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Despite Spin, Budget Has Serious Cuts

Wisconsin State Journal :: OPINION :: A6

Friday, October 8, 2004
Lynn Brady

First: Cuts to some human service programs are not as severe as they were under the budget request from the County Human Services Department. Second: Serious cuts remain, cuts that will affect some of our most vulnerable friends, family and neighbors.

Thanks to the work of Falk and a handful of progressive county board members, several cuts proposed by the Human Service Department have been restored. Falk found $1 million in money from other parts of the budget and an unexpected increase in sales tax revenue and state aid to restore such things as vocational services for high school graduates with developmental disabilities, partial restoration of funding for alcohol and drug treatment programs and mileage reimbursement for volunteers who deliver meals-on-wheels. The $1 million also included $410,000 to give some of the lowest paid workers a 1 percent increase in pay.

This $1 million comes to human service programs and keeps the property tax increase to the typical homeowner in Dane County at just $7. What it doesn't do is restore cuts to many other programs. What it doesn't do is provide a pay raise for other than the lowest paid workers in the private agencies providing services. It doesn't address health insurance cost increases, nor does it begin to counter the severe cuts of last year, nor does it counter the erosion of core programs in the face of years of budget freezes or increases below the inflation rate.

Just some of the cuts that remain include:

* Across the board cuts totaling nearly $350,000 to developmental disability services to adults and children in Dane County. These cuts will result in less individual attention for clients, longer waits for job development, more clients per staff, larger classes, longer waiting lists, more stress and lower morale.

* Cuts in services and increased waiting lists in mental health programs due to a zero percent increase in the face of rising health insurance rates, heating costs, rents, and other inflationary increases. This means people will not receive help with crucial medications or supports needed in order to live in the community.

* Nearly $74,000 cut to PICADA, which would result in termination of an information and referral hotline, leaving people with substance abuse disorders and their families without a well-known service to assist them during a time of chaos and fear.

* Across-the board cuts of five percent to programs funded by the county through Family Enhancement - Parent Aide, Parent Place, Parent Haven, Wisconsin Family Ties (mental health), Family Support, Bootstrap, and the Exchange Center.

* Casual observers of county politics may be lulled into thinking human services got an increase of anywhere from $1 million to $5 million, thereby eliminating the crisis in human service funding. Not true. This money only restores about $519, 000 of the Department's proposed $1,896,729 in cuts. The remaining portion of the $1 million goes to fund new initiatives, leaving numerous existing programs underfunded, yet again.

We'd also like to point out that restoring the cuts would require increasing the county property tax levy on the typical home just $3 more ($10 total, instead of the current increase of $7).

Details of the cuts that remain and much more information is available at www.sosdane.org.

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