Budget includes $81 million extra for PeachCare

A good summary of the latest for PeachCare from Tom Crawford.

The House of Representatives is moving ahead with a state budget that would add $81 million to keep the PeachCare health insurance program for low-income and working-class children from shutting down later this month.

The House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved Monday morning a revised budget for the current fiscal year that includes the extra funds for PeachCare. The spending plan is expected to be adopted on the House floor Tuesday, when it will move to the state Senate for consideration.

The House version of the budget moves around state money so that $73 million will be added to pay PeachCare expenses. The state expects to be reimbursed for this amount when Congress adopts a federal funding bill later this year.

“Hopefully that will be settled before we get out of here,” said Rep. Ben Harbin (R-Evans), chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “If not, we’ll have to address it in the ’08 budget.”

The revised budget also provides another $8 million to the Department of Community Health to pay for a spike in PeachCare enrollment that occurred in February and March, boosting the number of children covered by the program from 278,000 to more than 306,000.

After DCH officials announced last month that they would freeze PeachCare enrollment as of March 11 because of a shortfall in federal funding, thousands of families rushed to sign up their children for the program.

Lawmakers have been wrestling with the PeachCare problem for more than two months as they try to keep the program going despite a $131 million shortfall in federal funds.

After Congressional leaders said two weeks ago they would add money to an Iraq War funding bill to help the children’s health insurance programs in Georgia and several other states, Gov. Sonny Perdue finally agreed to borrow money from the Medicaid program and other areas for PeachCare, with the understanding that the funds would eventually be reimbursed by Congress.

In adding the extra money for PeachCare, state legislators have chopped millions of dollars out of proposals Perdue made when he first submitted his budget to the General Assembly in January.

The supplemental budget whacks $8 million from the $13 million the governor wanted to spend on his “Go Fish” initiative that would build boat docks and other facilities for bass fishing tournaments.

“We’re scaling it back, so to speak,” Harbin quipped.

The spending plan also reduces the $50 million that Perdue originally put in the budget to pay for the acquisition and conservation of wildlife habitats to $34 million. Harbin said the General Assembly expects local governments to provide matching grants for at least one-third of the cost of preserving these natural areas. (Steve and I knew the budget the legislature was $50 million short of what the Governor proposed, but we couldn't find where it came from. Here's the answer to that.)