Tuesday, June 1, 2010

NCGA: House Budget Heads to Full Appropriations Committee

Today the budget passed the House Finance Committee and will be in the House Appropriations Committee at 9:00 AM tomorrow.

Lingering over the budget is the delay of passage of the ARRA FMAP-enhanced federal medicaid matching money by the U.S. Congress. All of the budgets presented so far include a 500 million dollar medicaid match to balance the budget. Today we are hearing that approximately 20 states are also waiting to see what happens with the enhanced match as their budgets are also relying on this infusion of money from the federal government.

The House budget seems to be moving on with out addressing this issue. It may become a situation where both House and Senate leadership look to the conference committee to find options. The reality is there is no good way to try to cut an additional $500 million out of HHS or anywhere else in the budget.

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