Many thanks to Capital Law School for reinstating AdoptUs Kids

Adoption Photos: Foster kids hope to click with families using website

Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 28, 2011.

Hand on one hip and smiling big, the 12-year-old clearly gave the camera her best. An accompanying profile says she likes reading, country music and science, and she thinks that living on a horse farm would be a dream come true.

But like all the other children on this website, the bespectacled blonde also has a simpler wish - to belong to a loving family.

Her story and dozens more are again available to prospective parents online through the reconstituted Ohio Adoption Photolisting website.

The state dismantled the popular site more than a year ago because of budget cuts, but it's back, at least until the end of this year, through an agreement with the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy at Capital University.

The center had tried to secure private funding to revive the site, executive director Denise St. Clair said. When that failed, officials worked out a deal for the state to pay the center a little less than $2,000 a month in state and federal money to operate the listing.

Child-welfare advocates say it's great news.

"We're absolutely ecstatic," said Greg Kapcar of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. "It provides important opportunities."

The site doesn't showcase private or international adoption; the children listed are in foster care and available for adoption through Ohio's county children services agencies. Last names and foster-home locations remain confidential.

Unlike the old site, which mandated county participation when it was managed by the state, listing is voluntary. St.Clair said advocates hope that will help make the information more fluid, creative and up-to-date. They want caseworkers and kids to be in charge of the content, tweaking as necessary and keeping it upbeat and free of anything that could cause embarrassment. "We encourage the counties to engage the kids in writing their own profiles," St. Clair said.

Advocates say Web presences are crucial in the world of adoption. People want pictures and information on their own time, not necessarily by agency appointment. Some states are making their listings of adoptable kids increasingly elaborate, with video, voices and even music.

St. Clair said she knows that some think of the approach as kid-shopping, but she takes a different view.

"I can understand that point to a certain extent," she said. "But I'm looking at it from the other side - these kids need and want families."

The profile for a smiling, gap-toothed boy says he needs a family willing to offer patience and love. He's only 7, but he has already had a lifetime of disappointment.

VISION in Dayton leads to campus housing

Kudos to the VISION Youth Advisory Board for their advocacy efforts to provide campus housing during breaks for former foster youth attending Wright State University!!

Quote from Adrian McLemore, posted on Wright State's website 

and featured in Sunday Dayton Daily News today:

"When I aged out of the foster system, I moved straight to Wright State. Being a former foster child, I had nowhere to go during breaks. See, we're not allowed to go back to where we were. Dan Bertsos and others at Wright State helped me to be sure I always had someplace to stay. They saw things in me that I couldn't see. I've learned a lot about myself and have become a leader, helping other foster kids find their way to college and to break the cycle of foster care."

—Adrian McLemore, Political Science major

Filling the $8 billion hole in Ohio's budget won't be easy

Tax or ax? To balance Ohio's budget, lawmakers basically have just two unpopular choices
Siegel, Jim and Darrel Rowland. Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 2, 2011.

- $8,000,000,000.

We're not used to seeing Ohio's probable state budget shortfall for the next two years written out that way, with all the zeros.

Perhaps it somehow better conveys the enormity of the task facing the administration of incoming Gov. John Kasich and the state legislature, which will be controlled by Kasich's fellow Republicans.

Maybe Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor could help solve the problem. He sold his 2008 Big Ten championship ring, 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and 2008 gold pants trinket for beating Michigan and now must repay $2,500.

'Course, he'd have to repeat his deeds 3.2 million times to come up with the necessary cash.

OK, let's think bigger: Put a super-surcharge on fans attending next season's revenge game against Wisconsin of, say, a mere $75,000 apiece.

Still wouldn't be enough.

All right, let's talk about more realistic options - although realistic may be in the eye of the beholder.

Firing every state employee would get you more than half of the way there, but not much more. About 85 percent of state general revenue funds (money from state taxes and some matching federal dollars) are passed through to local boards, agencies and governmental entities. That means major cuts to "state" government actually wind up reducing funding to schools, cities, universities, counties and townships, most of which have their own fiscal woes.

Raising the state sales tax from 5.5 cents on the dollar to 8 cents, a 45 percent jump, would bring in about $6.5 billion. Wiping out the 2005 income-tax cut (21 percent), could mean about $4.3 billion. Majority Republicans likely would argue that either option would devastate the state.

Ohio charges many dozens of fees for various licenses and services, and nearly all of them could be raised to some degree. Ohio also gives away more than $7 billion in tax exemptions, credits and deductions that could be eliminated or reduced.

But Kasich and a number of Republican lawmakers have signed a national no-tax pledge that covers not only taxes, but also fees. Under the pledge, some could be raised, but others must be lowered so there is no net increase. However, some veteran legislative Republicans are quietly questioning whether the budget can really balance without more revenue, and there seems to be a growing expectation that Kasich will violate the no-new-fees portion of the pledge.

There are other ways to pick up more money. Selling state buildings could provide a quick cash infusion, but would cost Ohio more in the future for lease payments. Selling the Ohio Turnpike could also mean major up-front cash, but doing so could also have ramifications and would be difficult to pass over objections from a host of lawmakers from both parties across northern Ohio.

In mid-March, Kasich and his team may unveil some truly unique ways to balance the 2012-13 budget, including perhaps combining and privatizing state functions.

So what is the $8 billion shortfall anyway? Simply put, it is roughly the amount the state is lacking if it wants to continue to providing the same services it provides today for the next two years, starting July 1.

No one can pinpoint the exact budget shortfall because there are too many unknown factors, including the estimated tax-revenue growth, some future costs, whether Congress plans to help again, and just what state leaders want government to look like when they're done. But most experts agree $8 billion is a good place to start the conversation, and some say it's more like $10 billion when such factors as the state's debt on unemployment compensation is included.

The current two-year budget is balanced with about $8.7 billion in one-time money that is not expected to be available again. More than $5 billion is from the federal stimulus package that, depending on one's perspective, either saved Ohio and most other states from potentially devastating cuts, or simply put off tough decisions for two years.

Despite what you may have heard during the campaign this fall, there is no way state leaders can save billions simply by "trimming fat" or "enacting efficiencies" that won't be noticed. Experts will tell you that most of the low- and even medium-hanging fruit has already been harvested to balance the current budget, which suffered from an unprecedented drop in tax revenue.

Rather, state leaders will soon learn a political truism: Talking about cutting the budget is easier than actually cutting it. Perhaps that is why nearly every prior state budget crisis was at least partially fixed with tax increases, regardless of which party was in charge.

So you want to cut? Eliminating all tax funding for a dozen state agencies - including the departments of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Development, Veterans Services and Youth Services (juvenile prisons) - saves about $3.4 billion, less than half the shortfall.

Republicans have talked about significantly reducing the number of state agencies, which might save money long term. But significant savings in the first two years are far less likely.

Cutting Medicaid, which makes up about 40 percent of the state general revenue fund, is ugly because it eliminates about $2 in federal money for every $1 in state cuts. In addition to hitting Ohio's poorest and most fragile citizens, cuts also can hurt hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and others in the health-care industry.

Deep cuts to grades K-12 education would force further reductions in teachers and programs and likely send property taxes upward, leaving Ohio's overall tax burden worse.

Major cuts to universities could trigger huge tuition increases, which could be considered tax increases on the middle class.

Ohio's prisons are already overcrowded, and while there have been recent proposals to move nonviolent prisoners to community programs, the short-term savings are about $50 million over two years. And some lawmakers are nervous about constituents' reactions to freeing criminals.

Ohio sends more than $1 billion a year directly to local governments and libraries, making it a tempting cut. But libraries have an amazing ability to organize their patrons to fight cuts. For cities and villages, most of that state money pays for police and fire protection.

While groups including Greater Ohio and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce have recently recommended major changes to the state's 19 {+t}{+h} century system of local governments, even if local officials pledge to consolidate and become more efficient, such moves take time to see big savings.

And finally, the state pays 12.5 percent of every local property tax levy approved by voters. This is a huge, growing expense for the state ($1.7 billion a year). But while most homeowners are likely unaware that the state is picking up one-eighth of their property tax bill, they are sure to notice if the state stops doing it.

Try it yourself
The Dispatch has created an interactive online exercise that lets readers attempt to balance Ohio's next budget. Users can make any or all of 34 policy choices, then see the results.

Try your hand at balancing the state budget

Interesting point-of-view about Ohio's budget challenges

Thomas Suddes commentary: Here's what's in store at the Statehouse for 2011
Suddes, Thomas. Columbus Dispatch, January 2, 2011.

Ohio's Republican-run General Assembly will aim in 2011 to:

• Write a state budget without raising taxes.

• Make Ohio congressional districts even more GOP-friendly.

• Tilt in management's favor Ohio's 1983 union-bargaining law for public employees.

Gov.-elect John Kasich and his fellow Republicans may be positioned to meet their policy goals - if the GOP doesn't splinter. In 2011, the GOP will run Ohio's House and Senate, will hold every statewide elected executive office and will have a 6-1 Ohio Supreme Court majority. And for the first time since Robert A. "Mr. Republican" Taft was briefly speaker in the 1920s, running Ohio's House will be an iconic GOP conservative: William G. Batchelder of Medina.

The state budget debate, which will get rolling in March, will be a huge GOP test. Democrats left Kasich with a hole $8 billion deep. To fill that pit without raising taxes or making Medicaid a take-two-aspirin, call-us-tomorrow program would be a bookkeeping miracle.

The Apportionment Board (Kasich; Republican Auditor-elect David Yost; Republican Secretary of State-elect Jon Husted) will redraw the legislature's districts. The legislature itself will redraw U.S. House districts; Ohio has 18 congressional districts now but will lose two because Sun Belt states are growing. Ohio isn't.

Because of Ohio Democrats' November losses, Ohio's U.S. House delegation has 13 Republicans, five Democrats. All five Democrats are from the Cleveland-Akron-Youngstown triangle or a Toledo-Vermilion corridor along Lake Erie. Anywhere south of that corridor or, further east, roughly south of U.S. 224, is a GOP preserve. So if you're Democratic U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich, Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton, GOP bull's-eyes are on your back. The fifth U.S. House Democrat is Rep. Marcia Fudge of Cleveland, who is African-American. The Voting Rights Act will likely shield her district from GOP stunts.

As to collective-bargaining, tauter management of public employees by Ohio Republicans isn't, or shouldn't be, the same as public-employee bashing. But it would be remarkable if Ohio Republicans make that distinction, given the national GOP's vicious propaganda war on public employees.

Before elections, Ohio Republicans compete for police-union and firefighter-union endorsements and woo "Reagan Democrats" in unionized building trades. But after the vote, some politicos harrumph that binding arbitration (for cops and firefighters) and paying prevailing wage (on public construction projects) might cost too much. Amazing, isn't it, how stepping off a soapbox and into the Statehouse can void someone's vows?

Politics aside, the Statehouse also will offer some pageantry in 2011, the 150th anniversary of the capitol's completion. The Capitol Square board, which oversees the Statehouse, plans commemorative events throughout 2011.

Thanks to a needed restoration in the 1990s, the Statehouse appears much as it did in 1861. That's when future President James A. Garfield was a Republican state senator from greater Cleveland and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice William B. Woods was an Ohio House Democrat from Licking County.

Among this year's 132 Ohio legislators, there may or may not be men and women with prospects as good as Garfield's and Woods' proved to be. But Garfield, "elected on a pledge to pare expenses," according to his biographer, Cleveland State historian Allan Peskin, thought "his colleagues ... obsessed with 'a crazy crusade in favor of retrenchment.' " Woods, a veteran Democrat who only later became a Republican, nudged Ohio into financially helping Abraham Lincoln's GOP administration fight the Civil War, according to the late Louis Filler, an Antioch scholar.

That is, as General Assembly members, future President Garfield and future Justice Woods let themselves have second thoughts - something Ohio's lock-step partisans need to try.

Ohio's least productive two-year session in decades?

Ohio lawmakers set record for legislative inaction

Cincinnati.com, Dec. 26, 2010. 

 The just concluded two-year session of the Ohio Legislature has set a modern record for legislative inaction.

One explanation may be the state's first experience with politically divided chambers since enacting term limits 10 years ago and reducing lawmakers' political experience.

The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday that only 58 bills became law during the 128th General Assembly, compared to an average of 247 bills during the previous 20 years.

House lawmakers met only 52 times and Senate lawmakers only 58 times, compared to an average of about 83 times every session in previous years.

Sen. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, said it was the least productive two-year session he's seen in his decade in Columbus.

What's the future for Medicaid in Ohio?

According to a 2010 report from the Buckeye Institute, Crushing Weight: National Health Care Law Threatens to Make Medicaid an Unsustainable Burden for Ohioans:

• National spending on Medicaid, America's largest health insurance program, has grown nearly 500 percent over the past two decades.

• Medicaid now represents one-quarter of Ohio state spending -- $14 billion annually -- which more than doubles its share over the past two decades.

•  A typical household of four in Ohio pays approximately $2,000 annually to finance the state Medicaid program. 

•  In many states, including Ohio, Medicaid pays providers a much lower amount compared to Medicare and commercial insurance rates. This causes many providers to refuse Medicaid patients, and leads to an unacceptably low quality of care for many beneficiaries and an overuse of emergency rooms.

• Medicaid is one of the last places states look to cut during economic recessions because each dollar a state cuts results in a loss of federal funds.

• The Heritage Foundation estimated that nearly 565,000 additional Ohioans will be enrolled in Medicaid at a seven-year (2014–2020) additional cost to the state of nearly $1 billion because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”).

• The expansion to everyone below 138 percent of the federal poverty level will add about 20 million Americans and over half a million Ohioans into Medicaid.

• States will pick up a small portion of the cost of the expansion population, but they will have to pickup their usual portion of the cost for individuals who are eligible under the previous state eligibility guidelines.

• States are required to raise primary rate physician reimbursement rates in 2013 and 2014 with federal funding, but states will no longer receive these federal funds beginning in 2015.

570,000 Ohio children live in poverty - and the TANF Budget is insufficient to meet their needs

According to the State Budget Matters edition on The TANF Budget by the Center for Community Solutions:

• The federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is the largest source of funding for states for programs that help low-income families.  Ohio uses TANF funds primarily for cash assistance, county allocations, and early child care and education.

• For many years, Ohio did not spend all of its federal TANF block grant. This created a surplus balance, but those funds were spent down in the last biennium. The federal TANF grant has been flat-funded for over a decade.

• The TANF program was created during an economic boom and did not anticipate the challenges caused by a long and deep recession. The number of families receiving cash assistance has increased sharply since the start of the recession, and TANF funding is stretched too thin to meet all of their basic needs.

• Due to the use of one-time funds in the current biennium, expected FY 2012-2013 funding is insufficient to support current spending. State policymakers not only face the challenge of closing a structural deficit of $8 billion in Ohio’s General Revenue Fund, but they must close a shortfall in Ohio’s largest discretionary social service program as well. 

• Their decisions will impact Ohio's children. The TANF program provides critical support for low-income families – and especially for children. 

• The 2009 American Community Survey shows that 21 percent of Ohio’s children live in poverty, compared with 18 percent in 2007. There are about 570,000 children in Ohio living below the federal poverty line, an increase of almost 75,000 children compared with just two years before.

Loss of Dayton Urban League, a critical part of Dayton's safety net for minorities

Saving Dayton non-profits on city leaders' minds
By Amelia Robinson, Staff Writer Updated 10:23 PM Sunday, December 5, 2010.

Leaders will meet this month to discuss ways to save area nonprofits from the fate suffered by the Dayton Urban League and other recently folded nonprofits.

“We really need to take a real look at the ways we provide service and make sure we aren’t duplicating any service to maximize our dollars,” said state Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, noting that certain tasks could be consolidated. The daylong summit will include local business leaders, politicians and representatives from key nonprofits.

The closure of the Dayton Urban League is disastrous, Luckie said. The league’s board announced Friday that economic pressures meant it would temporarily cease operation after 63 years.

Dayton City Commissioner Dean Lovelace said it was time to get key community leaders, clergy and politicians together to brainstorm ways to save the Urban League.

“It’s going to be devastating given their mission was employment and training,” Lovelace said. “This is a serious blow to the minority community.”

Dayton Chamber of Commerce President Phil Parker hopes it is not too late to save the organization he called a critical part of Dayton’s nonprofit safety net.

Serving 5,000 people annually, the league’s long list of programs included education and job training for teens and adults as well as a homeless prevention program.

“I don’t believe it will an easy task for other organizations to quickly pick up the slack,” Parker said. “It might not happen and that scares me.”

Kasich's opinions about what could be cut in 2011

Kasich eyes cost cutting
Governor-elect aims to take on public employee unions, nonviolent criminals in state prisons
Smyth, Julie Carr. Ohio.com, Dec. 10, 2010.

Republican Governor-elect John Kasich said Thursday he's pursuing obvious but politically dicey ways to save Ohio money, including taking on public employee unions and diverting nonviolent criminals from state prisons.

Kasich made wide-ranging remarks on how he'll tackle a looming $8 billion budget gap at an event to announce his nominee for tax commissioner: former Franklin County Auditor Joe Testa.

Kasich said ''low-hanging fruit'' like union protections and prison reforms should have been plucked long ago to curb Ohio's tax burden.

He said he opposes paying union-scale prevailing wages on public job sites, doesn't think public employees should have the right to strike, and opposes using binding arbitration to resolve contract disputes involving police officers and firefighters.

''We'll come up with a series of changes, but binding arbitration is not acceptable,'' Kasich said. ''You are forcing increased taxes on taxpayers with them having no say by people who come from a faraway place and have no accountability to the taxpayers.''

Jay McDonald, president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, said Ohio's binding arbitration law took effect in 1984 as an alternative to settling police, fire and prison guard labor disputes through strikes. He said arbitrators side with employers ''on a very regular basis.''

''Certainly, arbitrators are very well aware of what today's economy is and they're not awarding benefits that are out of reach of employers,'' he said.

He acknowledged that public safety forces can be costly for taxpayers.

''It costs money to find somebody to face the threat of gunfire; it costs money to find somebody to run into a building that's on fire,'' he said. ''I don't think we want to contract out the rape investigation of our neighbor to the lowest bidder.''

Stephen Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association that represents 1,500 police officers, detectives and dispatchers, said binding arbitration allows police to air their grievances and still keep the public safe.

''We work now and grieve later. That's the motto. That's what I tell my guys,'' Loomis said.

Kasich said public employees should not be allowed to strike anyway — though he doesn't know how practical it would be to do away with the practice.

''My personal philosophy is I don't like public employees striking. OK?'' he said. ''They've got good jobs, they've got high pay, they've got good benefits, great retirement. What are they striking for?''

Kasich said he will also fight to chip away at Ohio's prevailing wage law, which he said adds to construction costs at universities and drives up their tuition costs. Although he said he would prefer to repeal it, ''if we can make progress in some areas, we can allow people to provide more services at a lower price.''

Kasich is a former congressman, Fox News commentator, and Lehman Brothers managing director who defeated Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland in last month's election. He takes office Jan. 10 and by mid-March must have a blueprint for balancing Ohio's $50 billion-plus budget for the upcoming two-year period.

He said prison costs could be drastically reduced by rethinking whether nonviolent offenders, including those who commit drug-related offenses, should be sent for short stays in state prison. Kasich said people who commit such crimes are not a public threat and shouldn't be imprisoned at high cost to taxpayers alongside murderers.

He also said state prison seems like the wrong place for child-support delinquents.

''Why do I want to put somebody that doesn't pay child support in a state prison . . . instead of putting them somewhere and forcing them on a work detail or home confinement or county jail, in a place where the public is safe and yet we can get our costs?'' he said. ''To me, that's low-hanging fruit.''

Just last week, state Sen. Bill Seitz failed to get the necessary support to bring an overhaul of Ohio's criminal sentencing laws up for a vote on the floor of the Republican-controlled Senate.

The measure proposed cost-reducing measures such as imposing the same sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses, expanding inmates' ability to reduce their sentences through good behavior, and increasing use of halfway houses and GPS devices, as well as numerous other changes.

The State of the States isn't looking so good...

Agencies' budget outlook: Painful
Prisons would close, services would dry up under some scenarios
Niquette, Mark. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 2, 2010.

Some state prisons would close and the rest would be dangerously overcrowded, college tuition could increase significantly and fewer Ohioans would get long-term health care from the state.

The dire warnings were among the initial budget estimates that state agencies were required to submit by yesterday to state legislative leaders and Republican Gov.-elect John Kasich.

Those requests, plus a national report issued yesterday outlining the difficult budget situation that all states face, underscore the challenge for Kasich and the legislature as they prepare a two-year spending plan with an expected $8billion shortfall that is due by June 30.

Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland's administration instructed each state agency to prepare budget estimates using two scenarios: one based on receiving 100 percent of this year's funding, the other based on getting 90 percent.

The state budget office said it didn't have a summary of the agencies' proposals, and that the submissions could be obtained only from each individual agency. But an initial review of some of the larger agency proposals showed:

• The Board of Regents suggested a sharp reduction in financial aid would be required under the 90 percent funding scenario and warned that if state support were to decline, "Ohio's public campuses would need to significantly increase tuition to sustain balanced budgets" and meet enrollment goals.

• Budget cuts in the Department of Job and Family Services are likely to impact the state's neediest residents because 87 percent of the agency's budget goes to services. A 90 percent budget would result in fewer families receiving subsidized child care, reduced payments to child-care providers and higher co-pays for low-income families to access such services.

• Optional Medicaid services could be eliminated, including dental coverage, prescription drugs and hospice services. The agency also said the timeliness of child-protection investigations will be affected, "placing children at greater risk for maltreatment."

• The Department of Aging said more than 25,000 people would not receive long-term care services during the next two years with 100 percent funding, and that nearly 33,800 people would go without under the 90 percent scenario.

• The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction raised the possibility of inmates being released. Even at 100 percent of current funding, the agency said it would have to cut 339 corrections positions and close prisons because of the expected increase in payroll costs during the next two years.

That would increase prison overcrowding to 151.4 percent of capacity by 2013, the largest percentage in state history and "higher than at the time of the Lucasville riot" in 1993, Director Ernie L. Moore wrote in his summary.

At 90 percent of current funding, the department would lose 1,571 prison jobs through closing prisons and would take drastic steps such as "hot bunking," or having inmates sharing a bed based on shifts, Moore wrote. Overall department layoffs could reach 2,454, he said.

The cumulative effect of agency cuts would risk "threatening the safety of the public, staff and inmates," and the state would be "substantially more prone to litigation in multiple facets of operations," Moore wrote.

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said there are no estimates on how many prisons would close under either scenario because those decisions would be made when final budget numbers are available.

Kasich hasn't provided details about how he plans to deal with prisons or other agencies in the executive budget he must introduce by March 15, other than promising not to raise taxes and saying "everything is on the table."

Spokesman Ron Nichols said Kasich's budget team started reviewing the budget documents yesterday.

Kasich, one of 29 new governors taking office next year, isn't alone in facing a budget crisis, according to a report issued yesterday by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

"We just hope they don't quit when they see how bad the budget is," NGA Executive Director Raymond C. Scheppach quipped during a conference call.

The report said Ohio and most states are expecting a slight increase in revenue and spending during the current fiscal year that ends June 30. But after two of the worst budget years since the Great Depression, spending and revenue nationwide are not likely to return to pre-recession levels until 2013 or 2014.

Making matters worse, states already have made significant cuts and face what the report calls the "cliff" in the 2012 fiscal year when federal stimulus money that helped balance current budgets ends.

"The low-hanging fruit has been picked; a lot of very difficult actions have been taken by states already," said Scott D. Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Kasich says: If you're not on the bus, he will run over you with the bus

Budget tactic: Offer savings
Groups expecting state cuts are warned: Give ideas to work with less
Candisky, Catherine. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 5, 2010

Many advocates and special-interest groups seeking pieces of Ohio’s dwindling budget pie say that with sweeping cuts unavoidable, they need to adjust their strategy for the coming budget debate.

Instead of lobbying Gov.-elect John Kasich and Republican legislative leaders for money, they hope to preserve the services they hold dear by pitching ideas for saving scarce tax dollars.

“You can’t sit around singing Kumbaya anymore. There’s an $8 billion deficit, so we need to see what we can do to help this governor,” said Terry Russell, interim director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

“I want to be his poster child for ‘You can do things better with less money.’  ”

Kasich set the tone for his administration two days after the Nov. 2 election when he told Statehouse lobbyists, “If you’re not on the bus, we will run over you with the bus. And I’m not kidding.”

He and GOP legislative leaders have been insistent: no new taxes.

More recently, the governor-elect said: “In this state, we are all one Ohio. If the coal miners down there in Chile were trying to grab the last breath of air, they’d all (have) died. If in our state, all these individual interest groups are going to whine, complain … it’s OK to say, ‘Here’s a problem; here’s a danger area.’ I want to hear that, OK? But don’t become hysterical, and don’t just look out for yourself, or we’re going to lose. This state will lose, and I’m not going to put up with it, and neither is the legislature.”

The rhetoric and realities of the next budget are forcing groups to do things differently, and key lawmakers say it’s a refreshing change.

“This is not the standard procedure I’ve seen over the years,” said Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, a 30-year veteran and incoming House Finance Committee chairman. “The standard procedure is more of a frontal attack — we’re doing this critical stuff, and this is how much more we need.

“I think they’re recognizing special carve-outs aren’t going to be happening because of a lack of funds. They are trying to be more creative.”

Senate President-elect Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, agreed. Two years ago, when the budget problem was less severe but still significant, he said, groups would say: “I know the budget is going to be difficult, but this is only $50 million.”

“I’m not hearing that now,” he said. “I’m hearing: ‘We know how tough it’s going to be ... so we want to be proactive and share some ideas on how we can continue to deliver services in this new environment.’ I think that’s very encouraging.”

Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, co-chairman of Advocates for Ohio’s Future, a coalition of health and human-services organizations, said she was told in a meeting with House leaders last week: “Don’t come in here and ask for anything; come in with ideas.”

She plans to oblige them.

“I would much rather that we come up with ideas and come to the table than sit around and whine that we don’t want to do anything different,” she said.

Kasich must submit his two-year budget proposal to the General Assembly by March 15. In the lull before public hearings and debate, advocates and interest groups are meeting with lawmakers, educating their constituents about what’s at stake, prioritizing goals and developing plans to stretch state funds.

School districts have been told by GOP leaders to brace for a possible 20 percent cut in state aid. In response, educators say they will ask for more flexibility with the dollars they will get.

“One of our strategies is to reduce unfunded mandates, so we have asked our members to help put together a list,” said Damon Asbury of the Ohio School Boards Association. “We also want to talk about collective bargaining. That’s another area that we’d like to see some changes so we can better control costs.”

Kasich’s staff is encouraging advocates to submit ideas in writing.

“We are meeting with just about everyone who asks. Some are coming in with ideas for potential efficiencies. A lot are just trying to get a sense of where John is,” said Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols. “He has not made any promises. Everything is on the table.”

Advocates for mental-health and addiction services, which took one of the largest hits in the current budget, have been working on a plan for preserving community-based services.

Cheri L. Walter, CEO of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, has begun talking to legislators about restructuring how services are financed to ensure they are available to those in need.

“We think there are savings to be had,” Walter said.

For instance, thousands of mentally ill Ohioans wind up in prison. For the cost of one prison bed, three people with mental illness and 15 in need of addiction treatment could be treated in the community.

The group also suggests that the state stop using general-revenue funds to pay for alcohol- and drug-addiction treatment and instead use profits from state liquor sales.

Ohio’s strong nursing-home lobby also plans to be a player.

“We are very worried. It seems there is pain to go around,” said Pete Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association. “We intend to bring ideas to the table that would hopefully address the direction the administration wants to go. We just don’t know which way that is yet.”

Van Runkle said the administration might try to save dollars in the current long-term care system, or move to managed care.

Some say that savings are difficult to come by, such as state aid to local governments. That pays primarily for police, fire and other protective services.

“Our fight is a tactical one,” said John K. Mahoney, deputy director of the Ohio Municipal League. “I can’t come up with a way to cut the local-government fund and save the state money. Other kinds of budget items can do that, but we can’t.”

Grants have expired for an Ohio drop-in center that served 20 to 30 homeless youth each day.

Sisters of charity: Siblings give help to homeless youths

Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 19, 2010.

No matter how early Jeana Patterson arrived at work last week, her footprints weren't the first on the snowy porch. Cold and hungry and lonely young people were waiting to go inside. "They can eat, get warm, take a shower," Patterson said. And, this being the season, the homeless young people also like to look at the Christmas tree, which they somehow manage to appreciate without bitterness. "They're happy to be part of a tradition," Patterson said. "They want to belong."

But Patterson and her sister, Angela Lariviere, aren't sure how even the most resilient of Franklin County's homeless teens and young adults will fare if they lose - because of withering budgets - both the respite house and the advocacy organization that fights for them every day.

Patterson, 36, is the program coordinator at the Human Ecology House on N. 4th Street, the city's only drop-in center for homeless young people.

Lariviere, 38, runs the Youth Empowerment Program at the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, the only statewide council of homeless young people.

Separate but united in their missions, the sister-led programs are devoted to a vulnerable and underserved population that - here and nationwide - rarely benefits from shelter systems designed for adults and families with young children.

"We're exactly the same, except we have totally different personalities," Lariviere said with a laugh about herself and her sister.

The two grew up poor, in and out of homelessness, just like the desperate kids they mentor and love.

"They come from a position of knowing," said Mary Jane Quick of Project Connect, the Columbus school district's program that focuses on homeless children.

"Quite frankly, Jeana knows how to get the youth to represent themselves in a way that the rest of us are just learning. She's gifted."

Patterson's job might end in June, however, when funding for the drop-in center runs out.

Natasha Slesnick, an associate professor at Ohio State University's Department of Human Development and Family Science, said the research grants that she used to start the drop-in center in 2006 have expired.

She has been unable to find enough money to cover the roughly $150,000 in annual operating costs for the center, known to young people as the Star House.

"We have people who are really, really caring and passionate," Slesnick said of Patterson and her staff, which includes OSU students. "I'm just sick about this. We don't want it to end."

Most large cities have drop-in centers, Slesnick said, because experts know they are an effective way to engage street youths.

An average of 20 to 30 go to the house each day to cook, rest and get help with clothing and resources.

Many of them also belong to Lariviere's group, which helps with basic needs but also encourages the youths to work together, participate in community service and advocate for policy change.

In the past two years, Lariviere's $200,000 budget has dropped by more than half. "I've cut everything," she said.

Danielle Jinks, an 18-year-old who counts on both the drop-in center and the Youth Empowerment Program, said they mean the world to struggling youths.

"Angela is their family; Jeana is their family," Jinks said. "If they were to disappear, then I think a lot of the youths would just give up. They might think there's nobody who cares."

Megan Thompson, youth and young-adult minister at St. Matthew the Apostle Church, said many young parishioners at her church and other Catholic churches are vowing not to let that happen.

The volunteers are trying to raise $20,000 to save the Youth Empowerment Program. They have interviewed homeless youths and posted a video on YouTube; one Bishop Hartley High School student says she won't accept Christmas gifts for herself this year - only donations.

"They're in such crisis," Thompson said. "But I really believe that our community could do something powerful."

D'Andre Sample, 19, often is one of the young people waiting for the drop-in center to open, and he might not leave until it closes around 5 or 6p.m.

He had been sleeping in an abandoned house but now has a bed at Faith Mission, he said. The men's shelter is a tough place for a kid. He feels safer at the drop-in center, where he can talk to other teens, play video games and get help with apartment searches.

"I'm trying to get off the streets," said Sample, who now has an overnight job at a warehouse. "I want off at all costs."

As he bundled up to leave the center, an employee stopped and looked at his hands. "I'm OK," Sample insisted.

She quietly handed him a new, thick pair of gloves.

A couple of years ago, Patterson said, someone gave her the talk about being too busy, about how you can't take care of others unless you first take care of yourself.

Nice idea, maybe, for another line of work. Lariviere spent an entire night last week on the street and in her car, trying to find shelter for frightened, freezing 18-year-olds.

"These kids don't get to turn off their lives," Patterson said, so the sisters won't, either.

For information about the drop-in center or to donate, go to the website or call 614-432-5406.

For Youth Empowerment Program information, please call 614-280-1984, Ext. 17.

With an $8 Billion Deficit, there will only be MORE CUTS in 2011

High jobless rate has led more Ohioans to request cash aid, putting state in bind
Candisky, Catherine. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 19, 2010.

Ohio’s welfare rolls have climbed more than 30 percent in the past three years, reversing a decade-long trend as unemployment persists and incomes fall, forcing more families to turn to government assistance.

Ohio’s welfare rolls are the third-largest in the nation; its average monthly caseload in the past fiscal year was 102,446 families, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As of October, 104,542 families were relying on monthly checks averaging $160 a person. Three years ago, 80,269 families were on welfare.

Before the recession hit, cases involving a child with no parent present — often youngsters living with a grandparent — made up more than half the caseload. Now, single-parent households make up the largest proportion.

“We are attributing that to the economy and double-digit unemployment,” said Michael McCreight, deputy chief of staff for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The expansion of welfare rolls in hard times shows that the system is working, he said.


“We are at a time of recession, and the program is intended to be a safety net,” McCreight said. “We are meeting that need for people who are in temporary setbacks. It makes sense that people are coming onto the program.”

California led the nation with 572,521 families receiving assistance, followed by New York, which had a caseload of 121,289.

Ohio’s rolls hit a high of 163,079 families in 1992. They hit a record low of 77,061 in early 2007, as sweeping reforms limited assistance to three years and imposed strict work guidelines.

The caseload is expected to keep climbing through 2013 as Ohio recovers from the recession, according to a recent budget analysis prepared by the Department of Job and Family Services. On average, an individual receives $165 a month in cash assistance.

To meet welfare reform’s goal of ending dependency, recipients are required to work, train for a job or be in school to collect benefits. But that is a federal mandate that Ohio failed to meet in 2007 and 2008, and stiff penalties come as Ohio faces a projected $8 billion shortfall in the next two-year budget.

McCreight said the state has asked federal regulators to waive a $77.8 million fine for 2007 and 2008 because the lack of jobs has made it difficult for recipients to find work. The agency expects additional fines to be levied against the state after receiving official notice that Ohio also fell short in 2009 and 2010.

“We never recovered from the last recession, so we have been at a disadvantage,” McCreight said.

Joel Potts, director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors Association, said it’s hard to meet work requirements when there are not enough jobs.

Many cash-assistance recipients “are either underemployed or have lost their jobs,” he said. “Even those jobs that don’t require skills and are low-paying, people with college degrees are battling for them now.”

Ohio’s rising caseload means that more of the state’s $1.1 billion two-year welfare budget pays for cash assistance, making less available for other services such as subsidized child care and training programs.

Job and Family Services spokesman Benjamin Johnson said federal regulations require the state to pay cash assistance first.

The agency’s budget analysis, prepared at the request of outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland, recommended cutting $100 million a year from child care for low-income families by changing earnings requirements so that fewer qualify. The department also recommended slashing aid to county agencies; they use that money to administer programs and provide support services to recipients such as job training and emergency auto repairs.

Potts noted that counties’ funding already has been cut by $120 million a year, forcing thousands of layoffs and the elimination of programs such as one in Hamilton County that provided education, job training and family counseling. It had a 90 percent job-placement rate for welfare recipients.

“It’s a vicious Catch-22,” Potts said. “The higher our caseloads, the less money to support programs to get people off cash assistance.”

Montgomery County JFS facing budget cuts

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.

A Study of the Impact of the Ohio Benefit Bank

Ohio Benefit Bank programs include:

• Food and Nutrition Programs
• Healthcare Assistance
• Taxes and Student Aid Programs (including the FAFSA)
• Child Care Assistance
• Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
• Ohio Works First Cash Assistance (OWF)

A Study of the Impact of the Ohio Benefit Bank was recently released by the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University.

Funded by the Columbus Foundation, the survey looked at hardships experienced, whether OBB clients completed their applications at JFSs, and the short term impact for those individuals and families.

Ohio's 129th General Assembly

House Republicans

Speaker: Representative Bill Batchelder (Medina)
Speaker Pro Tempore: Representative Lou Blessing (Cincinnati)
Majority Floor Leader: Representative Matt Huffman (Lima)
Assistant Majority Floor Leader: Representative Barbara Sears (Western portion of Lucas County)
Majority Whip: Representative John Adams (Sidney)
Assistant Majority Whip: Representative Cheryl Grossman (Grove City)

House Democrats

Minority Leader: Representative Armond Budish (Cleveland)
Assistant Minority Leader: Representative Matt Szollosi (Toledo)
Minority Whip: Representative Tracy Heard (Columbus)
Assistant Minority Whip: Representative Debbie Phillips (Athens)

Senate Republicans

President: Senator Tom Niehaus (New Richmond)****
President Pro Tempore: Senator Keith Faber (Celina)
Majority Floor Leader: Senator Jimmy Stewart (Athens)
Majority Whip: Senator Shannon Jones (Springboro)

Senate Democrats

Minority Leader: Senator Capri Cafaro (Hubbard)*
Assistant Minority Leader: Sen. Shirley Smith (Cleveland)**
Minority Whip: Senator-elect Edna Brown (Toledo)***
Assistant Minority Whip: Senator Jason Wilson (Columbiana)

*Senator Capri Cafaro met with youth in 2009 as part of the Youth in Transition: Ready to Launch initiative.

**Senator Shirley Smith attended the 2010 FCAA Ohio NE Thanksgiving dinner.

***Senator Edna Brown responded favorably to Adrian McLemore's testimony regarding the previous biennual budget.
****Senator Tom Niehaus has been the primary sponsor of priority bills designed to reform the state’s foster care system.

Ohio's Child and Family Services Review Program Improvement Plan

Ohio's Child and Family Services Review Program Improvement Plan (PIP) was approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  

 

Due the level of non-conformity in Ohio’s most recent CFSR, HHS has designated a minimum penalty to Ohio of $3.4 million.  However, HHS is suspending the withholding of the IV-E funds associated with the penalty during Ohio’s PIP implementation period.  

If HHS determines that Ohio is successful in rectifying any of the areas for which we are out of compliance, it will rescind the withholding of the federal funds associated with each area.  If Ohio does not implement all required activities and attain all progress goals in the PIP, HHS may cease the suspension of penalties and begin withholding Federal funds.  The withholding will continue until Ohio either achieves substantial conformity in a subsequent CFSR, or completes a PIP designed to improve the areas subject to withholding.

• Download the PIP
• Download table of Ohio historic performance on the CFSR

Ohio Senate Unanimously Supports Human Trafficking Bill

Human trafficking bill passes, heads to Ohio's House

Provance, Jim. Columbus Blade Bureau Chief, Dec. 2, 2010. 

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio Senate Wednesday unanimously voted to crack down on one industry in which the state unfortunately has excelled in recent years, modern-day slavery.

"It is here . . .,'' Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo), told her colleagues. "Thank you for putting on your glasses.''

Senate Bill 235 would make Ohio the 45th state to have a stand-alone crime of "trafficking in persons.'' The bill heads to the Ohio House, which has just four days scheduled before session's end.

Rep. Kathleen Chandler (D., Kent), who has pushed a similar bill in the lower chamber, said she hopes to usher the bill through the Democratic-controlled House without amendment so it can reach Gov. Ted Strickland's desk without having to return to the Senate.

The bill defines human trafficking as the act or attempt to "recruit, lure, entice, isolate, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or maintain'' another person, knowing that the victim will be subjected to forced labor or compelled into prostitution or pornography.

The second-degree felony would carry up to eight years in prison. - WISH IT WAS LONGER

The bill updates state law to incorporate the act of trafficking into related crimes such as kidnapping and abduction.

For example, compelling prostitution, usually a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in jail, would be elevated to a first-degree felony carrying up to 10 years in jail, if the victim is under the age of 16.

It would be a second-degree felony if the victim is older than 16 but younger than 18.

The bill makes it a crime to destroy or confiscate government identification documents to coerce a trafficking victim's cooperation, a nod to the use of noncitizens as part of trafficking schemes.

Ms. Fedor, the bill's sponsor, pointed to the 2005 federal sting in Harrisburg, Pa. involving 177 girls and women as the point when the issue was brought home to her.

Seventy-seven victims came from the Toledo area; one victim was 10 years old.

She noted the irony that Ohio is still fighting slavery 150 years after then presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln gave a speech on Statehouse grounds against what was then a legal industry.

"Sadly in Ohio, Toledo, my district, is fourth in the nation behind much bigger cities--Miami, Las Vegas, Portland--in numbers of human-trafficking arrests and rescues,'' Ms. Fedor said.

"In passing this bill, we will be one step closer to eradicating this atrocity.''

Two years ago, Ohio created a human-trafficking specification to increase punishment for offenders when attached to another crime. The specification applies only to crimes associated with the sex trade.

The specification never has been used. Meanwhile, an attorney general's task force proposed by the same law has painted only a more disturbing picture of the practice's extent in Ohio, particularly in the sex trade.

Sen. Tim Grendell (R., Chesterland) sponsored the bill with Ms. Fedor after a raid of a local massage parlor using human-trafficking victims brought the issue home to them.

"When you can see human trafficking in Chester Township in Geauga County, it's a sad statement . . .,'' he said.

How can juvenile detention cost up to $65,000 a year, per bed? What are the beds made out of? Gold?

Reports Examine Ways to Rethink Juvenile Detention in Ohio

Kuhlman, Mary. Public News Service, November 19, 2010.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, Ohio detains youth at a rate higher than most states, and a majority are there for non-violent offenses or technical violations. However, Ohio has recently revamped parts of its juvenile justice system, and now there's a call to take it farther by rethinking juvenile detention in the Buckeye State.

Two reports released by the Children's Defense Fund support additional changes that would eliminate what the research classifies as the "unnecessary use" of pre-trial detention. Kim Brooks, executive director of the Children's Law Center, explains.

"We know statistically that kids who are detained at the front end, pretrial, in local facilities tend to stay in the system longer. We also know we often incarcerate too many kids, and we incarcerate them for the wrong reasons."

Ohio has approximately 40 juvenile detention centers, which vary in size, operational cost and use. Brooks says non-secure options should be considered for many juveniles.

"A good alternative system should look at a range of options: home monitoring, intensive supervision, where you have somebody checking in on them periodically to make sure that they're at home, and also emergency shelter beds."

Brooks adds that juvenile detention is an expensive option for many communities and can cost up to $65,000 a year, per bed.

"We can't afford to keep doing it. This state is in a budget crisis right now, it's costly to incarcerate, and when we know there are better alternatives to this that don't jeopardize public safety, then we need to pursue them."

The report highlights the Juvenile Justice Detention Alternatives Initiative to Promote Reform, a model currently being used by five counties in Ohio (Cuyahoga, Franklin, Lucas, Montgomery and Summit). Brooks says it includes alternatives that can keep youth out of pretrial detention whenever possible, while maintaining community safety.

The reports are available at www.childrensdefense.org.

Do you have your magnifying glass? This is the Medicaid dilemma, as per Cols Dispatch

Would cuts to Medicaid impact emancipating foster care youth?

Medicaid easy to cut in theory, not reality
Candisky, Catherine. Columbus Dispatch, November 14, 2010.

The state budget crisis has put a target on the backs of 2million Ohioans on Medicaid - children and pregnant women, the disabled and elderly - but scaling back the tax-funded health-care program comes with its own price tag.

For every dollar Ohio cuts in Medicaid spending, it loses $2 in federal matching funds.


The human toll also could be staggering.

Ohio's Medicaid program pays for:

• 1 in 3 births. 
• Half the patients treated at Ohio's six children's hospitals.
• 70 percent of nursing-home care.

The state's Medicaid spending has reached $15.4 billion a year. That money provides care to the poor and disabled and pays doctors, nurses, home health aides and other service providers. According to state officials, Medicaid now makes up more than 3percent of the state's economy.

But most agree the tab - $29,000 per minute - is one Ohio taxpayers can no longer afford.

Medicaid consumes 40 percent of the state budget, making it the biggest target for cuts as Ohio faces a possible $8 billion shortfall in its next two-year budget, which begins in July.

Newly elected Republican leaders have pledged not to raise taxes and say they will close the gap with deep cuts in government spending. As Gov.-elect John Kasich works on a budget proposal he must present to a GOP-controlled General Assembly by March 15, debate about the future of Medicaid has swirled around the "hard choices" that lie ahead.


Kasich and his legislative allies will be trying to balance the budget at a time when additional federal aid for Medicaid and other state expenses is drying up, meaning the state must come up with billions of dollars just to maintain current programs.

"Clearly, the rate of growth in Medicaid spending is unsustainable, so Medicaid, like every other state program, must be on the table in the budget process," Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said.

Reductions will be unavoidable, pitting political leaders against some of the most powerful special-interest groups in the state, including hospitals, nursing homes and managed-care companies.

Health-care experts point to a handful of options:

• Reduce eligibility to push recipients with higher incomes off the rolls.
• Eliminate or scale back benefits. Possible targets are optional services that Ohio covers but are not required by federal regulators, such as dental, vision, occupational and speech therapies, and community mental-health care.
• Cut payment rates to hospitals, nursing homes and other care providers.
• Overhaul how services are delivered, such as increasing preventive and primary care, better coordinating care and disease management, integrating physical and mental-health services, and expanding home and community-based care to reduce usage of high-priced institutional stays.

John Begala, a former state lawmaker and executive director of the Center for Community Solutions, a nonprofit health-care advocacy group based in Cleveland, said dealing with Medicaid must be a shared sacrifice.

"This really isn't optional. We've got to be serious about this going forward. The health-care sector is obviously bloated," he said.

But many options have drawbacks.

Former state Medicaid chief John Corlett, now vice president of government relations and community affairs at Cleveland's MetroHealth System, said reducing eligibility doesn't save much money because it would trigger the loss of federal aid. Under the federal health-care law, states that reduce eligibility or make it more difficult to enroll will lose their federal matching funds, which will make up 64 percent of Ohio's Medicaid outlay in the coming biennium.

Cutting services also can backfire. For example, if the state drops dental coverage, those in need of care are likely to seek it at hospital emergency rooms where the cost is higher and ultimately passed on to consumers with insurance.

Corlett and others point to potential savings in long-term care. The elderly and disabled make up 20 percent of those on Medicaid yet account for 68 percent of costs. Much of that expense is tied to nursing-home care, which could be reduced by expanding home and community-based care that most say they prefer.

Reducing the fees paid to health-care providers is another area for savings, although it will require a great deal of political courage because it affects powerful Statehouse lobbying forces.

"Providers have been pretty well taken care of in the state of Ohio," Begala said. "Asking them to hold the line on prices' increase for the next couple of years is perfectly within reason."

Mary Yost of the Ohio Hospital Association said her members already are working with state leaders in preparation for possible funding cuts. She was quick to point out that Ohio hospitals already provide about $1billion a year in care for which they are not paid.

"Our intent is to make sure we're being as creative as we can. We're looking at every option," she said.

Rate cuts could affect children's hospitals the most because 1 in every 2 patients in Ohio's six children's hospitals are covered by Medicaid.

"We're very vulnerable in any kind of budget-balancing scenario," said Nick Lashutka, president of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association. And like their adult counterparts, children's hospitals have about $300 million in uncompensated care, he noted.

Rep. David E. Burke, R-Marysville, said he thinks the state can save the most by improving and streamlining the way services are delivered.

"I don't think the heart of the issue rests with children or pregnant mothers," said Burke, a pharmacist. "It rests in other areas where we can save money. We need to look at the big picture."

Way to go, Trish and Alvin Mares

Program nurtures youths leaving foster care

Ison, Jona. Chillocothe Gazette, Aug. 29, 2010.

Dominique Smith has limited time to help.

She works with youth in the foster care system on gaining independent living skills through a Children's Services program. However, when they turn 21, she has to cut them loose -- if they even hung on for that additional three years of help.

Last week, one of Smith's former youths stopped her at a store and asked for help. She's without a job, struggling to get on her feet and turns 21 in September.

Usually, she'd only have a month to get help and nowhere to turn, but a pilot program, Ohio Youth in Transition, just started with plans to service at-risk adults ages 18 to 29.

"It's been a big need. When I work with kids, I think 'Oh, God, (when they turn 21) I can't help them anymore,'" Smith said.

The program began this spring in Columbus and now is starting in Ross County through the efforts of Trish and Alvin Mares. The couple live in Ross County and work in Columbus. Alvin is an associate professor in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University, and Trish is a licensed social worker with Buckeye Ranch.

"At some point, all programs end, and they often end sometime between 18 and 22 ... Then they're often left on their own, and we'd like to take them at that point and help them through the rest of their 20s," Alvin said.

The Columbus program is partnering primarily with Community Action, while the Ross County pilot has all "four legs" that Alvin said creates the best environment for success -- Ross County Community Action, Ross County Job and Family Services, the Human Services Technology program at Ohio University-Chillicothe and Orchard Hill United Church of Christ. Each agency has someone volunteering with the program, and OU-C human services students will help with the program, gaining valuable hands-on experience that also is required to earn their degree. As such, the Mares describe it as a no-cost program.

Students will provide individual case management and work with Community Action to conduct monthly group meetings addressing life skills and support.

Orchard Hill will provide individual and group mentoring. Mentors will begin training -- learning about such things as setting boundaries and mental health -- during October sessions at Orchard Hill. While the church is supporting the mentoring portion of the program, anyone can become a mentor for the program. Having a faith-based partner is about connecting to people who would be willing to help, not in bringing people to Christianity, the Mares said.

"Members of the faith-based community may be more ready, willing and able to make a long term commitment," Alvin said. "It's not an evangelical thing."

Having partners that are likely to commit long term is imperative to success. The pilot program is designed to run for four years as the partners develop and tweak it. As the four years come to an end, the program will be evaluated for its effectiveness and hopefully continue on, the Mares said.

"A three- to four-year period is a long enough period of time to see them make some real changes and get further in life," Alvin said.

The mentors will be a key part, providing a sense of nurturing that youth coming out of foster care or the Department of Youth Services often lack. Mentors will be expected to spend at least five hours each month with mentees, specifically checking in on periods of change -- such as a new job, home or child -- and celebrating successes and holidays.

"Whether they're coming out of foster care or incarceration, they lose that caring adult watching over them," Alvin said.

"Statistics have shown that a caring adult may be the single most important thing in success," Trish said.

Another focus will be helping mentees determine what they want to do in life and connecting them to the right training or education to accomplish that dream.

Anyone can refer or self-refer to the program. Mentees will be screened for eligibility, which means not only ensuring they are independent and meeting maximum income requirements but also ensuring they are not being served by another program.

The point of Ohio Youth in Transition is not to replace existing programs, Trish assured.

"Everybody's doing a great job. We're working to link them to the existing programs," she said.

As part of the pilot evaluation, Alvin will study and write about the program, using information from program participants who agree to be part of his formal study. If the program is successful, he and Trish hope to see it developed into other Ohio counties and potentially in other states.

Ohio Ranks 29th in Child Well-Being

Kuhlman, Mary. Stuck in the Middle: Ohio Ranks 29th in Child Well-Being. Public News Service. July 27, 2010.

Ohio continues to hang around the middle of the pack in the latest edition of an annual report on the well-being of the country's children. According to the 2010 Kids Count data book released today, Ohio dropped one place this year, ranking 29th among the states.

The full report can be accessed at: datacenter.kidscount.org
Ohio's data can be found at datacenter.kidscount.org/OH

Happy Father's Day, Adrian!

Uncle takes on role of dad to keep family together
Wynn, Kelli. Dayton Daily News, June 19, 2010.

Adrian McLemore with his niece and nephew Arayiah McLemore, 3 and Tyiaun Jones, 1, play guitar and sing to Tina Turner in their home in Trotwood. McLemore grew up in Montgomery County’s foster care system. In order to prevent his niece and nephew from becoming wards of the county due to a family crisis, McLemore took custody of the children.


TROTWOOD — In December 2009, Montgomery County officials gave Adrian McLemore two options: Take custody of his sister’s two children or let them enter the foster care system until their mother’s life improved.

McLemore knew that one day he might be faced with this decision given his sister’s background, but hoped this day would not come. The Trotwood resident loves his family and considers himself a brother and uncle who would always come to his family’s rescue in a time of need. But being a full-time surrogate father was not a part of his original life plan. Like his mentors said, this would be a great responsibility for a 23-year-old bachelor enrolled in college and managing a video store.

The decision to take custody of 3-year-old Arayiah and 1-year-old Tyiaun was not about what would interrupt McLemore’s life, but rather stopping the beginning of a family trend. “I refuse to let a second generation of the McLemores be in foster care,” he said.

McLemore, now 24, and his two sisters spent most of their childhood in foster care. They entered the system in Georgia as their mother battled alcoholism. The siblings ended up in Georgia after their mother moved them there from Florida following a divorce from their father in 1992.

The McLemore siblings would not be reunited with their father until 1995. Adrian McLemore was about to be put up for adoption when Ernest McLemore, who was serving in the U.S. Air Force, obtained custody and moved his children to Las Vegas. They lived with their father for two years before he announced that he had received an assignment overseas and gave them the option of moving to Ohio to live with their mother again. The children moved back with their mother, a decision that has Adrian and his older sister Britney McLemore, 24, asking themselves today, “what if?”

All three siblings were in and out of Daybreak, an emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youths, from 1999 to 2000.

At one point, Adrian McLemore did not want to return home, so shelter officials called Montgomery County Children Services, who placed him and his sisters in foster care. Britney and Adrian aged out of the system at age 18, and their younger sister, Devanna, was placed in Britney’s custody once Britney turned 21. At the time, Devanna was pregnant with Arayiah, who would have also become a ward of the county had Devanna remained in foster care.

Meanwhile, Ernest McLemore died in 2004 in Georgia at age 40 after suffering from brain cancer. His children were still in foster care.

Even though his time with his children was short, Ernest McLemore was a big influence. Adrian hopes that all the positive things that he learned from his father will help him while his niece and nephew are in his custody.

One of the messages that McLemore said he hopes his actions will send to Arayiah and Tyiaun is that “a man loves his child no matter what” and provides emotional and financial support for his family.


“I am convinced that I made the right decision based on where they are now — as far as development — compared to where they were the day I picked them up,” he said.

“I love them to death. I want to show them that I am here to play, to hug or discipline... Just to be there.”

Although McLemore’s experience in foster care has been mostly positive, he still said he feels “foster care is no system for children.”

He also didn’t like the idea of his niece and nephew potentially being placed in separate foster homes without a familiar face.

“Having a second generation of our family in foster care is unthinkable to me and I wouldn’t allow it,” he said.

Devanna McLemore, 21, was the one who suggested to county officials in 2009 that her brother take custody of her children. She currently has weekly visits with them and her next custody hearing is scheduled for January.

This year, Father’s Day takes on a whole different meaning to Adrian McLemore. He believes his father would be proud of the decision he made. “I could have continued to do what I wanted to do. But instead, I now do what I have to do.”

FCAA Volunteer of the Year Award

Foster Care Alumni of America honors Lisa Dickson

Aurand, Lisa. ThisWeek, May 12, 2010.

When Lisa Dickson "aged out" of foster care at 16, she had a myriad of people who became her advocates.

The list included the English teacher who wrote a "rousing" recommendation for her college acceptance, the University of Kentucky dean who marched her over to financial aid and said, "This girl needs grants," the residents of the Methodist dormitory who became her "family" when she moved in after a year of homelessness.

Now Lisa is fighting for other foster care alumni to have the same chances at success she did.

"The people who were there for me are what motivate me," Dickson said. "All the things that I do now are because of them."

Dickson was named one of four Foster Care Alumni of America Volunteers of the Year in this, the awards' first year. She was a founding member of the group, and is the communications chair for its Ohio Chapter.

She was in foster care in Kentucky from ages 12 to 16 after her mother died, and was able to start classes at the University of Kentucky at age 16.

By 17, Dickson was homeless, but still attending college. It wasn't until she was 18 that she began living in the Methodist dormitory. She tried five different majors and was in college for 10 years, finishing by earning a master's degree in library science.

She was offered a job in Columbus in 1999, met and married her husband, Nathan Dickson, in 2000. They moved to Westerville in 2001, where they live with his two daughters, Rachel, 19, and Carly, 17.

Dickson, a Children's Librarian, said she spends about 40 hours a week volunteering for FCAA. The local chapter focuses on assisting the approximately 1,300 Ohio youths who age out of foster care each year.

"The top two things we do are connect and transform," she said.

The group helps foster care alumni connect with other former foster children, wherever they live.

For the past several years, the group has hosted an annual Thanksgiving dinner, an event that began when foster alumni from all over the country met in Washington, D.C., to talk to federal legislators about federal child welfare financial reform.

"We said we were coming home for the holidays," Dickson said.

The "transform" part of the group's mission involves lobbying on behalf of foster children making the transition to life on their own. Dickson was one of several foster care alumni who testified in front of the state legislature last year, asking members not to cut funding for programs that teach older foster care children how to live on their own.

Though the funding was approved by the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate, it was vetoed by Gov. Ted Strickland, Dickson said. But one good thing came out of that news: Dickson and a few of her colleagues were asked to be part of Strickland's Taskforce for Youth and Young Adults in Transition.

The two biggest needs for fosters in transition are housing and health insurance, Dickson said.

"One in four homeless adults is a former foster," she said.

Even those who end up going to college still struggle with housing and finances, she said.

"Most college kids, when they have (financial) trouble, they call mom and dad. But there is no mom and dad to call (for foster children)," Dickson said.

And though the recently passed federal health care bill will eventually mandate insurance for former fosters, that coverage won't take effect until 2014, she said.

Dickson, who recently was engaged as FCAA's volunteer social media coordinator, said she won't stop her quest to help fosters the way others helped her.

"I love the kicking-butt part and trying to make a difference," she said. "(The people who helped me) were there for me and cared for me. I want that for everyone."