County May Cut Millions From Human Services Budget
Community Services Board budget trouble could be solved with service reductions, officials say.
Cuts could be on the horizon for human services in Fairfax County.
When the county’s Human Services Council presents its analysis of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board’s (CSB) budget woes to the Board of Supervisors Human Services Committee Tuesday, the council, which has collected public input from concerned and potentially affected citizens over the last month, will include recommendations for board action, and that could include cutting or eliminating services.
The CSB, which provides substance abuse treatment, mental health services and care for adults and children with intellectual disabilities, is facing an $8 million hole in its $150 million budget for 2012 and an additional $9.5 million shortfall for 2013.
The board created a $4.2 million reserve for the struggling CSB during budget deliberations earlier this year, after many stakeholders lobbied for more funding.
But $4.2 million won’t be enough to fill a hole that formed in large part due to a decrease in state funding and a drop in anticipated revenues for the agency.
Programs in danger include a number of treatment facilities and the county’s partnership with CrisisLink, the only suicide prevention hotline in the county.
In the last month and a half, residents have appeared before the Human Services Council with frequently emotional testimony, pleading for them to maintain program funding.
The council will present its findings and recommendations at 1 p.m. on Tuesday in Conference Rooms 9 and 10 of Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Fairfax County Government Center Parkway in Fairfax.
Click here for more information about the Human Services Council’s recent work on the CSB budget.
Michele
6:59 pm on Monday, July 23, 2012
Cutting funding for services provided to our most at risk population is one of the worst possible things to do! The CSB is already underfunded, often resulting in waiting lists for services that should be able to be accessed immediately by people in crisis.
As my Mother used to say,don't be penny wise and pond foolish!
Sissy
11:28 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
The Board should focus on cutting unnecessary waste from all county agencies - not cutting funding for vital services being provided for deserving residents of this county. Perhaps the following areas need to be addressed as I am sure taxpayers would agree: approval of agency budgets in excess of what is actually needed resulting in money being spent just to "keep" the money that was approved, expense involved in issuing county vehicles for employes to drive back and forth to work in agencies such as fire, police and sheriff's office, paper, ink and toner being utilized for personal use, high management and supervisory positions being allowed to work from home - how can they supervise & manage staff from home? They are not available to speak with their staff or the public when issues arise, yet they are being paid to do this, expensive studiies and pilot programs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that end up being "trashed" as not being sufficient, employes "quietly" receiving ingrade-upgrades while there has been a freeze on county employes salaries. Office equipment, furniture, other equipment being replaced unnecessarily just to "use" the money approved in their budgets, agencies grossly top-heavy with high positions. Perhaps more managers and supervisors should be "working" managers and supervisors. Shame on Fairfax County if special services are negatively impacted when there is so much unnecessary waste!