MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2022 Regular Session
To: Appropriations
By: Representatives Read, Mims, Arnold, Bounds, Clark, Clarke, Currie, Hines, Hood, Horan, Sanford, Watson, Young, Stamps
AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2023.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. The following sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated out of any money in the State General Fund not otherwise appropriated, to the Department of Human Services for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022, and ending June 30, 2023.... $ 190,565,867.00.
SECTION 2. The following sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated out of any money in any special fund in the State Treasury to the credit of the Department of Human Services which is comprised of special source funds collected by or otherwise available to the department for the support of the various divisions of the department, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the department for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022, and ending June 30, 2023
............................................ $ 1,920,474,778.00.
SECTION 3. None of the funds appropriated by this act shall be expended for any purpose that is not actually required or necessary for performing any of the powers or duties of the Department of Human Services that are authorized by the Mississippi Constitution of 1890, state or federal law, or rules or regulations that implement state or federal law.
SECTION 4. Of the funds appropriated under the provisions of Section 1 of this act and authorized for expenditure under the provisions of Section 2 of this act, not more than the amounts set forth below shall be expended; however, notwithstanding any other provision in this act, it is the intent of the Legislature that any amount of funds and positions may be transferred between the Department of Human Services and the Department of Child Protection Services in order to comply with agreements made by the State of Mississippi with the United States District Court in reference to the Olivia Y., et al. lawsuit.
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
FUNDING:
General Funds........................... $ 74,189,899.00.
Special Funds........................... $ 1,739,554,699.00.
Total............................. $ 1,813,744,598.00.
With the funds appropriated for this budget, the following positions are authorized:
AUTHORIZED HEADCOUNT:
Permanent: Full Time............ 1,471
Time-Limited: Full Time............ 516
Any transfers or escalations shall be made in accordance with the terms, conditions and procedures established by law or allowable under the terms set forth within this act. The State Personnel Board shall not escalate positions without written approval from the Department of Finance and Administration. The Department of Finance and Administration shall not provide written approval to escalate any funds for salaries and/or positions without proof of availability of new or additional funds above the appropriated level.
No general funds authorized to be expended herein shall be used to replace federal funds and/or other special funds which are being used for salaries authorized under the provisions of this act and which are withdrawn and no longer available.
None of the funds herein appropriated shall be used in violation of Internal Revenue Service’s Publication 15-A relating to the reporting of income paid to contract employees, as interpreted by the Office of the State Auditor.
Funds have been appropriated herein for the purpose of funding Project SEC2 minimum salaries for all employees covered under the Colonel Guy Groff/Neville Kenning Variable Compensation Plan. It shall be the agency’s responsibility to ensure that the funds are used to increase all employees’ salaries up to the minimum level as determined by the State Personnel Board.
DIVISION OF CHILD PROTECTION SERVICES
FUNDING:
General Funds......................... $ 116,375,968.00
Special Funds......................... $ 180,920,079.00
Total................................. $ 297,296,047.00
With the funds appropriated for this budget, the following positions are authorized:
AUTHORIZED HEADCOUNT:
Permanent: 1,517
Time-Limited: 417
Any transfers or escalations shall be made in accordance with the terms, conditions and procedures established by law or allowable under the terms set forth within this act. The State Personnel Board shall not escalate positions without written approval from the Department of Finance and Administration. The Department of Finance and Administration shall not provide written approval to escalate any funds for salaries and/or positions without proof of availability of new or additional funds above the appropriated level.
No general funds authorized to be expended herein shall be used to replace federal funds and/or other special funds which are being used for salaries authorized under the provisions of this act and which are withdrawn and no longer available.
None of the funds herein appropriated shall be used in violation of Internal Revenue Service’s Publication 15-A relating to the reporting of income paid to contract employees, as interpreted by the Office of the State Auditor.
Funds have been appropriated herein for the purpose of funding Project SEC2 minimum salaries for all employees covered under the Colonel Guy Groff/Neville Kenning Variable Compensation Plan. It shall be the agency’s responsibility to ensure that the funds are used to increase all employees’ salaries up to the minimum level as determined by the State Personnel Board.
SECTION 5. It is the intention of the Legislature that the Department of Human Services and Department of Child Protection Services shall maintain complete accounting and personnel records related to the expenditure of all funds appropriated under this act and that such records shall be in the same format and level of detail as maintained for Fiscal Year 2022. It is further the intention of the Legislature that the agency's budget request for Fiscal Year 2024 shall be submitted to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in a format and level of detail comparable to the format and level of detail provided during the Fiscal Year 2023 budget request process.
SECTION 6. Of the funds appropriated in Section 2 herein to the Department of Human Services, One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00) shall be transferred to the Department of Health, Child Care Licensure Program from the Child Care Development Fund or other appropriate special fund. These funds are to be transferred to the Board of Health no later than July 31, 2022. The Department of Health shall make a complete accounting to the Department of Human Services detailing the uses of these funds in accordance with federal and state regulations.
SECTION 7. It is the intention of the Legislature that whenever two (2) or more bids are received by this agency for the purchase of commodities or equipment, and whenever all things stated in such received bids are equal with respect to price, quality and service, the Mississippi Industries for the Blind shall be given preference. A similar preference shall be given to the Mississippi Industries for the Blind whenever purchases are made without competitive bids.
SECTION 8. The Department of Human Services and the Department of Child Protection Services are authorized to expend available funds on technology or equipment upgrades or replacements when it will generate savings through efficiency or when the savings generated from such upgrades or replacements exceed expenditures thereof.
SECTION 9. It is the intention of the Legislature that none of the funds provided herein shall be used to pay certain utilities for state furnished housing for any employees. Such utilities shall include electricity, natural gas, butane, propane, cable and phone services. Where actual cost cannot be determined, the agency shall be required to provide meters to be in compliance with legislative intent. Such state furnished housing shall include single-family and multi-family residences but shall not include any dormitory residences. Allowances for such utilities shall be prohibited.
SECTION 10. In compliance with the "Mississippi Performance Budget and Strategic Planning Act of 1994," it is the intent of the Legislature that the funds provided herein shall be utilized in the most efficient and effective manner possible to achieve the intended mission of this agency. Based on the funding authorized, this agency shall make every effort to attain the targeted performance measures provided below:
FY2023
Performance Measures Target
Support Services
Percent of Referred/Directed
Investigative Audits Conducted 100.00
Percent of Special Investigations Conducted 95.00
Percent of Referred/Obtained Fraud
Investigations Conducted Timely 100.00
Percent of Referred Administrative
Disqualification Hearings & Fair
Hearings Conducted Timely 99.00
Percent of Monitoring Reviews Conducted
within Acceptable Timeframes 98.00
Total Amount of Funds Recovered 3,500,000.00
Aging & Adult Services
In-Home Services - Age 60 + (Persons Served) 28,975
Community Services - Age 60 + (Persons
Served) 203,297
Number of Congregate Meals 491,685
Number of Home Delivered Meals 2,201,105
Substantiated Incidences of Abuse of
Vulnerable Adults per 1,000 Population 0.17
Home Delivered Meals, Percent Reduction
of Persons on Waiting List 5.00
Child Support Enforcement
Number of Paternities Established 15,500
Percent Change in Paternities Established 3.30
Number of Obligations Established 16,000
Percent Change in Obligations Established 12.50
Total Collections ($) 378,000,000.00
Percent Change in Total Collections -2.50
Number of Absent Parents Located 68,000
Percent of Child Support Cases Current
on Payments -2.53
Community Services
Number of Elderly Served by CSBG & LIHEAP 20,352
Number of Disabled Served CSBG/LIHEAP 26,762
Number of Households Achieving
Self-Sufficiency CSBG/LIHEAP 0
Percent Increase in Rate of Household
Attaining Self-Sufficiency 0.00
Number of Households Stabilized CSBG/LIHEAP 0
Percent Increase in the Number of
Households Stabilized 0.00
Number of Households Weatherized 516
Early Childhood Care & Dev
Number of Children Served 30,138
Assistance Payments
Dollar Amount of Assistance 690,000.00
Food Assistance
Number of Average Monthly Households 225,000
Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program
- SNAP ($) 716,413,100.00
Percent of Mississippi Households
Receiving SNAP Benefits 22.51
Tanf Work Program
Number of Average Monthly TANF Households 4,600
Number of Average Monthly Persons Served
in TANF Work Program 1, 107
TANF Work Program Participation Rate (%) 60.00
Number of Persons Employed Through the
TANF Work Program for the Year 720
Number of Households Receiving TANF
Benefits During the Year 4,600
Percent of Households Receiving TANF
During the Year 49.00
Percent of TANF Participants in Job
Training who Enter Employment 30.00
Percent of TANF Participants in Job
Training who Enter Employment at a
Salary Sufficient to be Ineligible for
TANF 19.00
Percent of TANF Participants in Job
Training who Remain Employed for: One
Year After Leaving the Program 75.00
Percent of TANF Participants in Job
Training who Remain Employed for: Five
Years After Leaving the Program 65.00
Social Services Block Grant
Number of Clients Served, Division of
Family & Children's Services 75,611
Number of Clients Served, Aging & Adult
Services 21,178
Number of Clients Served, Youth Services 12,880
Youth Services
Community Services (Children Served) 15,000
Institutional Component (Children Served) 300
Number of Volunteers - Community
Services/Institution 0
Number of Children Placed in Alternative
Placement 0
Percent of Children Diverted from
Institutional Care 95.00
Recidivism Rate (%) 20.00
A reporting of the degree to which the performance targets set above have been or are being achieved shall be provided in the agency's budget request submitted to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee for Fiscal Year 2024.
SECTION 11. It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Human Services, Division of Child Support Enforcement, make a concentrated effort to increase collections of past due child support payments. On or before January 1, 2023, the Executive Director of the Department of Human Services shall submit a report to the Legislative Budget Office detailing year-to-date performance measures in the Child Support Enforcement Program compared with the prior year.
SECTION 12. It is the intention of the Legislature that the Department of Human Services shall have the authority to spend such additional funds as it shall receive from the federal government in incentives or the federal match on those incentives for the purpose of child support enforcement.
SECTION 13. Of the funds appropriated in Section 1, Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) shall be transferred to the Juvenile Facility Monitoring Unit at the Department of Public Safety no later than July 31, 2022.
SECTION 14. Of the funds appropriated herein, to the Department of Human Services One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00), is provided for the support of the Home Delivered Meals Program and any additional funds that may be appropriated to this program.
SECTION 15. Of the funds provided in Section 1, herein to the Department of Human Services, an amount not to exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00) is provided to fund the Senior Olympics Program.
SECTION 16. Of the funds appropriated in Section 1, herein to the Department of Child Protection Services, it is the intention of the Legislature that Ninety-three Thousand Six Hundred One Dollars ($93,601.00) shall be allocated to the Mississippi Children's Trust Fund supported from General Fund court assessments.
SECTION 17. It is the intention of the Legislature that the Governor’s Office, Division of Medicaid and the Department of Human Services shall continue to work together to implement HB 1090 of the 2017 Regular Session, known as the "Medicaid and Human Services Transparency and Fraud Prevention Act".
SECTION 18. Of the funds appropriated by this act, pursuant to HB 571, 2019 Regular Session, Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00) is provided for maintaining a 24-hour hotline that is to be manned at all times, and for a coordinator to work with the Department of Public Safety, and to contract with outside agencies or service providers to organize for the provision of specialized services, including counseling services and other appropriate care to children who have been victims of commercial and sexual exploitation or human trafficking.
SECTION 19. Of the funds appropriated in Section 1 and Section 2, an amount not to exceed Four Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($4,500,000.00) may be expended for the Department of Child Protection Services for Kinship Care Payments as authorized by Section 43-15-17, Mississippi Code of 1972.
SECTION 20. As a condition of receiving and expending any funds appropriated under this act, the Department of Human Services:
(a) Shall use a competitive procurement process for entering into all TANF subgrant agreements with non-state entities when the federal government does not direct to whom the funds must be subgranted;
(b) Upon awarding of a grant to any subgrantee of the department, shall require the subgrantee to submit a monthly report to the department that contains, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(i) A listing of all costs incurred by the subgrantee during the previous month;
(ii) A listing of all clients served by the subgrantee, with an explanation of which services were provided to the clients;
(iii) A listing of all lower-tier subgrantees, who must be approved by the department before the execution of any such agreement by the prime subgrantee; and
(iv) Any other data required by the department to provide sufficient evidence of budgetary compliance;
(c) Shall not advance funds to a subgrantee for more than sixty (60) days; and
(d) Shall reimburse a subgrantee for expenses only after the required documentation is provided and is approved by the department.
SECTION 21. Of the funds appropriated under the provisions of Section 2, Fifty-four Million Dollars ($54,000,000.00), or so much thereof, shall be derived out of any money in the State Treasury to the credit of the Capital Expense Fund, as created in Section 27-103-303, Mississippi Code of 1972, and allocated in a manner as determined by the State Treasurer. These funds are provided for the Department of Human Services for the initial funds needed to secure federal funding for a new computer system.
SECTION 22. The following sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is reappropriated out of any money in the Capital Expense Fund not otherwise appropriated for the Department of Child Protection Services for the purpose of reauthorizing the expenditure of Capital Expense Fund, as reappropriated in HB 1398, 2021 Regular Session, for information technology system developments for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022, and ending June 30, 2023........ $ 14,204,943.00.
Notwithstanding the amount reappropriated under the provisions of this section, in no event shall the amount expended exceed the unexpended balance as of June 30, 2022.
SECTION 23. The following sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is reappropriated out of any money in the Capital Expense Fund not otherwise appropriated for the Department of Human Services for the purpose of reauthorizing the expenditure of Capital Expense Funds, as authorized in HB 1398, 2021 Regular Session to provide for computer expenses for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022, and ending June 30, 2023...........................................................
.............................................. $ 5,000,000.00.
SECTION 24. It is the intent of the Legislature, that within the funds available, the Department of Human Services may provide any qualifying grants of CARES Act or American Rescue Act funding in an amount not to exceed One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($1,500,000.00) to the three (3) regional food banks that serve Mississippi, including Feed the Gulf Coast, Mid-South Food Bank, and Mississippi Food Network.
SECTION 25. The money herein appropriated shall be paid by the State Treasurer out of any money in the State Treasury to the credit of the proper fund or funds as set forth in this act, upon warrants issued by the State Fiscal Officer; and the State Fiscal Officer shall issue his warrants upon requisitions signed by the proper person, officer or officers, in the manner provided by law.
SECTION 26. (1) Of the funds appropriated under the provisions of Section 2, the following sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the State Treasury to the credit of the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund not otherwise appropriated to the credit of the Department of Child Protection Services................................................ $57,600,000.00.
These funds are provided for the purpose of defraying eligible operational expenses as allowable under Section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) or any guidance or regulation issued by the United States Department of the Treasury in conformity therewith.
(2) None of the funds provided under this section shall be used to pay employee premium payments.
(3) The agency shall not disburse any funds provided under this section to any recipient without first: (a) making an individualized determination that the reimbursement sought is, in the agency's independent judgment, for necessary expenditures eligible under Section 602 of the federal Social Security Act as added by Section 9901 of the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) and its implementing guidelines, guidance, rules, regulations and/or other criteria, as may be amended or supplemented from time to time, by the United States Department of the Treasury; and (b) determining that the recipient has not received and will not receive reimbursement for the expense in question from any source of funds, including insurance proceeds, other than those funds provided under Section 602 of the federal Social Security Act as added by Section 9901 of ARPA. In addition, the agency shall ensure that all funds provided under this section are disbursed in compliance with the Single Audit Act (31 USC Sections 7501-7507) and the related provisions of the Uniform Guidance, 2 CFR Section 200.303 regarding internal controls, Sections 200.330 through 200.332 regarding sub-recipient monitoring and management, and subpart F regarding audit requirements.
(4) As a condition of receiving and expending the funds provided to the agency under this section, the agency shall certify to the Department of Finance and Administration that each expenditure of the funds provided to the agency under this section complies with the guidelines, guidance, rules, regulations and/or other criteria, as may be amended from time to time, of the United States Department of the Treasury regarding the use of monies from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund established by ARPA.
(5) If the Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of the Treasury, or the Office of Inspector General of any other federal agency having oversight over the use of monies from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund established by ARPA (a) determines that the agency or recipient has expended or otherwise used any of the funds provided to the agency under this section for any purpose that is not in compliance with the guidelines, guidance, rules, regulations and/or other criteria, as may be amended from time to time, of the United States Department of the Treasury regarding the use of monies from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund established by the ARPA, and (b) the State of Mississippi is required to repay the federal government for any of those funds that the Office of the Inspector General determined were expended or otherwise used improperly by the agency or recipient, then the agency or recipient that expended or otherwise used those funds improperly shall be required to pay the amount of those funds to the State of Mississippi for repayment to the federal government.
SECTION 27. Notwithstanding any other provision, the Department of Child Protection Services shall have the authority to escalate its headcount for any additional operational needs related to Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds, upon approval of the Department of Finance and Administration and the State Personnel Board.
SECTION 28. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2022.