Agenda - 04-27-1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Room No 12 106 FAST MARGARET LANE HILLSBOROUGH, N.. C. 27278 Azt-gs BAnwas,Cbair Nortm.AN GusrAvasoN llottMAN Whim= ItIctrAnD'07Eirrrso April 13, 1981 DONALD WILLHOIT Mr. John Syria, Director Division of Social Services Department of Human Resources 325 N. Salisbury Street Raleigh, North Carolina 27611 _ Dear Mr. Syria,- Enclosed is a tentative 1981-82 request budget from the Orange County Social Services Board and Department. It reflects ffl o expansion of staff or services, but a sizable increase in dollars. Although this budget was approved by the Social Services Board, it has not been endorsed by the Board of Commissioners. Instead, the Board of Commissioners submits it to you, as required, with this statement of its dilemma in planning, budgeting, and funding for social services for the coming fiscal year. The uncertainties surrounding Federal and State funding of Social Services make it impossible to measure at this time the full impact at the County level . We are sensitive to the effort-to curb spending and inflation. However, we do question the economics of imposing cutbacks 'in certain services without regard , ,- for the-impact on certain other services. For example, cutbacks in In-Home care will likely result in increased institutional care, a far more costly sit- uation; cutbacks in day care funds could cause a rise in unemployment among single parents thus increasing the need for AFDC, Food Stamps, and Protective Services; additional watchdogging requirements, as in the Food Stamp program for example, will increase administrative costs and could result -in spending more to provide less. Particularly distressing is the apparent trend toward shifting responsibility for mandatory and inflationary expenses from one level of government to the next, the County being the last in line. Failure to adjust Federal and State mandates, regulations, requirements, and maintenance-of-effort stipulations merely shifts the cost of these from the Federal and State income tax, which takes into con- sideration a person's ability to pay, to the County property tax which does not-- and at a time when property taxing most needs relief. Already some of the hand- writing is on the wall , as reflected in this enclosed budget: 1) The Medicaid formula change imposed by the N.C. General Assembly will result in a $29,102 increase in Orange County's Medicaid cost. The change falsely assumes that County Government controls a patient's .level- of-care assignment. Not true--these assignments are made by individual physicians on a medical basis. The formula ha c nnt roefilforl ,