Officials across the four-county region are concerned about a proposed state budget that they say eliminates or reduces funding for juvenile and adult probation services, county court reimbursement and mental health services, among other items.

“I understand it is just a starting point in crafting a state budget, but cuts to services that are already operating on bare bones cripples us,” McKean County Department of Human Services Administrator Lee Sizemore told The Era on Tuesday.

But state Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, is calling the proposed spending plan, adopted by the Pennsylvania House on Tuesday, reasonable.

According to the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, under the budget proposal, line items to be eliminated include juvenile probation services ($18.9 million); adult probation services ($16.2 million); intermediate punishment treatment programs ($18.2 million); county trial reimbursement ($200,000); senior judge reimbursement ($1.4 million); and court interpreter county grants ($1.5 million).

Line items to be decreased include county court reimbursement (reduced by $3.5 million); jurors cost reimbursement (reduced by $168,000); mental health services (reduced by $5 million from the Governor’s proposal for total cut of $19.6 million); behavioral health services (reduced by $4 million); Human Services Development Fund (reduced by $2 million); and homeless assistance (reduced by $2.8 million).

State lawmakers seem to be attempting to “accomplish the impossible –– spending more money without increasing the revenue it collects to support that level of spending,” Potter County Commissioner Paul Heimel said.

Cameron County Commissioner Phil Jones said that the proposal is one that the counties are unable to get behind.

“At a time when these services are needed more and more it’ll really hurt,” he said. “It may not be much to larger, urban counties, but it could be devastating to the smaller rural counties.”

But Causer said the budget doesn’t increase taxes or borrowing, and rather looks to save taxpayers money through the improvement of efficiencies and eliminating duplication of services.

Many of the lines that appear to be eliminated in the proposed spending plan are, in reality, being restructured, said state Rep. Matt Gabler, R-DuBois. For example, a Department of Criminal Justice will replace the Department of Corrections and the Board of Probation and Parole, he said.

“Human services in general have received level funding for many years — which is a cut already — because the cost of doing business has increased and more and more people need help all the time. Volume is up,” Sizemore said. “Citizens with more severe problems are up. And rates and reimbursements for services are down.”

She called the complexity of issues being experienced by the courts, jails, housing programs, and mental health providers “staggering.”  

“Without funding to help treat mental illness and end homelessness, our use of hospitals and jails could increase,” she said. “Our services work together, and when one is hurt we are all hurt. It is a terrible step backwards as we have made some gains in these areas. But funding cuts don’t support our ability to improve public safety and provide compassionate treatment and resources for our citizens.”

Elk County Commissioner Dan Freeburg also shared some input on the proposed spending plan.

“Any time we are performing/maintaining services and reimbursements, and funding dries up, then, we must obviously deal with a shortfall in one way or another,” he said. “In the case of unfunded mandates where the service must continue, then we would likely be forced to raise taxes as our only way to pay for that continuation. If it were not mandated services, then a possible speculative option could be cuts or eliminations.”

A majority of the programs are legally imposed on the county, thanks to legislation and the county code, he said.

“Far from being a ‘no-tax-increase’ budget and far from being a document that provides a path forward for the commonwealth, it instead represents a continuing pattern of the state failing to meet its full responsibility to its service delivery partners and its citizens most in need,” The County Commissioners of Pennsylvania said in a prepared statement.

And Heimel had more to say.

“It’s important to note, however, that there will be an exhaustive debate over many of these provisions. It is our hope that reasonable compromises will be reached and the state won’t try to balance its budget on the backs of county taxpayers,” he said.