State social services chief says agency doing more with less

Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf told the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee March 1 her agency is having to prioritize the issues it must deal with to make up for worsening staff shortages brought on by budget cuts in prior years.

“The decisions being discussed this week are extremely difficult ones and we remain in triage mode,” she said. “The challenge with triage mode is that it is ever changing and ever shifting depending on the severity of need.”

Landgraf’s opening presentation on the state of her department kicked off a week of hearings on the budgets of various DHSS divisions and offices.

Since fiscal year 2008, Landgraf said her agency has cut 271 positions through attrition. Combined with an anticipated 181 cuts slated for fiscal year 2011, the agency stands to lose approximately 9% of its workforce.

However, the secretary said staffing reductions don’t mean DHSS can offer fewer services to the public. On the contrary, she said, in a down economy the agency is tasked with providing even more help to needy citizens.

The recession has taken the heaviest toll on the Divisions of Social Services, the Division of Child Support Enforcement and the network of state service centers.

However, Landgraf said, the agency is managing the burgeoning workload.

“Even though the demand has increased, I am pleased by the innovative and creative measures our employees continue to demonstrate across the department in improving work processes,” she said.

Gov. Jack Markell has recommended $876.7 million in general fund appropriations for the department in fiscal year 2011, more than $63 million more than the agency received for the current year.

However, $77 million of the governor’s recommended funding is necessary to replace federal stimulus money provided this year to help the state meet its Medicaid obligations.

With those funds taken out of the total, the agency’s budget is $13.7 million less than it was for fiscal year 2010.

“There are, nevertheless, significant and substantive cuts in the General Fund budgets for all of our divisions,” Landgraff said. “And, the final point is that our [fiscal year 2011] General Funds proposed budget is still $68.6 million less than it was in [fiscal year 2009].”

Reductions to the DHSS budget include eliminating $1.3 million in pass-through funds previously funneled to nonprofit organizations that provide a myriad of services to Delawareans, including Boys and Girls Clubs, the Modern Maturity Center in Dover and Poison Control.

Markell cut all pass-throughs from his draft budget this year, arguing that the organizations that receive pass through funds are held accountable for how that money is spent.

Instead, the governor wants to see those organizations funded under the annual grant-in-aid bill, which is drafted by the Joint Finance Committee and chiefly used to provide money to senior centers and fire companies.

During the public testimony portion of the hearing, John Baker, head of the Delaware Association of Nonprofit Agencies, asked the committee to roll the pass-throughs into grant-in-aid without cutting them.

He said in recent years the nonprofit community has borne all the budget cuts it can, and if more money goes away, so will valuable public services.

“We’ve cut overhead to the bone to preserve our services,” he said.

Baker also warned that cuts to nonprofits will result in higher costs for the state, which will have to pick up their slack.

“We can provide services less expensively because we leverage other sources with our state dollars,” he said. “The provision of these services will fall back on state government.”

After Baker spoke, Delaware United Way President Michelle Taylor told the committee nonprofits welcome the governor’s thrust for accountability, and they’re happy to show the state money they receive is well spent.

“It is our agencies working collectively with the state and each other to make a difference,” she said. “We’re looking for ways to be more efficient.”

Committee members lauded the efforts of groups like United Way, but dropped hints of a difficult scramble for funds in the grant-in-aid process.

“You’re an example of how grant-in-aid money is put to good use,” Rep. Joseph Miro, R-Pike Creek Valley, said of United Way. “We can’t say that all the organizations that receive grants fall into that category.

“I think there is a need for revamping some of the qualifications for grant-in-aid.”

However, committee co-chair Rep. Dennis P. Williams, D-Wilmington North, said the committee has made no decisions on grant-in-aid funding.

“The grant-in-aid plan is a proposal,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and crucify any grant-in-aid agencies.”