[nfbwatlk] FW: Director's Update: more about the 10% cut

Thu Sep 29 19:38:43 UTC 2011

FYI.

Michael J. Mello | Adaptive Technology Specialist
Washington State Department of Services for the Blind
Direct: 206-906-5552
Toll Free: 800-552-7103
Mobile: 206-605-7332
Fax: 206-721-4103
Michael.Mello at dsb.wa.gov
3411 South Alaska Street
Seattle, WA 98118

-----Original Message-----
From: Durand, LouOma (DSB) 
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 12:10 PM
To: DSB
Subject: Director's Update: more about the 10% cut

Hello All:

Since my last update the Governor has announced that she is convening a
special session of the Legislature on November 28th to address a $1.4
billion revenue shortfall.  This means that the 10% cuts state agencies
have already begun to plan for will no doubt need to be implemented.
Although we won't know exactly how cuts will be prioritized until the
Legislature finishes its business, we expect that DSB will be taking the
reductions that I described in my previous update (see attached).

As you know, economic conditions have not improved as previously
anticipated due to Congressional gridlock, the European debt crisis, and
high unemployment.  In addition, ARRA dollars are drying up.   The three
state agencies that will be most impacted by the current round of cuts
will be DSHS, Department of Corrections and the Health Care Authority.
The resulting reduction or elimination of services to some of our most
vulnerable citizens will impact us all.  In addition, upcoming
reductions at the federal level will have a painful impact on our state.
We are headed into some very tough times in our state and nation.

So, how is DSB doing in this environment?  We have already weathered
five previous rounds of cuts and the elimination of about $350,000 in
state general funds.  But by pursuing prudent and proactive fiscal
strategies, and by being innovative and creative about how we deliver
services (the integrated approach), we still:

*         Provide cradle to grave services to our customers statewide.

*         Are able to match our federal grants (For every state dollar
we use for match, we capture four federal dollars.

*         Have maintained and even upgraded our OTC residential program.

*         Have not yet laid off any staff.  This is very significant
because staff equal customer service.  Without staff to deliver
services, customers would not receive services. Not to mention that
state employees also pay taxes and contribute to the economy.

*         Have intensified our focus on employment for our VR customers
with job search boot camps, internships, support for small business
start-ups, and employer outreach.

Social Security reimbursement dollars and ARRA funds have helped us
offset previous cuts.  But now ARRA dollars are going away and Social
Security reimbursements are unpredictable.  And we immediately face
another round of cuts up to 10% of our state general funds.  Our current
state appropriation is about $2.2 million per year.  Each of two our
reduction scenarios represents a 5% cut or about $114,000 state-only
dollars per year ($228,000 per year together).

Let me briefly revisit the two 5% cut scenarios.

*         Scenario A, eliminating state support to the BEP program (for
some IT, fiscal and facilities costs), but replacing those funds with VR
dollars is a fairly painless cut as long as we continue to have
sufficient VR dollars.

*         Scenario B, reducing services to our under age 55 Independent
Living customers will be painful. 

o   To be clear, I am not talking about our IL services to the Older
Blind that we operate through the University of Washington and local
providers.  We have already reduced the extra state funding for that
program in previous rounds of cuts, and now the program only receives
enough state dollars to match our federal IL grant. 

o   I am talking about IL services ("Part B") to people under age 55
that are delivered by internal DSB staff.  These customers currently
include blind children and their families starting at birth, school age
children, and also adults under age 55 who may not be ready for
employment, or who are not seeking employment.

o   Since we began delivering these services in-house, we have
discovered that a number of these under age 55 individuals have become
VR clients.

o   We can only spend certain categories of funds on certain populations
depending on the legal mandate of the particular authorizing
legislation.  This means that we can currently spend only one half of
one percent (.5%) of our overall DSB budget  on the under 55 IL
population.  And remember, this includes our IL services to children and
families.

o   We have been spending about $300,000 a year.  This is more than what
is needed to match the federal IL Part B grant.  The federal grant is
very small - only about $66,000 a year.  Because we feel so strongly
about trying to meet the needs of this population, we have devoted every
extra state dollar available to these services.  Now this is the only
program where we have any extra state dollars (not needed to capture
federal grant dollars) to meet the cut requirements.

o   This past year we served about 270 individuals with these funds.

So how would the reduction to Under 55 IL services impact our customers,
and how will we implement this reduction? 

*         Most of the IL Part B expenditures pay for staff time to
deliver the IL services.  In order to cut the state funds, we will need
to reduce staff time currently funded by IL dollars.  Fortunately, this
still does not mean lay-offs.  Rather, staff time will be re-deployed to
serve VR customers, because sufficient VR dollars are available.  This
will be a benefit to VR customers, but will significantly reduce
services (both in scope of services and numbers served), and early
intervention for the Part B population. 

*         Customers age 14 and over will be served initially with VR
funds, at least through the preliminary assessment (which may include
some training), before initiating any expenditures under IL (if
appropriate).  

*         There may be a lower priority on direct services to school age
children.  (You may recall some years ago when DSB had to eliminate
services to children ages 7 to 14.  But we were able to restore these
services in subsequent years.)

We must begin implementing these changes now, even though the reductions
have not been finalized, for two reasons: 

*         First, we need to spread the impact over as much of the year
as possible and not wait to try to accomplish the entire reduction in
the last half.  Waiting would have a more severe impact on our IL Part B
customers.

*         Second, the state anticipates that the next revenue forecast
in November  will take us into yet a deeper plunge and we will no doubt
be facing an even grimmer situation.  We need to take action now to
proactively manage these changes.

Please let me know if you have questions or comments.  I also want to
highlight the many good things that are happening and the outstanding
results achieved by our customers, staff and providers this past year.
Since this message is already long, I will follow with another email
containing all the good news.

Stay tuned.

Lou Oma

Lou Oma Durand

Executive Director

WA State Dept. of Services for the Blind

Seattle: 206-906-5535

Olympia: 360-725-3835

louoma.durand at dsb.wa.gov <mailto:louoma.durand at dsb.wa.gov> 