PHOENIX — Republican state senators presented Wednesday what they said was new information proving that Sunshine Residential did not need — and was not entitled — to the large increase it got for providing beds for foster children.
Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, cited a prepared statement from Shalom Jacobs, a former deputy director at the Department of Child Safety, who said the state was in no danger of losing needed space that Sunshine provides for children in foster care. And, Michael Faust, who was agency director at the time, had turned down the company’s request.
Yet after Democrat Katie Hobbs was elected governor and chose David Lujan to head the agency did Sunshine get rate increases — in the middle of its contract — with the state boosting payments from $149 a day per bed to $195 and, finally, to $234.
