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    California Governor Signs $308 billion 22-23 State Budget

    July 8, 2022

    On Thursday June 30th Governor Newsom signed a $308B 2022-23 California State budget. This budget unfortunately did not include the Association of California Caregiver Resource Centers’ (CRC) $20 million additional annual budget request. The increased funding would have allowed Family Caregiver Alliance and other California Caregiver Resource Centers to offer family caregivers more respite grants, support groups, culturally relevant programing, and services in additional languages for fiscal year 2022-23. Please note our services will continue to be funded at their current level under the Department of Aging (we were formerly under the Department of Health Care Services).

    This year California had a record surplus, but many elected officials worried about a potential recession in the future. Because of this, they decided to focus on one-time or temporary funding while also putting money toward a rainy-day fund for the state. This meant that there was less funding available for investing in long-term social service programs like those offered by the CRC system.

    Some items that did get funded, that we can celebrate for supporting family caregivers, include:  

    • $59.3M to the California Department of Aging to support modernizing the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, which can be used in consultation with the Area Agencies on Aging, to allocate pilot programs supporting Community Based Services Programs, Family and Caregiver Supports, Senior Volunteer Development, and/or Aging in Place.
    • $61.4M for adult day health centers, licensed adult day programs, and Programs of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) sites to improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of vulnerable at-risk older adults and people with disabilities through safe access to in-center congregate services. Grants shall be awarded for the purposes of preventing COVID-19 infection, preparing for public health emergencies, and improving workforce recruitment and retention.
    • $1M in one-time funds for CalLongTermCareCompare.org, a website that provides free, reliable, data and consumer information about long-term care provider options.
    • 12.5M in competitive grants for a pilot program for qualified nonprofit organizations to hire registered nurses and community health care workers to provide health education, navigation, coaching, and care to residents of senior citizen housing developments in the Counties of Contra Costa, Fresno, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, Shasta, and Sonoma.
    • $10M to Choice in Aging for construction costs at the aging in place campus.
    • $10M to the Department of Public Health on a one-time basis to support the Alzheimer’s Disease Program California Healthy Brain Initiative.
    • 34.4M ongoing to establish a permanent back-up provider system for IHSS recipients to avoid disruptions to caregiving due to an immediate need or emergency and to provide a $2 wage differential for backup providers.
    • $55M one-time General Fund for operating subsidy reserves for existing adult and senior residential care facilities as part of the Community Care Expansion program.
    • $1.1 billion one-time for retention payments to hospital, skilled nursing facility, and other specified workers.
    • $4.5M Age Friendly Community Planning Grants
    • $5 M for a Long-Term Services and Supports Feasibility Study: funding for the California Department of Aging to conduct a long-term services and supports feasibility and actuarial study to assess financing and services options for the aging population and people with disabilities.
    • 340.2M ($164.6 million General Fund) in 2022-23 increasing to up to an estimated $1.4 billion ($773.8 million General Fund) in 2026-27 for skilled nursing facility financing reform. The Budget includes an average 4-percent rate increase and establishes a new Workforce & Quality Incentive Program focused on achieving quality. In addition, the Budget includes a one-year extension of the 10-percent COVID-19 rate increase and includes additional rate increases subject to facilities meeting specified workforce standards such as a collective bargaining agreement or labor-management committee.

    Our colleagues at Justice in Aging also developed a summary of the budget organized by California Master Plan on Aging Goal, which can be found here.

    While Family Caregiver Alliance and the other Caregiver Resource Centers did not receive additional funding for services and supports for family caregivers in this budget, we remain committed to identifying additional sources of funding and advocating to ensure that our services reach as many of California’s diverse 4.7 million (and growing) family caregivers as possible.

    In fact, recently Family Caregiver Alliance recently partnered with the USC Family Caregiver Support Center (the LA County Caregiver Resource Center) to launch the California Coalition on Family Caregivers. This broad reaching coalition of caregivers and organizations will amplify the voice of family caregivers in the state capitol and in local communities as we work towards a vision of supporting caregiving families throughout the state. Please email Jenna (jshankman@caregiver.org) if you are interested in learning more about attending a meeting or becoming a member.

    To read about the original request for additional funding, read our blog post about it.