A 90-9 Montana House vote Friday to approve a bill that would extend operations at the Montana Developmental Center also revived hopes for a $500,000 economic development fund for Boulder. The funding, removed earlier in committee, was amended into SB 271, which also calls for extending MDC operations until June 30, 2019 and establishes a 12-bed intensive behavior center. The bill now heads back to the Senate for review of the amendments. If passed by the Senate, it would then move to the Governor.
SB 271 removes provisions originally included by sponsor Sen. Fred Thomas to cap the census at MDC, and to direct the Department of Public Health and Human Services to pursue a waiver from Medicaid to increase funding for direct care workers in community-based services. Nothing in the bill reverses a provision adopted last session that bars the admission of any new clients to the MDC. The fiscal note says the state’s general fund budget will see increased revenue of $3.02 million in fiscal year 2018 and around $4 million in each of the next three fiscal years because of Medicaid reimbursements that would not occur under existing provisions.
That cost figure assumes exist- ing employment would be used to operate the center as well as two cottage units serving approximately ten clients. A bill sponsored by Rep. Kirk Wagoner, HB 387, contained nearly identical provisions to SB 271. Wagoner’s bill was tabled in Senate committee after gaining an 89-8 approval on third reading in the House. Wagoner’s bill did not include the Boulder Development Fund, which was originally con- tained in the main budget bill, HB 2.
