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Bredesen: Rule change could cause 160 DCS layoffs
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 1:43am
A federal rule change has stripped $73 million from the state’s budget and could ultimately cause the layoffs of about 160 Department of Children’s Services workers, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday.
In an effort to cut federal spending, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unilaterally changed its rules in March, eliminating the federal government’s share for funding targeted case managers at the Department of Children’s Services (DCS).
Bredesen said the rule change removed $73 million in federal funds from the state’s budget and – if Congressional action doesn’t reverse the rule change – cause 160 DCS employees, likely administrative, to lose their jobs.
Those jobs would be cut, Bredesen said, in order to preserve the “core” mission of DCS – the targeted case managers for children.
“The targeted case management is about as important to the core mission of DCS as anything that we do out there,” Bredesen told reporters during a briefing Wednesday, adding that a case manager helps a child deal with the “variety of issues a child might have” including educational and health related.
About 30,000 children in state custody or care receive targeted case management annually, DCS Commissioner Viola Miller said.
Another potential portion of the “visible and painful” cutbacks, Bredesen said, included $7.5 million in grants to juvenile courts and grants to other community agencies.
The state is using TennCare reserve funds to continue the program forward at its current state through the end of this fiscal year.
The funding blow for DCS compounds the state’s fiscal problems this year as Bredesen and state lawmakers figure out ways to plug a growing $276 million shortfall.
Not included in that shortfall is DCS’s loss of $73 million in funds, which Bredesen said is the most “single significant budget issue” the state has from a cost-basis this year.
The DCS cutbacks could be averted, however, if members of Tennessee’s Congressional delegation could have the rule change reversed or delayed, Bredesen said.
“There’s a reasonable prospect of success, maybe it’s 50-50 or something like that,” Bredesen said. “But we’d be crazy to not be prepared to deal with this issue otherwise.”
The governor said he would give Congress until July 1 to make the changes. If the effort is unsuccessful, the layoffs would go into effect then, he said.
In addition, Bredesen said he would ask the General Assembly to pass into law a temporary change to the state’s civil service rules to allow the current targeted case managers to not be “bumped out” from their jobs.
“What we’re asking to do is build a fence around these case workers,” Bredesen said.
The case managers would be specifically protected as a result of DCS Commissioner Viola Miller’s effort to professionalize the position, raising their pay to attract more “social workers than English majors,” Bredesen said.
There are more than 5,000 DCS employees, of which about 2,000 are case managers.
Miller said $73 million out of a $650 million DCS budget is an “enormous” blow to the department’s financial picture.
“As bad as this is, we’re committed to preserving what is our core function, which is that direct, day-to-day work on the ground with families and children,” Miller said.
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Filed under: City News
Plants, don't lump me in w/ the Democrats. Congress has been a great disappointment, but w/ a one-vote majority in the Senate, what could we expect? Everyone in congress waits for the exit of Bush-Dick. Nothing will happen until next January. The voters voted for a two-year holding pattern: not a sufficient majority to push anything new forward, just enough to keep Bush-Dick from pulling the country further downward.Now, stop shouting & check your facts. Yes, if you include the money spent on unemployment, welfare, housing, Medicare, Medicaid, & education, that is the biggest piece of the budget. However, the money spent on the military is the biggest SINGLE piece of the budget. In 2006, it was $512 billion, not counting the occupations of Iraq & Afghanistan. Iraq has cost us another $500 billion, so one year of military spending PLUS the occupation of Iraq currently equals a trillion dollars. To that, add another two-thirds of a trillion each year. You can hardly deny that this waste could be better used to help people out of poverty. Because of the waste in Iraq, the budget to help Americans with health care rose a mere two billion dollars (less than one percent) from 2005 to 2006. This budget includes ensuring a safe workplace and safe food. It also includes government funded medical research. Because of the occupation of Iraq, less research is being funded.You can shout all the numbers that you want, but war & military money take up more of the budget than programs that actually HELP people.As for Jimmy Carter’s presidency, he brokered peace between Egypt & Israel; he moved us away from foreign oil dependency; and he increased spending on education & on housing for the poor. Now, name ANYTHING that Ronald Reagan did to help anyone but his wealthy friends.You have all day. I have wasted too much time here already. I must work. Good day, all.
More fallout from the two-billion-dollars-a-week pointless, bloody, occupation of Iraq: Less money for disadvantaged children. One of every five children in Tennessee lives in poverty, but our federal government would rather waste money maiming Iraqi children than spend money helping American children. Remember: This is NOT simply an isolated matter about impoverished children. The more children grow up in poverty, the more we end up spending in health care (the poor have more illnesses AND use, because of no private insurance, more emergency systems) and in prison care. The strongest predictor about serving time in prison: Growing up in poverty. Moreover, prison care is three times as expensive as human services. Paying for welfare is a bargain compared to paying for prison care.
What DCS need to do is focus on pregnancy prevention instead of taking care of other people's responsibilities. Nothing pisses off more than someone having a child and can't afford to take care of them. If you can not afford ALL of your child's needs i.e., food, health care, education, etc, then please don't have kids. It cost all of us money. I don't have any kids and make a six figure salary and it's not fair to me to have to pay so much more taxes because Joe Blow and Sally Sue decided to have kids and working at McDonalds.
MJB, what about the FIVE HUNDRED FORTY BILLION DOLLARS that in 2004 we taxpayers spent on Health and Human Services.The FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTY BILLION DOLLARS SIX HUNDRED BILLION DOLLAR that in 2005 we taxpayers spent on Health and Human Services.The SIX HUNDRED TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS that in 2006 we taxpayers spent on Health and Human Services.The SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY BILLION DOLLARS that in 2007 we taxpayers spent on Health and Human Services.And this is JUST Health and Human services which just happens to be our taxpayers largest expense, and does not include Department of Education, or EPA or Department of the Interior, or NASA, or Department of Justice, or Department of Labor, or Department of Transportation, or Department of Agriculture, etc.
MJB, two years ago was not the reason that you Democrats claimed that the mandate from the electorate was to get the US out of Iraq? Is it not a majority Democrat Congress? Does not the Democrat Congress control the purse? What happened? Could it be that “The Democrats Lied and Americans Cried when they lost their homes"?Can you truthfully state that this Congress is what you said it would be? Yeah. We all have our disappointments. Could it be that “The Democrats Lied and Americans Cried when they lost their jobs"? Oh, well, according to your Bubba O'bama, his campaign is all about change. Therefore should hell freeze and he be elected to the Presidency prepare for a president that would be worse than his idol James "Jimmy" Earl Carter. BTW, other than paving the way for Ronald Wilson Reagan’s election can you think of just one positive accomplishment of the Carter Administration? Just one. "Happy Days Have Gone Away because the Democrats Could Not Stay Away. Happy Days Have Gone Away. So sad, too bad. Happy DaysHave Gone Away!"BTW, you do recall that the Continental Congress had to borrow money from the French government to pay for our own liberation. Otherwise, we could be Canadian, but not French Canadian.
How's that hold in the ground coming at the Gov's residency? If cuts keep happening, P.Bred & Company may need to use it as a hideout from the people of Tennessee.
I've said this before, if a person has one child and is on government assistance, then they should be forced to take birth control for the duration they are on assistance. THAT'S one way to cut long-term cost. Yes, it is sad when children have to do without because of the carelessness of their parents, but something needs to be done. We can not continue to support other people's kids. I can understand one mistake, but when you have three to five children and you are already living below poverty, then you should be cut from assistance indefinitely. I have friends with family members, women, that have four to five kids and living in the projects and they are under 25 years old and healthy. They choose not to work and their days are spent having sex while the kids are at school. Guess what, we are paying for these women to have sex all day and making the next impoverished babies. They don't see anything wrong with it because the government is so stupid to keep taking care of them.
Philly can cover that with the rainy day fund can't he?
First of all, Mr. NewYorker1, why don't you just move BACK to NY, if they'll have you. Next: I agree that a lot of people are having children that shouldn't. Once those children are here, however, they DO need help, and I don't know what the solution is, other than birth control, educating people, and finding the deadbeat ones that need to supply support. Cutting DCS employees? Maybe they'll find competent folks!