43
Mental health panel urges cuts in funding for programs
The latest round of budget cutbacks is too large for the board to absorb.
YOUNGSTOWN — Programs funded by the county mental health board may have a combined $448,755 trimmed from their Fiscal Year 2009 budgets because of cuts in state mental health funding.
The local cuts, recommended Thursday by the Mahoning County Mental Health Board’s Ways and Means Committee, are expected to be voted on by the full board at its Feb. 19 meeting.
The funding reductions are particularly difficult because there are only about four months left in the fiscal year, which ends June 30, in which to make adjustments, mental health officials said.
The latest amount to be shaved by the Ohio Department of Mental Health from the local mental health board’s subsidy, $555,286, represents about 5 percent of its fiscal 2009 budget of $14 million-$15 million. This cut is on top of a reduction in the state subsidy last October of $131,775.
Because the agency’s fiscal year runs from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, and the budget for fiscal 2009 was already in place when the cuts were announced, the board has had to adjust for funding reductions it was not expecting when the budget was put together, said Karen Schwarz, fiscal director.
The state mental health department has cut a total of $687,021 from its subsidy to Mahoning County Mental Health Board since the local agency’s budget was finalized in September 2008. The board’s ways and means committee is recommending that $448,775 in subsidy cuts be passed along to the core and grant programs.
The agency was able to absorb the October reduction, using revenue from the sale of property and by operating more efficiently and dipping into its carry-over fund, said Toni Notaro, administrative director. However, the second cut in state funds is too large for the board to absorb, she said.
Core programs, which operate independently but receive funding from the county mental health board for services such as counseling and case management, include: Burdman Group, Catholic Charities Regional Agency, D&E Counseling Center, Family Service Agency, Help Hotline Crisis Center, Meridian Services, Mahoning County Community Support Network and Turning Point Counseling Services.
Grant programs are developed for specific populations or to fill gaps in the system of care. Some were formerly funded by state or federal grants that the local board sustained once the grants expired, and others were created locally, Notaro said.
“We’re asking reductions in programs, not elimination, until we see what happens financially,” said William Carbonell, director of clinical programs.
Mental Health Board Executive Director Ronald A. Marian held out some hope that the budget cuts could be lessened if the talked-about $100 million Ohio is supposed to receive from a federal stimulus program occurs.
“We can’t depend on that, but if it comes, we’ll restore the agencies’ budget to the extent that we can,” Marian said.
Unfortunately, the subsidy cuts come during bad economic times when the programs funded by the agency, which served about 10,000 county residents last year, are needed more than ever, Notaro said.
alcorn@vindy.com