County officials from across the state descended on Harrisburg
recently to discuss increasing funding to a variety of human
services programs, including Children and Youth and mental health
and mental retardation.
McKean County was no exception, with Commissioner John Egbert
and Department of Human Services Administrator Charlotte Chew-Sturm
in attendance visiting the legislative offices of Senate President
Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, and state Reps. Martin
Causer, R-Turtlepoint, and Kathy Rapp, R-Warren.
The day was sponsored by the County Commissioners Association of
Pennsylvania and comes mere weeks before the state budget is slated
to be adopted.
“We had their attention (lawmakers),” Egbert said Thursday. “If
you are going to provide human services, you need the money. The
county doesn’t have much choice and needs to provide these
services.”
The county has combined its human services programs in an effort
to make the most of limited funding. Among the areas of particular
concern in the budget for county officials include Children and
Youth Services, mental health and mental retardation and early
intervention, and the Human Services Development Fund. The county
has a contract with the Intermediate Unit Nine for early
intervention services.
“The Human Services Development Fund is the best funding we
have,” Chew-Sturm said, “mainly because it’s flexible and fills in
a lot of gaps.”
Locally, Chew-Sturm said funding from that program is used to
help pay for the family centers, Big Brothers Big Sisters and other
preventative organizations. She added that mental health and mental
retardation funding isn’t allowed to be used for prevention
programs.
According to information provided by CCAP and the Pennsylvania
Commission of Human Services Administrators (PACHSA), fiscal year
funding for the Human Services Development Fund for 2007-08 is
proposed at $33.785 million – a $2.5 million decrease from the
fiscal year 2006-07 allocation. Officials said an additional $7.5
million is needed to restore the program to fiscal year 2002-03
levels of $41 million.
In regards to funding for mental health and mental retardation
and early intervention, county officials seemed pleased with the
course that Gov. Ed Rendell has set forth.
According to CCAP, the proposed budget includes funding to
reduce the waiting list for mental retardation and would provide
residential services to an additional 3,248 Pennsylvanians at a
price tag of $26.9 million in state funds.
The proposal also includes a 3 percent Cost of Living Adjustment
(COLA) of $24.3 million for community-based services. This will
apply to counties only if the Legislature does not place a
requirement that COLA funding can only be used for direct care
staff as has been done over the past three budgets.
“With the COLA, the state always puts a stipulation on how the
money can be used,” Chew-Sturm said. “In McKean County, we could
use that money to fill a need in which the state hasn’t thought of.
We would like to see some more flexibility with it.”
Meanwhile, for Children and Youth, counties labor over the Needs
Based Budget each year, Chew-Sturm wrote in a letter to the
representatives.
“It is a process that is in constant motion throughout the year
and yet the funds requested come up short,” Chew-Sturm wrote,
adding the county has the highest rate of abuse in the state.
With that said, CCAP notes the state budget falls short in this
area; it is $359 million less than the amount requested by counties
through Act 30 of 1991. Also, officials with CCAP said the proposed
budget does not accurately reflect anticipated reductions in
federal Title IV-E money, and has reduced the Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TANF) funding from $45 million to $15
million.
TANF money is used to cover allowable costs for a variety of
child welfare services, including juvenile detention services.
For his part, Causer called the meeting with county officials
“very informative,” adding he supports restoring the human services
funding in the final version of the state budget.
