HIAWATHA — County supervisors on the board that governs regional mental wellness and disability solutions advocated Thursday for spending down significantly of its practically $9.two million surplus prior to the finish of the spending budget year subsequent month by boosting help for initiatives inside its nine-county location to stay clear of the state withholding future funds.
As the finish of fiscal 2023 looms on June 30, the East Central Mental Overall health Area governing board directed regional employees to draft a strategy for how to devote component of the surplus — at least about $four.two million that goes beyond the state-mandated fund balance — to superior spend mental wellness care providers, who are seeing higher levels of demand for underfunded solutions.
The Iowa Division of Overall health and Human Solutions allocates state house tax dollars to regions, but if regions carry as well significantly of a surplus the agency withholds additional dollars. That primarily indicates providers inside the area shed out on funding that would otherwise go toward enhancing solutions and addressing unmet regional desires.
State lawmakers call for the regions to hold fund balances of 20 %, but that will drop to five % subsequent fiscal year.
Regional Chief Executive Officer Mae Hingtgen asked the board for path at the board’s meeting Thursday at the Kirkwood Regional Center on how to devote the fund balance, or irrespective of whether to let it stay as is. The area covers solutions in nine counties: Benton, Bremer, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Iowa, Johnson, Jones and Linn.
“These dollars are appropriated for the taxpayers of the area to have spent on persons in the area who have these desires,” mentioned Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan, who represents the county on the board. “I hear from persons definitely in my personal county there’s a lot of unmet require, so I assume we ought to do what we can to get the dollars out the door.”
Dubuque County Supervisor Ann McDonough mentioned it created her heart ache that the board had so significantly accessible to devote when there are millions of dollars necessary on the ground that could be spent in partnership with providers.
In current months, supervisors pressed for far more funding for the Linn and Johnson County mental wellness access centers, anticipating the area would finish up holding a multimillion-dollar surplus. The board passed a fiscal 2024 spending budget in March that allocated $two.9 million to the facilities — up from the initially proposed $two.five million.
County officials have mentioned regional funding and low Medicaid reimbursement prices do not cover the price of solutions, and for Linn County the resource gap is a barrier to the access center’s expansion to be open about the clock.
It is these types of solutions — and other people such as youth or homeless shelters — that supervisors are hunting to superior fund with the accessible surplus.
McDonough mentioned the area is getting as well conservative in the awards it tends to make, and there’s not a adhere to-up procedure to reconsider escalating allocations. She and Linn County Supervisor Ben Rogers took challenge with CEO Hingtgen’s lack of suggestions for spending down the surplus, which McDonough mentioned felt like a scramble to now allocate with only about 5 weeks to go.
Rogers mentioned this area could determine to be a model and opt to supplement the gap providers face from low Medicaid reimbursement prices.
“We have so significantly in fund balance that is not getting spent down, and now by legislative decree, we have to surrender it,” Rogers mentioned. “And we have surrendered it for final year. Now it really is Might 25, and we’re going to come back at the finish of June, asking for proposals (from providers).”
Saddled with a surplus each year that is in excess of the state-mandated fund balance, the supervisors urged superior economic arranging to make certain the board is not faced with the similar challenge in future years of possessing a single month to figure out how to devote millions.
“There has to be a remedy to this that is sustainable. We can’t run into this brick wall year just after year,” McDonough mentioned. “ … We have so significantly dollars left at the finish of the year when we know our communities, it is dry earth nevertheless, that there is not adequate solutions.”
McDonough recommended forming a subcommittee of the board focused on finances.
Deborah Seymour-Guard, finance coordinator for the area, mentioned there are a quantity of challenges involved with spending budget estimates. She mentioned occasionally providers are not billing for solutions in a timely style, so it is not possible to accurately track how significantly is spent. In addition, regional employees mentioned occasionally solutions may perhaps not come to fruition till a later date than anticipated, throwing off providers’ estimates.
She recommended possibly boosting funding allocated to the Linn and Johnson County mental wellness access centers, which she estimated could devote down at least $two million. Access hubs in Dubuque and Benton counties, which are not state-designated facilities and offer a smaller sized scope of solutions, could potentially get a enhance as properly.
Supervisors indicated help for reviewing prior proposals that had been not totally funded, specifically escalating allocations to the access centers and hubs.
If the area opted not to additional devote down its surplus, McDonough mentioned that would fuel lawmakers’ arguments in the future to decrease the quantity of funding for regions — hindering the board’s potential to help suggestions such as jail diversion and access centers.
Lobbyist Gary Grant mentioned a single of the region’s legislative priorities for the 2023 legislative session — to enhance the expected fund balance from five to ten % — didn’t obtain traction amongst lawmakers for the reason that some of the 14 regions have as well significantly of a surplus.
“Now, I do assume the legislature understands the utility of getting ten % rather than five %,” Grant mentioned. “However, as extended as there are regions out there that way exceed that, I assume it is going to fall on deaf ears.”
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