NORWICH – Chenango County’s social and mental hygiene services directors say programming and spending cuts in Governor David Paterson’s extender bills won’t have a significant impact locally.
Chenango County Department of Social Services Commissioner Bette Osborne said her department was “lucky” to only lose $20,000 in flexible funding passed through from the federal government. New York State, as a whole, will have to live with $4.6 million less.
DSS uses the funding stream to pay contracts for children’s services and, in part, for administration. The department budgeted $2.34 in flex funds for 2010.
“We can make it up by tweaking contracts. I’m confident that we’ll break even and can absorb the loss,” Osborne told a county committee last week.
DSS will have one less option for helping welfare recipients get back to work, however. New York State will end a Morrisville State College program that assisted unemployed or underemployed individuals with finding local jobs that pay above minimum wage. The so called “bridge” program covered tuition, uniforms, and textbooks for clients, and employers were reimbursed for worker’s wages for an agreed upon time period.
A 55 percent cut in funding for summer youth employment programs has already been remedied locally, with DSS and its community partners cutting the number of worksites in the community from eight to four.
Osborne said DSS’ Child Protective Services Unit would be slightly affected next year, with a 2 percent cut, and another 2 percent cut in a Foster Care Block grant would be felt in the fourth quarter of 2011. Chenango County has a low foster care placements, Osborne said, but typically uses up the grant in the third quarter before tapping into local share.
A new, but unfunded proposal for kinship/guardianship care would pose yet another administration burden, she said.
The “real eye opener,” said the commissioner, is that an Assembly bill calling for New York State to administer Medicaid programs is being backed by both the Senate and Gov. Paterson.
“It’s not passed yet. But, it would be very damaging. Not only would we lose local contact with people, but it would affect 30 percent of our administration money for overhead...that includes lights, rent, buildings maintenance, attorney and fraud,” said Osborne.
