Dane County’s system for providing care to the needy faces a triple-whammy under Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed budget, county officials said.

Doyle’s proposal requires Dane County to join a statewide program providing long-term care to the elderly and disabled outside of nursing homes by January 2011 — a move County Board members want to delay.

Family Care aims to eliminate county waiting lists for care in the community for the elderly and the mentally and physically disabled, including some 300 Dane County residents.

But those already receiving care might see a drop in their services, since the monthly amount of money per person would drop from current levels of $4,978 to $3,226 under Family Care, according to a county study.

In addition, the county would have to provide up to $19.6 million in taxpayer money the first year — more than any other county in the state — and continue to provide smaller amounts for the next five years.

“It’s a boon for a lot of the state and a disaster for us,” County Board Chairman Scott McDonell said of Family Care.
State Department of Health Services spokesman Seth Boffeli said the county would benefit from having the state eventually pick up long-term care costs.

“Without these (initial county) payments, there simply wouldn’t be a Family Care program,” he said.

The Doyle administration also wants to keep a projected $4.7 million in federal money that Dane County officials feel belongs to taxpayers here.

Both state and county officials agree that Wisconsin only expects to receive the money under last month’s federal economic stimulus law because of spending by Dane County property taxpayers.

Also under Doyle’s proposed budget, the county Human Services Department’s state and federal aid would be cut from $165.1 million this year to $162.6 million in 2010, a decrease of 1.5 percent.

County Human Services director Lynn Green said the proposed cuts come as the county sees a sharp increase in demand for services because of the economic downturn.

“The governor’s budget as proposed is absolutely decimating to (county) human services,” Green said.

State officials said they had to make tough decisions to close a $5.9 billion budget hole through Doyle’s budget. They said they focused on using scarce state and federal money to not cut eligibility for the state’s Medicaid health-care programs for the poor.

“This may be cold comfort. We’ve made the situation not as bad as it might have been,” state Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake told the state budget committee this month.

Timberlake said the budget moves are meant to spur counties to become more efficient through measures such as joining with other counties to provide services. She said the state would work with counties to do that.

But some lawmakers worry that Doyle’s budget could lead to cuts in county services or in some cases higher property taxes.

“Looking at the budget cuts, there seems to be a real shift in passing the buck to the counties,” Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, told Timberlake at the hearing.

Dane County Board Sup. Tom Stoebig plans to introduce a resolution at the next County Board meeting that asks the state to put a moratorium on Family Care implementation in Dane County and to allow the county to reclaim the stimulus funds. Executive Kathleen Falk hasn’t taken a position on a moratorium but wants to protect the quality of care in the county, spokesman Josh Wescott said.

Paul Youchum, executive director of the ARC Dane County, which advocates for the developmentally disabled, said clients are already reeling from year-after-year service cuts. Last year, in order to add more clients to the system, Falk recommended cutting existing client budgets by 3 percent. The County Board amended the proposed cut to 2 percent.

“I’m getting tired of celebrating cuts,” Yochum said. “We really do need to get the state to provide Dane County with more money.”

AT A GLANCE: THE BUDGET PROPOSAL

The proposed budget would:

• Cut funding for county staff that determine whether residents qualify for state and federal programs for needy families such as food stamps, welfare, and Medicaid health coverage, according to the Wisconsin Counties Association. With the recession, case loads for these workers rose 7 percent last year and continue to rise.

• Cut funding for county programs working with foster children, abused children and at-risk youth.

• Require counties to pay the state’s share of treatment for children and elderly patients committed by a court to one of the state’s two mental hospitals. That would cost counties, which already pay the cost for adults, $13.6 million over two years.