HCPOA NEWS
Howard County to lose $8.3 million in state funding
Aug 26, 2009 (05:08:42)
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Layoffs, reduction in health and safety services likely.Howard County residents may face a higher swine flu risk, an immediate ban on local road repaving and possible higher costs at Howard Community College this winter because of the loss of $8.3 million more in state funding announced this week.
County health officer Peter L. Beilenson said he will have to lay off as many as 10 people and end programs in county clinics for services such as cancer screenings, sexually transmitted disease prevention, tuberculosis and other kinds of screenings, and tobacco use cessation. The effect of the cuts will be magnified, he said, because most savings must be squeezed from cuts that can't be imposed until the second half of the current fiscal year, which began July 1.
"We will clearly be less able to handle H1N1," he said.
Beilenson and county Executive Ken Ulman said they are talking about seeing whether Fire Department medical technicians can help in an outbreak, though that might involve overtime pay.
Beilenson pointed out that his relatively small office has had six state funding reductions in two years for a total of $3 million in lost funding.
"You're really cutting safety net service," he said.
Howard Community College president Kate Hetherington said the college has endured repeated cuts, but this one will wipe out all but $40,000 in increased state funding for this academic year, while enrollment is expected to increase 14 percent in September. Tuition increases could be coming for the winter semester, she said, along with less full-time faculty and cuts in other services.
But clearly, Ulman faces the biggest burden.
"My priority is I do not want to sacrifice public safety," Ulman said after spending several hours Wednesday meeting with his key department heads.
With county workers already scheduled for a four- to five-day unpaid furlough between Christmas and Easter, and all the easy cuts and savings used in prior rounds of reductions, Ulman said administration officials are poring over every line of the budget looking for more.
"We're immediately suspending all road resurfacing," he said, which will save $2.4 million. The county Health Department must handle $654,259 in cuts and Howard Community College must absorb $653,174. But that leaves about $4.6 million more in cuts without any ability to scrape savings from the school budget that makes up about 60 percent of county spending.
"I'm one of the biggest proponents of public education, but it becomes an equity issue," he said, when the rest of government continues to shrink but education is left untouched. The county can't cut school spending because of the state's maintenance of effort rule, which ties large amounts of state education aid to any spending reductions beneath the previous year's totals.
If that weren't enough, officials worry that local share income tax collections will be lower than even conservative projections made last spring, worsening the problem when the numbers are known in about a month.
Extreme measures like canceling fire or police recruit classes or dipping into the $48.7 million Rainy Day Fund are possibilities, but not ones Ulman wants to consider now, he said.
"Is it raining?" he asked. "I don't see this getting better any time soon."
4:44 p.m. EDT, August 26, 2009
