Agenda - 02-01-1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• 00 4 91. @range Tountg Department of 300 W TRYON STREET HILLSBOROUGH NORTH CAROLINA 27278 iDARD Tom Denton, TELEPHONE. LJaClialLiWG CHAIRPERSON km,Lsttonouan OFFICE 9613-4501 967 975t SAM ENGLIili January 08, 1982 HILLSPODOUGH OFFICE 732 COG1,732 am JANICE scHorLcs CHAPEL HILL OFFICE EE Q4& xxim<aamm.1.4 Shirley Marshall P J MURPHY MO DIPECTOR THOMAS M WARD TO: Social Services Board Members FROM: Thomas M. Ward 111/14P) SUBJECT: Budget Cuts in Title XX Before I get into the most urgent business at hand, I am sure I speak for all the Board in welcoming Shirley Marshall to the Board of Social Services. We look, forward to working with her in the dual role of member and liason with the County Commissioners. Title XX Allocations I am enclosing the monthly staff administrative memorandum which goes into this subject in some detail. I mailed a memorandum to all 100 county Directors of Social Services prior to the 01/06/82 meeting which generated enough interest for five persons to speak at the meeting very strongly in favor of using a population formula for distributing these funds. So there is some interest and probably much more than surfaced at the meeting for this formula. The county directors were told before the vote that 76 counties would receive increases under the formula approved on 01/06/82 and therefore another formula • did not have a chance with this group. The interesting fact is that many of the 76 counties would get larger increases using a population formula and many of the 24 counties scheduled for cuts would gain greatly from the population formula. I strongly feel a case can be made for the population formula, although, research into this area is needed to clarify the options available to the state, Additional Background Until about 5 years ago, North Carolina was not spending the federal funds available under Title XX. Some counties had a history of inability to budget matching funds while others were successful in this area. Over a period of years (and nobody cared until the ceiling was reached), significant inequity developed because of the above problems. When the ceiling of Federal funds was reached DHR proposed a formula to reduce spending in counties using more than their "fair share" and make these monies available to counties needing to "phase up" their programs. The bureaucracy labeled these "hold harmless" and "phase up" counties with 34 counties in the first group and 66 counties in the latter. There was an initial one year reduction to "hh" counties and since that time allocations to them have been unchanged. Inflation, cost of living increases, changes in state law and other factors in the last four years have made cutbacks in service programs necessary, In October, 1981, a