Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Brewer: Not Enough Money From Feds

Posted By on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:32 AM

We reported yesterday that Democrats in Congress had provided an additional $563 million to the state to help fund education and health care.

Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services reports that the Brewer administration says the health-care portion is not enough for the state's needs:


President Obama signed a $26.1 billion jobs-and-education stimulus bill Tuesday that leaves Arizona about $160 million short of what it needs to maintain its Medicaid program, as required by federal law.

The new federal law appropriates $236 million in new Medicaid money for the state, according to legislative budget staffers who reviewed it. But it would take close to $400 million just to keep the program running as it is now, without kicking anyone off, through June 30, 2011.

And that doesn't include an estimated $1 billion gap for the next fiscal year, said Paul Senseman, press aide to Gov. Jan Brewer.

"This is a halfway effort to pay for the damage they're doing the states," Senseman said.

Read the whole thing here.