{"id":4976,"date":"2012-02-20T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T13:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=4976"},"modified":"2013-05-13T17:19:48","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T23:19:48","slug":"a-life-unfolds-as-idaho-sorts-out-its-budget-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/02\/20\/a-life-unfolds-as-idaho-sorts-out-its-budget-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"A Life Unfolds As Idaho Sorts Out Its Budget Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Krystal Esterline and Nikki Tangen posed together after Esterline spoke at a panel discussion last month.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the wake of spending cuts, the Idaho Legislature is now in the process of determining how the state\u2019s revenue surplus should be spent.\u00a0 It\u2019s a process of sorting out priorities, and the decisions have palpable effects.\u00a0 For one Medicaid recipient, for example, recent budget cuts mean an uncertain future, even if funding is restored.<\/p>\n

Last month, Krystal Esterline made a brave decision.\u00a0 The then 22-year-old decided to talk publicly about recent cuts in Medicaid services, and how they\u2019ve affected her.\u00a0 “With having services, I\u2019m successful in life when I have them,” she said.\u00a0 “When I don\u2019t have all my services, I\u2019m not successful. I have issues.”<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>A Life Unfolds As Idaho Sorts Out Its Budget Priorities<\/a><\/p>\n

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She gets out-of-control angry, she said, and puts herself in dangerous situations.\u00a0 Esterline is articulate, but she suffers from developmental disabilities, the result of fetal alcohol syndrome.\u00a0 She also has bipolar disorder.\u00a0 Recent cuts in the state\u2019s Medicaid program mean she no longer gets services for both problems.\u00a0 Without day-to-day mental health support, she fell apart.\u00a0 “I lost my apartment, I went into a group home, I got my housing voucher taken away because \u2013 I got in trouble,” she said.<\/p>\n

All of that happened last fall.\u00a0 When we talked last month, Esterline had just moved back into her own apartment.\u00a0 She was stable, and feeling good.\u00a0 But now, the ground has shifted again.\u00a0 Nikki Tangen is Esterline\u2019s guardian.\u00a0 “In the last several weeks she started deteriorating again,” she says.\u00a0 “Getting in the car with strangers, getting dropped off at people\u2019s houses all over Boise, and I didn\u2019t know where she was, she didn\u2019t know where she was.\u00a0 It\u2019s been pretty bad.”\u00a0 <\/em>Left with no choice, Tangen is trying to find a new group home for Esterline.<\/p>\n

In the wake of budget cuts brought on by the recession, the state finds itself at a decision point.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Rep. Shirley Ringo (D-Moscow) sees it.\u00a0 “I think we\u2019re at a crossroads, definitely,” she says.
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\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Rep. Shirley Ringo (D-Moscow) says tax cuts are "inappropriate" at this time.<\/p><\/div>\n

That’s because — as state revenues begin to come back — lawmakers can determine what to do with that money.\u00a0 “We\u2019ve gone through this necessary paring down, because we didn\u2019t have the resources to do much else,” Ringo says.\u00a0 “So now we\u2019re at a point where our revenues are starting to go back up, so that we see some opportunities here to decide what way we\u2019re going to go.”<\/p>\n

For example, will the legislature follow the governor\u2019s budget proposal<\/a> and make tens of millions of dollars in tax cuts?\u00a0 Or will it choose another route, reversing the most controversial reductions in Medicaid services, or setting money aside for repairs to state infrastructure?\u00a0 Ringo believes this is a terrible time for tax cuts \u2013 but plenty of others don\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s times in our lives when we go through tough times,” says Rep. Ken Roberts (R-Donnelly).\u00a0 “And it really forces us to evaluate what\u2019s really important in life.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s what the State of Idaho has been forced to do, and I think that\u2019s been a good exercise.”<\/p>\n

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Idaho Legislature<\/p>

Rep. Ken Roberts (R-Donnelly) serves on the Health and Welfare and Revenue and Taxation Committees.e<\/p><\/div>\n

Roberts is Majority Caucus Chair, and he\u2019s no fan of entitlement programs like Medicaid<\/a>.\u00a0 In his view, the recent years of tightened purse-strings did the state an odd kind of favor.\u00a0 Idaho has had to evaluate its priorities and make hard calls.\u00a0 Now, Roberts says, it\u2019s time for legislators to focus on economic growth.\u00a0 He believes tax cuts are the route to take.\u00a0 “If we can move the dollars into creating opportunities for businesses to be successful and hire people, I would much rather spend the money there than continuing to grow a system where people are dependent on the government for their food and their shelter and those kind of things,” he says.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, this discussion, tax cuts versus restored funding for spending programs, is taking place in many states<\/a>, particularly those with conservative governors.\u00a0 Kim Rueben with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center stresses that budget decisions made now will affect how states fare the next time revenues take a downward turn.\u00a0 “States set up their fiscal systems in periods when they have a little bit more slack,” she says, “so they\u2019re getting more money in, and often the problems we see when budgets get tight have been set into place when they start getting some money back.”<\/p>\n

Rueben says this is a time for states to look ahead.\u00a0 If Idaho cuts taxes and the bottom falls out of the economy, she says, the state will have to weather the storm with that much less revenue.<\/p>\n

Krystal Esterline\u2019s situation illustrates the complexity of weighing tax cuts against reduced funding for programs like Medicaid<\/a>.\u00a0 Benefit cuts don\u2019t always bring cost savings.\u00a0 Two years ago, Esterline received 40 hours of services per week, at a cost of approximately $150 per day. \u00a0The average rate for a group home in Idaho is just over $200 per day.\u00a0 In other words, the state\u2019s Medicaid program will pay more to take care of Esterline in a group home than it paid for the services that let her live independently.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, there\u2019s the loss, for Esterline, in her quality of life.<\/p>\n

“Two years ago, she was a different person,” says Tangen.\u00a0 “She could have a conversation, she could get upset and process through her emotions, and was able to talk about how she felt and what she needed.\u00a0 Now we have screaming, yelling swearing \u2013 refusal to even talk about it.”<\/p>\n

Tangen volunteers as Esterline\u2019s guardian.\u00a0 The two of them met years ago, when Tangen was working at a behavioral health agency.\u00a0 When Esterline aged out of foster care at 18, Tangen stepped in.\u00a0 Now, she can\u2019t help but feel frustration, and sorrow.\u00a0 “Krystal has been unwanted, thrown out.\u00a0 Everything\u2019s been against her from the beginning.\u00a0 So when I became her guardian, I was like, \u201cWell, I like her\u2026\u201d And now this. It just feels like \u2013 she absolutely cannot catch a break,” Tangen says.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The cut that led to Esterline\u2019s loss of services<\/a> could be reversed.\u00a0 Last week, the chairs of the legislature\u2019s Health and Welfare Committees urged just that change<\/a>.\u00a0 But for Esterline, it would come too late.\u00a0 When she moves into a group home, she will lose her housing voucher.\u00a0 The waiting list to reapply is now so long that it\u2019s closed.\u00a0 Krystal Esterline can\u2019t even add her name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of spending cuts, the Idaho Legislature is now in the process of determining how the state\u2019s revenue surplus should be spent.\u00a0 It\u2019s a process of sorting out priorities, and the decisions have palpable effects.\u00a0 For one Medicaid recipient, for example, recent budget cuts mean an uncertain future, even if funding is restored. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":4980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,65],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}