State cuts to hit local human services

As the state seeks to close its $4 billion revenue shortfall, it seems the pain of forthcoming budget cuts will be felt by some of the Charlottesville area’s most vulnerable residents.
Services that assist low-income seniors are on the chopping block. So are initiatives that help schoolchildren dealing with severe emotional disturbances. And the Charlottesville Free Clinic, which provides medical care to an ever-growing number of low-income patients with health insurance, is facing probable cuts.

While no state cuts have yet been finalized, lawmakers from the House and Senate have approved competing versions of the budget and have started working out the differences between them. Many of the cuts facing area human services agencies are included in both versions.
The Jefferson Area Board for Aging, which provides housing, health care and other services to local seniors, is bracing for several deep reductions.
In one case, the state would reduce its payments for “auxiliary grants,” which subsidize very low-income senior citizens in assisted living facilities. JABA receives these funds to provide care, housing, meals and more for 55 residents at Mountainside Senior Living in Crozet. The cut would reduce the state’s monthly payment by $100 per resident. In all, this would mean JABA loses a total of roughly $60,000 in annual subsidies.
Gordon Walker, JABA’s chief executive officer, said the cut would require a reduction in the number of beds available for low-income seniors in the future. He said he “hopes” the cut can be handled through attrition, rather than forcing a current resident to lose their bed.

“If you’re a senior and you’ve got money, you’ve got options,” Walker said. “If you don’t have money, this [program] is one of your only options.”
JABA is also facing a state reduction in home care for seniors. And the agency’s “care coordination” services — in which JABA receives a tip about a senior in need of help and then coordinates the necessary care — is also looking at reductions.
On top of JABA’s state budget cuts, Albemarle County has proposed to cut another $14,024 from the agency. Plus, the cuts come at a time JABA is suffering a 15 percent drop in donations and the looming loss of one-time federal stimulus funding.
“All of this is happening at the same time,” Walker said. “Put it all together and the cumulative effect is pretty Draconian.”
Among some of the possible service reductions, Walker said, are the closure of JABA’s senior community center in Keswick, which has been open since 1975.
JABA may reduce staff at its Scottsville community center that serves 55 seniors.
And the agency may have little choice but to end the delivery of hot lunches to some 1,000 seniors’ homes.

‘Not a lot of happy, happy’

Region Ten Community Services Board, which provides mental health, intellectual disability, crisis and substance abuse services, is facing its own slew of state budget cuts.
One Region Ten program, the “therapeutic day treatment” program, which helps schoolchildren with severe emotional disturbances, is facing a $300,000 reduction. With such a cut, the agency says, services may be reduced and a number of staffers who oversee the program may be cut.
“Basically, it provides therapeutic support in the schools,” said Caruso Brown, Region Ten’s deputy executive director. “It makes all the difference in the world for these kids.”
Another Region Ten program, “intensive in-home services,” which seeks to help families cope with a child suffering from emotional problems, is facing another $100,000 cut.
“Say you’ve got a kid who is cutting classes, maybe stealing things, getting into dangerous behavior, this program helps you deal with the problem,” Brown said. “It helps families stay together.”
Yet another Region Ten program facing a $300,000 cut provides residential and day support services for adults with intellectual disabilities.
“Not a lot of happy, happy out there,” Brown said. “That’s for sure.”

Game-changing budget slices

Under the budget amendments proposed by Gov. Bob McDonnell, state money that goes to the Virginia Health Care Foundation — which helps fund free clinics across the state — would be cut by 25 percent in fiscal 2011 and 40 percent in fiscal 2012.
“That kind of cut would be a game changer,” said Erika D. Viccellio, executive director of the Charlottesville Free Clinic.
Lawmakers in both chambers, however, appear to have rejected McDonnell’s proposal. The House version of the budget keeps former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed cut of 10 percent each year, while the Senate version restores the “health care safety net” funding in its entirety.
If the House version prevails, the Charlottesville Free Clinic would likely get a cut of $7,000. At that level, Viccellio said, the Charlottesville clinic would probably be able to absorb it without a major disruption of service to the local uninsured population.
“We’re quite relieved,” she said. “It looks like everything is going in a much better direction.”
Other free clinics around Virginia, which rely on the state for funding more than Charlottesville’s does, will likely be hit harder. Some clinics, she said, receive up to 50 percent of their funding from the state.

Hitting where it hurts

Del. R. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, said lawmakers had hoped to avoid slashing health care services, but the state’s revenue shortfall is so deep that the cuts cannot be avoided.
Health care and public education, he said, have been held relatively harmless as the state has cut spending in several rounds of budget cuts over the past two years
“We’ve made the cuts in all the other areas. And when you’ve made the cuts in every area but K-12 and health care, you have to start looking at those cuts,” Landes said. “We have to look at things we wish we didn’t have to.”
Landes, one of the House members appointed as a budget conferee, said lawmakers are trying to minimize the pain of human services cuts as much as possible.
“All local governments and the state governments are trying to make the best choices possible, given that there are no good choices right now,” he said.

Looking for an upside

While no one is happy about the pain of budget cuts, some conservative groups are pleased that the state is cutting deep into spending rather than raising taxes.
Ben Marchi, the state director of Americans for Prosperity, said Virginia’s government has grown by thousands of jobs while the economic downturn has taken its toll on private sector jobs.
“We think it’s only fair that government shares in the hard times,” he said.
Virginia’s health care agencies, Marchi said, have increased spending by huge amounts in recent years.
“Somewhere there is a spending problem,” he said. “You can cut state spending by a lot. The trains will still run on time.”