* Rep. Ken Dunkin on last week’s Child Care Assistance Program deal he says he helped cut with Gov. Bruce Rauner…
“Child care was at the center of the table right now, close to a billion dollars in funding. To have that program up and running, up at least at 85 percent, and until we receive a budget, a full budget, it will be back to the full restoration of 185 percent above the poverty level. That’s a success.”
To explain, the governor slashed the program’s maximum eligibility from 185 percent of the federal poverty level to 50 percent. Democratic legislators negotiated a deal to raise that requirement to 162 percent of FPL, and then, according to Rep. Dunkin and others, it would return to 185 percent when a budget deal was finally completed.
* Well, JCAR met today to vote on the new rule and Democratic members attempted to get the Department of Human Services on record as saying the bar would be raised to 185 percent of FPL once a budget agreement is reached. It didn’t go as expected…
* I just talked to Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who actually did negotiate the CCAP compromise.
“That is not what I agreed to,” she said about today’s DHS claims.
It was her understanding, Hutchinson said, that the rate “would go back to 185″ once there is a budget. “It didn’t have anything to do with a bipartisan commission determining the rate,” she said.
“At this point I am waiting for the governor’s office to clarify,” she said.
Hutchinson had agreed to hold the bill to codify the 185 percent level, but that bill died in the House (when Dunkin didn’t vote either way), so she no longer has any leverage. “We don’t have anything other than the governor’s word,” she said.
*** UPDATE 1 *** After some initial confusion, Team Rauner has responded on the record…
The deal stands. 185% when there’s a budget with recommendations for further policy changes coming from the bipartisan commission.
I asked if what Bassi said was in error…
I think the statement I just sent speaks for itself
*** UPDATE 2 *** Sen. Hutchinson called the Rauner folks just before they issued the statement to me. She said it was important that the administration went on the record today with the clarification, adding “This is an exercise in trust, and that’s the only thing that’s going to get us out of this.”
Yep.
*** UPDATE 3 *** A text from Rep. André Thapedi, a member of JCAR who pressed DHS about the 185 percent issue…
Rich, I saw the statement on the blog. I have taken enough depositions and tried enough cases to know that proffered statement is not an unequivocal answer to my straightforward question. There is no unequivocal commitment to 185% of the FLP when the budget is done. That leads me to believe we won’t be seeing the 185% anytime soon, if ever. I hope the governor’s people will clarify this as I have people in my district scared to death and looking for answers and certainty.
André
*** UPDATE 4 *** Emily Miller at Voices for Illinois Children…
After initial confusion, Voices for Illinois Children was relieved to read the governor’s office clarification that the agreement made to fully restore child care stands. Upon passage of an FY16 budget, child care assistance will be fully restored to all families up to 185% of the federal poverty level.
While it was unfortunate that the Department of Human Services’ representative wasn’t clear on the Governor’s position at the JCAR hearing on child care today, it’s fair to say that everyone involved is very busy and invested in this process, and in this instance, perhaps lines of communication got crossed.
The next step is to work together, try to trust one another, and hold each other accountable so that lawmakers and the governor can pass a fully funded, year-long budget invests in children, families and communities. At that point, child care eligibility will be restored to 185% of the federal poverty level, which is a good thing for working families.
*** UPDATE 5 *** Press release…
Following is the statement of SEIU Healthcare Illinois Child Care Vice President Brynn Seibert regarding confusing testimony today by Bruce Rauner administration officials that appeared to renege on a deal to restore the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) eligibility requirements.
“Today’s JCAR hearing confirmed our worst fears about the hastily-conjured “deal” Bruce Rauner hatched last week—that his face-saving political gesture provides no ironclad assurances that child care in Illinois will be restored to full health when a budget deal is struck and after suffering needless and devastating cuts.
“Today, not only was the Rauner administration unable to identify supposed savings, or quantify the very real human costs of his cruel actions, or even answer a simple “yes-or-no” question about repairing CCAP, but there remains no way whatsoever to ensure the central part of the Rauner “deal,” announced by his close friend and key ally Ken Dunkin, that the program will return to an eligibility threshold of 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
“Nobody should be prepared to take Rauner at his word, given that he’s left child care in Illinois in tatters. Administratively, in the courtroom and at the bargaining table, Rauner has brought ruin and instability to the Child Care Assistance Program. Today’s administrative hearing provided another shameful heaping of the same.”
*** UPDATE 6 *** Rep. Ken Dunkin via text message…
However folks are trying to twist some statements from a DHS lawyer at JCAR is not my concern. The Governor just reassured me, again his commitment stands on child care. We go back to 185 at budget and take recommendations for policy changes from commission.
…Adding… Another text from Rep. Dunkin…
162 is what Toi & Jehan agreed on. I will make sure we are at 185 when we get a Budget.
