2005 Testimony
Testimony Before the Senate Appropriations
Senator Ray Holmberg, Chairman
HB 1012 - DHS Budget - Administrative Support Budget Area
March 1, 2005
Chairman Holmberg, members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, I am Brenda Weisz, Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Human Services. I am here today to provide you with an overview of ADMINISTRATION / SUPPORT.
- Includes: Executive Office, Legal Advisory Unit, Human Resources, Office of Applied Research, and Fiscal Administration. This area of the budget provides for the support needed for the divisions within the Department to carry out their programs.
The Legal Services Unit processes over 540 requests for administrative appeals in a biennium, along with processing over 300 intential program violations. Additionally, they review and draft over 1,100 contracts during a biennium. The Human Resources Division reviews approximately 5500 applications for qualifications, provides a rating, and makes referrals to the employing unit, along with maintaining position classifications, processes personnel related changes, and conducts background checks on potential new hires. Fiscal Administration processes over 250 federal reports each biennium, maintains the financial status of over 800 department ID numbers (formally accounting cost centers), processes approximately 240,000 disbursement and payroll checks a biennium, processes over 3 million pieces of mail primarily in the form of client notices or other client related information, reviews approximately 170 cost reports per biennium while setting over 180 rates for providers / facilities for the same timeframe.
Performance Measures
Overview of budget changes:
| 2003-2005 Budget | Increase / (Decrease) | 2005-2007 Request | Increase / (Decrease) | Request to Senate |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salaries | 7,230,945 | (215,485) | 7,015,460 | (25,323) | 6,990,137 |
| Operating | 4,215,588 | (181,223) | 4,034,365 | - | 4,034,365 |
| Loan Fund - DD | 3,261,556 | (3,261,556) | - | - | - |
| Total | 14,708,089 | (3,658,264) | 11,049,825 | (25,323) | 11,024,502 |
| General | 4,961,441 | 369,960 | 5,331,401 | (17,337) | 5,314,064 |
| Federal | 5,862,899 | (340,539) | 5,522,360 | (7,986) | 5,514,374 |
| Other | 3,883,749 | (3,687,685) | 196,064 | - | 196,064 |
| FTEs | 73.80 | (7.70) | 66.10 | - | 66.10 |
Governor's Budget Request:
Salaries / FTE
- Reflects a reduction of 7.7 FTE - 2.0 from Legal Advisory; 0.7 from Human Resources; 3.0 from the Office of Applied Research; and 2.0 from Fiscal Administration.
- Initial reduction - $647,627 total funds of which $123,802 is general funds. A majority of the general funds were removed during the prior legislative session as part of the $1.5 million budget adjustment to Administration.
- The salary and health insurance package adds $432,142 total funds of which $268,501 is general funds.
- Net decrease of $215,485 total funds, however, there is a $144,699 increase in general funds.
Operating Expenses:
Although there is a reduction of $181,223, the general fund request in this area increased by $225,261. The funding of the expenditures in this area of the budget are based on the Department's cost allocation plan. A portion of the reduction is a result of the excess funding that remained after the general funds were removed from Administration during the prior legislative session.
Loan Fund - DD:
This area of the budget is reduced, however, the repayment of these loans is continued in the budget request of the Land Department. Currently, this repayment process includes three steps. First repayments are received by the Land Department then transferred to the Department of Human Services. We immediately transfer those funds right back to the Land Department using a different fund number on the system. This change to reflect the repayments only in the Land Department's budget is an effort to make government more efficient. The reduction is comprised of Other funds.
House Changes:
Includes a reduction of $25,323 in salaries to fund the salary increase at 3% and 4% rather than at 4% and 3% as recommended by the Governor's salary package.
This concludes my testimony.
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