Child welfare changes also hinge on money

How much change lawmakers can impose on Utah's child welfare system is just as much a question of money as it is a question of shifting public policy.

So far, of the 28 bills on Capitol Hill dealing with some aspect of child welfare, fiscal analysts have come up with a price tag for 10 of them — nearly $4 million in costs to the Division of Child and Family Services, with close to half of that needing a general fund appropriation.

Those numbers don't include costs that other agencies such as the Attorney General's Office and the courts anticipate they will have to bear to implement the changes.

Lawmakers pushing for those changes disagree with the numbers, which are agency-generated then reviewed and analyzed by the legislative fiscal analysts, and accuse DCFS of coming up with inflated figures as a way to kill proposals for change.

In slim revenue years, the price tag of statutory change can often mean the death of a legislative proposal. This year, lawmakers are hoping for healthier revenue numbers, but there has been no indication so far that child welfare reform has risen to a top priority on the spending list.

In fact, midway into the session, lawmakers have identified $85 million in "hot spot" funding needs from Corrections to Medicaid to public education, and someone is going to be disappointed, Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, said.

"We are going to have some very difficult decisions to make," he said. The House budget chairman stressed that the buzz word for now is for lawmakers to "wait" until Feb. 16, when revenue numbers are due in. "I would not characterize our economy as improving. It's not getting any worse, but I wouldn't say it has turned around. Nobody thinks $200 million is coming our way."

Much of the state's spending has to be directed at keeping pace with inflationary growth to meet existing program needs, Bigelow said, plus there is a $125 million chunk being demanded for employee compensation and medical/ dental benefits.

"We just don't know how much we're going to have, and once we do, it will be a matter of what decision are we going to make and why."

Rep. Mike Thompson, R-Orem, one of several lawmakers aiming to change the child welfare system, predicted the price tag DCFS tacked on many of the bills would backfire for the agency.