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Departmental Matters Indian River County Inter-Office Memorandum Office of Management and Budget To: Members of the Board of County Commissioners Date: March 27, 2013 Subject: Additional Legislative Iss Of — 2013 Session From: Jason E. Brown Director, Management & Bun get and Conditions During the 2013 Legislative Session, some bills that may have an adverse impact on Indian River County (and counties in general) have been moving through the legislative process. Please see a short synopsis on these bills below: PCB-SCCB 13-01 - This bill would, among other changes, increase the sovereign immunity amount for local governments from $200,000/$300,000 (per individual/occurrence) to $1.0 million/$1.5 million. The bill passed the House Select Committee on Claim Bills 5-3. The Senate does not have a similar measure. Sovereign immunity caps provide protection for cities and counties against frivolous lawsuits. Currently, the legislature may approve awards in excess of the sovereign immunity limits through the claims bill process. This allows for cases where a local government has been deemed liable for significant damages. If passed, this bill would lead to higher liability coverage costs for the County which would be passed on to the taxpayer. Medicaid Glitch Bill - During the 2012 Legislative Session, HB5301 passed charging counties for the "backlog" of Medicaid claims. Earlier this year, a bill was considered that would "lock in" a base amount to be paid by each county going forward. County staff was concerned about the "base amount" assigned to Indian River. Our projected costs for the current fiscal year will be a little more than $600,000. This legislation had assigned an amount of $1.2 million for Indian River County. This amount would become a base amount for the county regardless of the amount of Medicaid claims and would be increased each year by an inflation factor. At this time, the status of this bill is unclear. There are two bills, SB 1244 and HB 1117, stating that the Department of Children and Families shall convene a study group to assess each county's distribution of funds for Medicaid and submit recommendations to the Governor, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House by July 1, 2014. While this may mean that the issue will be dealt with next legislative session, staff wants to ensure that the Board is aware of this legislation should there be a change to these bills. Summary These items are in addition to the Legislative Priorities for the 2013 Legislative Session presented to the Board in late 2012 (see copy attached). Some of the main issues include but are not limited to: Chapter 180 — utility service area changes, Beach Renourishment Funding — Hurricane Sandy, and funding of Constitutional Offices. 218