MERCER Proposal includes cuts for behavior agency

The agency's drug and alcohol programming is taking the biggest hit.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County Behavioral Health Commission Inc. is facing nearly $1 million in state funding cuts in a 2003-04 budget proposed by Gov. Ed Rendell.
People who need the help the most won't be able to get it, said Dana Frankenburg, the commission's chief executive officer, noting that the cuts come in drug and alcohol services, mental health services and human services development fund programming.
Those three programs helped more than 2,100 county residents last year, he said.
The public needs to be made aware of the impact on human and social services, and the consumer public needs to be alert to the service cuts because some programs would no longer continue, Frankenburg said.
If people are concerned about the cutbacks, they should contact the governor or their state legislators to ask that the state funds be restored, he said.
The Behavioral Health Commission, a private, nonprofit organization with an annual budget of $19 million, is Mercer County's lead agency for administration and delivery of mental health, mental retardation and drug and alcohol services.
Breakdown of the cuts
The cuts proposed by Rendell total $978,407.
The cut for drug and alcohol funds would be $688,000 -- 62 percent of the agency's total allocation in that category. The money is used to provide nonhospital rehabilitation, a halfway house, hospital and nonhospital detoxification, residential treatment, outpatient and Methadone maintenance programs, among others.
Mental health programming would take a $214,130 hit, Frankenburg said, noting that money is used for outpatient case management.
Finally, human services development fund programming would lose $76,277, money used to do assessment, counseling, case management and referral work for county jail inmates, he said.
Many people will go without the needed service to effectively deal with their illness or addiction, Frankenburg said.
Rendell's proposed budget is being debated in the state Legislature.
Plans are being made to cut local programs with the end of the fiscal year June 30 because there's no guarantee a new state budget will be in place by then or that funding cuts will be restored, he said.
He said behavioral health programming already has cut $200,000 from its internal budget for 2003-04 without affecting direct services, with most of the savings coming by not filling six vacant staff positions and by realigning other staff assignments.
The agency, with 83 employees, is looking at other ways to further reduce costs, Frankenburg said.
gwin@vindy.com