‘Challenges For Change’ Has Its Own Challenge

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(Host) A bill called Challenges for Change will be one of the last items to be addressed by the Legislature this year.

But some lawmakers are concerned that they’re being asked to vote on a bill that transforms government programs without having studied the details.

VPR’s John Dillon reports:

(Dillon) The Challenges for Change bill is living up to its name.

The legislation calls for restructuring how some government services are delivered – and it’s supposed to save $38 million dollars.

That savings is already booked in the budget passed by both the House and Senate. But the Challenges legislation itself is still being crafted.

Confused?  Well, so are more than a few lawmakers. Here’s Franklin Senator Sarah Kittell with a question about the redesign of programs for people with developmental disabilities.

(Kittell) How are we going to have resources for all these folks, and still cut 2.5 percent and others. Are we going to cut services?

(Dillon) Kittell is a member of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, which has jurisdiction of the state’s social services programs.

The committee asked for a briefing on the Challenges bill from the Appropriations Committee, which is drafting the legislation. Chittenden Senator Diane Snelling – an architect of the Challenges plan — said essentially that it’s still a work in progress.

(Snelling) Here’s what happens, along the way of doing the Challenges you hear about – in saying, well that doesn’t really sound like – well how about this? You start to have conversations about alternative ways to do things, to redesign services that actually meet outcomes because in many of the conversations they simply were cuts. And we have worked very hard to say… who does this benefit and how.

(Dillon) Health Committee Chairman Doug Racine wanted more details, and found out from Snelling that in some cases the plan calls for the state to spend more money to save money. The question came up about a provision of the Challenges bill that says the state will do more to help families in crisis.

(Racine) "Who’s going to do that, provide the additional services, because that sounds like an investment, and that takes more staff to have more staff to go out with families. Are you adding more money?"

Snelling: "Yes. We’re adding. This is, I think, an idea where the concept is that you can save money because you can move more people off of services at the same time you’re getting better outcomes."

(Dillon) Racine told Snelling he likes the idea of the programs changes – which calls for social workers to work intensively with families. But on this particular program and on other aspects of the Challenges bill, Racine wanted more details.

(Racine) Just to be clear, those ideas are still being drafted, but will be released to the Appropriations Committee at some point, so we’ll have to come back to that language…

Snelling: Yes, I’d love to give you the whole bill.

Racine: I wish this was February and not two days before adjournment. 

(Dillon) And that’s the way many lawmakers felt. With days left in the session, they said they were being asked to take pieces of the Challenges bill on faith, not on testimony that they had studied in detail.

For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.

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