Older Alaskans to feel budget axe

Although last year’s cuts to senior benefits are already causing pain, certain bills linked to the next state budget but are still pending in the legislature could have an even more severe effect on many of Alaska’s older residents. Reductions to state assistance for programs as diverse as affordable home heating and low-income adult dental care are all but certain.

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Last year’s budget cuts reduced senior benefits to some seniors, although those cuts didn’t kick in until this year.  Alaska seniors receiving drastically reduced benefits checks this month won’t be the only one’s to feel just how tight money is getting for the state’s older residents.

Rachel Greenberg is Executive Director of Mat Su Senior Services.

“Now what’s happened with the senior benefit program, is that the top tier has been essentially eliminated, starting July 1. And both the House and the Senate approved that,” Greenberg said.

Well over 5,438 seniors will have no checks coming in at all, Greenberg said.

Greenberg is also the senior services provider member of the Alaska Commission on Aging. Here at the Mat-Su senior center, she has the data at her fingertips on which non-conferenceable bills will likely impact older Alaskans come July

The Commission on Aging keeps tabs on the legislative action to date. At a meeting earlier this month, which happens to be Older Americans Month, commission members tracked the items included in the FY 17 budget. They include a $9 million reduction to a state energy assistance program that helps households under federal poverty levels.

“Now there still is a heating assistance program that is federally funded, but that means that there is more limited funds than there was before,” Greenberg said. “So you are potentially going to see more people who were receiving heating assistance in the past that are not going to be able to get that heat.”

Other cuts would take more than $6 million from Medicaid adult dental services for low income seniors. And, funding for the state’s Pioneer Homes is being reduced, which will result in the elimination of staff positions. The operating budget also includes a new provision for Pioneer Homes:

“They have approved a one hundred annual fee to remain on the wait list for the Pioneer Homes,” Greenberg said. “And the expectation is that there are 5,325 seniors on the wait list, and with a $100 dollar annual fee, there would be an increase of $5,325 dollars in revenue for the Alaska Pioneer Homes.”

Those are only a few of the changes older Alaskans can expect come July 1. The cuts compound problems for a system of senior care that is already strapped, Greenberg said. She said some items still on the conference table include state grants for community services for seniors that would reduce transportation, senior meals assistance and home care assistance programs.

“When you are looking at a senior population that is growing, some of the those senior grant programs are really essential to keep someone living as independently as possible,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg said top concerns in the senior community are housing and hunger. According to the Food Bank of Alaska, about 22,000 Alaska seniors use its services, or the services of its partner agencies.