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON responded that the cap provision probably has less direct application in the short term. He said he thinks the trustees would like to be able to "be positioned where they could do something sizeable in this state," should a large amount of money became available. He stated, "What I've seen is we can spend a lot of money doing very little things, and at the end of the day, they rarely, in their cumulative weight and success, accomplish what you can get done if you do one sizeable project and you put your money behind it." He said the scope of child abuse is wide and, because there is a small amount of money, the mission needs to be tightly defined and funds need to be targeted around accomplishing "a clear change around what the trustees define as child abuse and neglect." Without SB 150, he cautioned, there will be no new grant making for the third straight year. 3:40:23 PM REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA said she has been asking about "the measurements" for the last seven years she has served as a Representative, and she has yet to see the programs come back with them. She stated, "Creating the model is almost as much of a necessity it seems to me as doing a lot of other things that wouldn't have lasting effect." 3:41:27 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON encouraged the committee to involve Margo McCabe in the discussion, because she is the chair of the trust, while he is just a member. In response to Representative Cissna's concern, he said he thinks the trustees will "self- acknowledge that there really hasn't been good performance measures in the grants." He offered examples. He mentioned an idea of moving from grants to performance contracts or measures. 3:43:04 PM MARGO MCCABE, Chair, Alaska Children's Trust, said she thinks Commissioner Gilbertson has done a good job covering the intent of the proposed legislation and explaining why the trust supports it. She echoed the commissioner in emphasizing that over the last couple of years the trust has only had enough money to fund recurring grants. She said the trust thinks there are a lot of innovative programs in existence worth looking at and would like to have its money freed up to do so. Regarding performance measures, she said the trust is about to issue a new [request for proposals (RFP)] and has done good work in giving examples of performance measures that grantees can track. She said there is a system in place for the trustees to meet with grantees to ensure they are meeting the indicators. She said she thinks SB 150 will move the trust closer to ensuring the grantees are performing and will sustain the programs once the grant monies are gone. She concluded, "The sustainability requirement just enforces what we're putting in our RFP." MS. MCCABE, in response to a request from the chair, listed the Alaska Children's Trust board members. In response to a follow- up comment from Chair Wilson, she agreed that currently there are not many members from smaller communities. In response to a question from the chair, she noted that the trustees are appointed to the board by the governor. CHAIR WILSON said she would like to see more representation on the board from rural Alaska. 3:46:26 PM MS. MCCABE concurred. She said many of the grantees are from smaller communities around the state, so a considerable amount of time is spent focusing on those communities. 3:47:11 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON said the trust conducts geographic mapping of some of the issues around child abuse. He mentioned a media campaign that focuses on modeling behaviors. He said child abuse and neglect occurs in every community in Alaska, but there is great disparity geographically, which needs to be acknowledged as resources are being put forth. 3:49:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER inquired about license plate and heirloom birth certificate programs. MS. MCCABE said those programs, which are offered through the Office of Vital Statistics, were in place before she began serving on the board and have become self-sustaining. She deferred further comment to the commissioner. 3:50:22 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON noted that the trust does not have an administrative budget or staff, but has done a tremendous volunteer effort getting involved in RFPs and contracts, and going above and beyond what normal trustees would have to do. He said the Department of Revenue provides support to the trust by managing the financial accounts, investing the fund, and providing a portion of staff time to advise the trustees on financial issues. The Department of Health & Social Services provides administrative support and uses resources in its department for the actual administration of the grants. The heirloom certificates and license plates are two other ways to raise funds. He described the heirloom certificates as "slightly more ornate than the traditional document you would get from vital statistics." 3:51:31 PM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON expressed concern regarding removing the $50,000 cap. He noted that the highest grants the trust has given have been for $20,000, and it would appear that if the trust went above $50,000, then all the efforts would be concentrated in the most populated areas of the state. He questioned if there really is a need to remove the cap or whether the trust is just looking at possibly having more money to grant in the future. COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON said he thinks it's important to remove the cap. First, it would position the trust going into the future as the corpus of the fund grows. Also, smaller grants are not as efficient. He said it shouldn't be assumed that a single grant cannot have statewide application; the trustees are committed to a statewide application of the trust. In fact, on a per capita basis, the grants are probably heavily weighted towards rural regions, which he opined is appropriate. He concluded, "It's very difficult for us to manage the trust with some of the constraints that are placed on it right now." MS. MCCABE said that she supports lifting the cap in order to position the trust board to receive larger grants in the future which then can be distributed in the most appropriate way. She said there is no intent to change the strategy in terms of how many [grants] are distributed. She stated, "We're committed to continue funding programs all around the state." COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON offered some examples of how the trust uses its funds. He noted that the trust has been unable administratively to expend funds given to the it to do a media campaign because of the existing statute. CHAIR WILSON asked who holds the trust accountable. 3:56:52 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON replied that the trust is a public entity appointed by the governor. Ultimately, he said, the individual ultimately responsible is the commissioner of DHSS. He explained: Procedurally, the way the trust actually works is the trustees make the spending decisions, those spending decisions are integrated into the grant making of the Office of Children's Services and, as commissioner, I'm the one who actually signs the authorization to expend the funds, ... approves the RFP, and approves the grant awards. CHAIR WILSON asked if [the trust] would object to reporting each year to both the Senate Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee and the House Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee. 3:58:13 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON responded that the trust publishes an annual report that documents where the funds go, and he said he could certainly make a commitment to the chair that every legislator gets a copy. REPRESENTATIVE SEATON referred to [the sponsor statement, included in the committee packet, which includes a chart describing the funding formula]. He questioned whether the way the chart was written may be ambiguous. COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON explained that the funding scale is existing law. He said the grantee comes forward with a proposal with an amount for a program set. The percentages are figured each year from the set amount. In response to a question from Chair Wilson, he reiterated that everyone he has spoken to has said the intent was that there would be a natural turnover after four years, but that sentence is missing in statute. Of the sixteen grantees going into the upcoming grant years, 12 of them will be past four years, three of the remaining the fourth year and one will be in its third year. There will be no grantees in the first or second year. 4:02:59 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON, in response to a question from Chair Wilson as to where that language exists in the bill, directed attention to page 2, lines 7-8, which read: (d) The board may not award grants to a single project or program for more than four years. COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON, in response to a follow-up question from Chair Wilson, said there are two more areas in the bill with "salient pieces of new language." One part of the bill would require the grantees to have a sustainability or self- sufficiency plan. The other new language read as follows: (g) The board may reduce or discontinue a grant awarded or distributed under this section at any time during the grant period if the project is not being successful in accomplishing its objectives, as determined by the board. 4:04:17 PM REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA reiterated her concerns regarding performance measures. She said the state needs to have partners in the private sector that provide services. She offered further examples. She suggested adding language to include new organizations with ideas for programs. 4:06:52 PM COMMISSIONER GILBERTSON said he doesn't disagree with Representative Cissna. He said he has a lot programs in his department that need to be addressing the issues that Representative Cissna is talking about. He said questions that need to be addressed are: "How do we bring competition into the marketplace for grant making; ... how do we make our decisions on awarding grants based on performance - on outcomes that we the payer have set; and how do we hold our grantees, ... contractors, ... vendors, or our providers accountable for those outcomes?" He added that the Alaska Children's Trust is not the entity to engage in that conversation, because the sole purpose of the trust is about primary prevention and keeping it simple. CHAIR WILSON closed public testimony. 4:09:49 PM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON moved to report CSSB 150(HES) out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSSB 150(HES) was reported out of the House Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee.
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