DES to cut $57million

Agencies putting cuts in play; DES to whack $57M
By Mary K. ReinhartThe Arizona Guardian
The 15 percent budget-cut scenarios are turning into realities.State agency directors who compiled lists of possible reductions several months ago, at the governor’s request, are now being forced to implement much of them. What remains on the lists -- what directors consider the harshest cuts -- are next.The Department of Economic Security is cutting an additional $57 million over the next six months, including $35 million accrued by freezing the child care subsidy program, reducing or eliminating services for home-bound elderly and grandparents raising grandchildren, and imposing co-pays and fee increases for programs serving disabled children and adults.In the third round of midyear 2010 budget cuts, the Legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer last month approved $75 million in overall agency reductions and another $118 million in fund sweeps and other savings to help balance a $1.5 billion current-year deficit.DES took a $26 million hit, but also must account for a $42 million shortfall in the cash assistance program because a federal contingency fund, created as part of 1996 welfare reform, dried up last month. Absent action from Congress to replenish the fund, Arizona must come up with the money to provide a small monthly benefit to families with children.Those cuts, less about $12 million in one-time contingency and federal stimulus funding, are forcing the welfare agency to implement all but the deepest of cuts to programs for Arizona’s most vulnerable citizens.DES Director Neal Young delivered the news to human service administrators and advocates during a meeting Tuesday, at the same time Brewer was telling a health care crowd about her proposal to cut AHCCCS and mental health care to help bridge an estimated $3.5 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2011.Among the DES changes:* $1.6 million cut to aging and adult services, which will eliminate in-home services for an estimated 700 elderly who need some help to live independently in their homes. The department said the cuts could increase the long-term care costs to the state if those who lose services are forced into nursing homes.* Eliminating the grandparent/kinship care program, which provides a $75 monthly stipend for about 1,000 children in the care of their grandparents.* Eliminating the sight conservation program, scrapping eye exams, glasses and other vision treatment for 9,000 low-income adults.* Continuing a cap on the child care subsidy program, growing a waiting list of nearly 10,000 children whose working parents would otherwise qualify for help paying for child care. Freezing the program is expected to save $35 million this year.Maintaining the cuts imposed in fiscal 2009 throughout the current year, including a 20 percent reduction in monthly cash assistance payments to families with children, will save an estimated $23.5 million. The state, however, will lose $27.5 million in federal funds.A family of three now receives up to $278 a month. That ranks Arizona 42nd nationally compared to what other states were paying in 2006. About 38,000 people receive benefits, a number that has been rising since the recession took hold after several years of declining enrollment. Half of the cases are only children, many of them in foster care.Lawmakers have reduced the DES general fund budget by more than 30 percent, or about $250 million, in the past two budget cycles. The reductions have led to layoffs for more than 800 employees and eliminations or reductions in programs serving tens of thousands of Arizona’s disabled, elderly and poor, as well as virtually all prevention and in-home services for children at risk of abuse. The department figures it will need nearly $250 million in fiscal 2011 just to cover caseload growth and make up for lost federal stimulus funding. In addition to cash assistance, caseloads for food stamps, child welfare, long-term care and developmental disabilities are growing as funding is shrinking. Not yet implemented under the 15 percent plan are cuts that would wipe out entire programs serving larger and more vulnerable groups of people, including $15 million in CPS services for abused and neglected children, $9 million by shrinking the cash assistance program and $8.2 million worth of services to infants and toddlers with developmental delays.
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