Job and Family Services facing huge budget cuts
Reduced property values will likely force agency to dip into cash reserve.
Huist Smith, Joanne. Dayton Daily News, Dec. 9, 2010.DAYTON — The Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services will dip into a limited cash reserve to prevent a budget shortfall in 2011 for public assistance and children services programs.
Reductions in social service contracts, foster care, and staffing are also coming.
“The Job and Family Services budget is under tremendous pressure, because of its reliance on state funding,” Montgomery County Administrator Deborah Feldman said Thursday. “The agency is anticipating reductions in both Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Income Maintenance funding.”
The job and family services budget for 2011 is set at $145 million.
Reductions in TANF allocations to the county have been in steady decline dropping from $18.1 million in 2008 to a projected $8.2 million in 2012.
Bringing more uncertainty to the department, Ohio’s two-year budget cycle begins July 1 and Gov.-elect John Kasich says he will balance the budget, despite a looming multimillion deficit.
Gayle Bullard, director of Montgomery County Job and Family Services, said 14 social service providers have been told their contracts will end or be cut.
“We’ll continue funding some until June 2011 so they can make other plans,” Bullard said.
The department will spend $4.3 million on social services contracts in 2011, a decrease of $39.9 million or 90.2 percent from 2010.
“By the time we complete this process, we will only have a handful of contracts,” Feldman said.
Social services were prioritized by community need, before budget reductions were proposed. Examples of cuts include elimination of a tutoring program run by Miamisburg City Schools and loss of $200,000 for a prevention/intervention program through the Montgomery County Juvenile Court, Bullard said.
Making budget reductions in the county’s foster care program will be more challenging, because the service is mandated and Children Services has seen a rise in referrals from the courts.
Children in the most severe cases, who may be a danger to themselves or others, are placed in residential treatment facilities at a monthly cost of $8,545 per child.
Every month, Montgomery County has between 60 and 70 kids in group homes at a cost of $3,382 per child.
As its pool of available foster parents shrinks, the county has contracted with nonprofits to provide placement for about 300 children at a monthly cost of $2,855 per child. Traditional foster care is the least expensive with a monthly cost of $693 per child.
The department currently has a staff of 938, a number that will not grow due to budget constraints.
Feldman said staff reductions will hopefully be managed through attrition.
“If everything would be static, I think we would break even at the end of 2011, said Commissioner John “Bud” O’Brien. “If the state cuts the local government funding, we would probably have to make more cuts.”
The commissioners plan to vote on the 2011 budget Dec. 21.
After two rounds of cuts totaling 16 percent in 2010, budgets for Miami County departments will start 2011 at the final 2010 appropriation.
State Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., who is co-chair of the special budget commission convened to address the budget deficit, said it is too soon to tell how local governments will be effected by the state’s budget deficit.
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