With insufficient revenue to keep up with this year’s budget, the Governor’s office has been working to slash expenses wherever possible—and, according to Lancaster County Human Services Lead James Laughman, this may now mean an additional 13% cut for Human Services Development Funds (HSDF). The first 12% cut was announced last month. Then yesterday, Laughman said, the PA Mental Health/Mental Retardation Association was e-mailed by the Deputy Secretary of Public Welfare with news of an additional 13% cut on its way.
The currently-$735,288 allocation serves as a budget supplement to provide funding for a number of typically unmandated preventative services, including homeless case management, early intervention programs, and bi-lingual mental health counseling.
Last week, after the commissioners approved budget adjustments for the 12% cut, Laughman told NewsLanc that another such reduction for next year would be “devastating.” Now it appears that this dreaded cut is set for an early arrival. However, Laughman noted that since no formal announcement has yet been released, and certain details are yet unclear, “nothing is in stone” at this time.
According to Laughman, the County Commissioners Association is “upset” over these potential slashes to human service funding. Laughman said that the group is presently lobbying with the Governor’s office to find other areas to make the cuts.
During the January 12 Lancaster county commissioners meeting, Commissioner Scott Martin asked Drug and Alcohol Commission Executive Director Rick Kastner how his office has been adjusting to State-level budgeting cuts for 2009-2010. “It’s a very diffcult year,” Kastner responded, “The most difficult we’ve ever had.”
The Drug and Alcohol Commission is one of the beneficiaries of HSDF dollars.
Kastner said that in past year he has already held four group meetings with partnering service providers to discuss “how to cut costs, how to stretch our limited dollars.” As Kastner explained it, “What I’ve done with the providers is I came up with a Plan A, which is the changes we need to make to stretch our dollars and serve as many people as possible for July 1. But, if we have greater cuts, then we go to Plan B, which is even tougher decisions, tougher cuts, more restrictions.”
Kastner described the nature of his current efforts as “trying to keep plugging along and not let it collapse.”
