It is not simple:  that jumps out from even a first look at the potential impact of the proposed state budget.  

John Moneypenny gets mental health recovery support at CHOICES, a special social center subsidized primarily by the Summit County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board, mostly with money from its local operating levy.  So, it might appear that cuts in state funding to treatment services  and related Medicaid changes won’t affect the CHOICES Center. But Moneypenny says appearances can deceive.

[Moneypenny]  “…Medicaid is leaving.  They don’t have that match now.  The levy funds are going to have to compensate for their losses.  Our organization is paid for by levy funds.  Are we going to get cut?  A whole lot of organizations have the same problem.  You know, it’s a big question on how actually it’s all going to work out…”  

The director of the alcohol, drug and mental health treatment board is Jerry Craig. He says what has come from Columbus so far is more of a budget strategy than a finished spending plan.   So the specifics of where and how to spend, and of ‘what’ will affect ‘what’ are still being thought through.  And, he says, the Kasich Administration and state legislators have been asking for input from him and other managers at the local, service-to-customer level.   

[Craig]   “…this is just the beginning of the process too.  I know that we have an opportunity here in the meantime, between now and when the budget is finally passed, to influence those parts of it that we think may have a detrimental effect on our system. “     

As an example of trying to reconcile overall budget strategy with local operating reality, Craig cites Medicaid, arguably the most dramatic area of change in the Kasich plan--change the governor says is aimed at saving money by better coordinating health care.

[ Craig]  “…we’re looking at the services we funded in the past…and at the budget that has been presented…to see what the impact is on those services…so any new dollars we realize by Medicaid moving, we’ll be figuring out where to invest those dollars in our community…” 

Advocates of such changes say community-based care is cheaper and often better than hospitalization and nursing homes. But, cuts in social services funding can affect some of those donw-stream services, and have the effect of actually costing taxpayers more. For example, Kinship Care is a program that may be de-funded in the new budget. It helps relatives take over care of children from troubled situations in the family—like grandparents taking over guardianship of their grandchildren.  Advocates say it keeps kids out of foster homes, and maintains some continuity in their lives. And Mary Laubby of Akron says that also saves the state money.  She has her grandchildren, ages five, three, and one…  

[Laubby]  “…you see this thing on the front of the bus from Children’s Services.  And it says: ‘you can earn twenty to forty dollars a day per child, plus day care, plus food stamps, plus a medical card. I don’t get twenty to forty dollars a day, because I’m blood related.   I get maybe five dollars a day per child.  So we actually are saving the government money…”

Laubby, who does corporate accounting, says she has a good enough job to be able to keep her grandchildren if Kinship Care assistance goes away.  But she says it will be economically tough for her…and impossible for many other Kinship guardians.  Children in those cases will go into foster homes…and the cost to taxpayers for their care will go up dramatically. 

 [Laubby]   “…I don’t know why they’re cutting all of this…we are saving the government money, by being blood relatives.  And  my heart goes out to anybody who has to give up a child to foster care because they can’t afford to take care of it…’cause I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t take care of my grandchildren.  They really are the light of my life…”

A prominent non-profit that helps with family issues and life transitions is the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  Michele Colopy heads the Akron-based chapter.  She says budget cutting for social services can indeed “backfire”.  But she says the reform style of the current budget process suits the time….

[Colopy]  “…it’s the serious discussions we need to have of consolidating effort.  There are an awful lot of different community service agencies.  There are a lot of government entities.  I think we’re starting to discover that at the county level where they’re trying to consolidate police forces and things.  They’re realizing ‘gosh, it’s cheaper if we consolidate.’  And it can still be a wonderful service.  But when you consolidate, you use the money more efficiently…”   

Colopy’s organization is a supporter of the CHOICES Center, where John Moneypenny worked his way from client to employee to deputy director;  and she, and he, talk about how  CHOICES , and his own experience there, can serve as an example of why careful discussion in needed before cuts are made in mental health services…

[Moneypenny/Colopy]  “…I started at CHOICES about eleven years ago now.  And if it wasn’t for CHOICES, I’d probably be sitting at home still, going to my doctor’s appointments, collecting a disability check.  Now I’m on full-time, not on disability, which is cheaper for the taxpayer and the people…”  “(Colopy)…and John is the perfect example, with that continuum of care people do get better.  And whether it’s a broken leg, or a mental illness, treatment leads to recovery; which then puts everyone on track to be a productive member of society…and contribute through income taxes, and sales taxes, and mortgage taxes…”(Moneypenny)…to have something like that will get somebody back on their feet, and get ‘em out of the system, to where that money can go for other things…”

 The biennial state budget–by law–must be balanced. And the Kasich proposal spreads cuts far, including to state aid to public colleges and universities. But Shamica Smith says the cuts that could hurt her the most would be indirect. She’s a college student from Canton taking classes at Stark State College of Technology.  She depends on buses and worries about any cuts to public transportation....

[bite – Smith]  “…I have to ride two and sometimes three to get back and forth, and that’s not a good thing.  Especially with me trying to get to work, that would be one of the main things for me because work is important, and need to make money.”

 In the overall picture of state funding transportation usually fares pretty well.  It has a dedicated stream of revenue from the state gasoline tax.  And public transportation is often supported by local sales taxes. That’s the case in Stark County. Still, Kirk Conrad who heads the Stark Area Regional Transit Authority says his system is dependent on what happens with other agencies, just as they’re dependent on the public bus service.

[ Conrad]  “…a major pass buyer is the schools, Goodwill, and the local board of developmental disabilities.  Last year we transported twenty seven thousand emergency medical trips to Mercy Medical Center, seventeen thousand more to Aultman.  We transport eight hundred students every day.  We transport twenty five hundred to work every day.  The financial impact we have on this community is huge.  We’ve tried to take that responsibility very seriously…”

Governor Kasich says many of the cuts he’s proposing will be offset by greater efficiencies. He says Senate Bill 5, which eliminates seniority pay for public employees, will give local communities the flexibility they need to cut costs and operate more frugally.

But his budget also severely ratchets back state aid that has been going to local governments since the 1930s. And it eliminates the estate tax, which funds local cities and townships.

In a rural area of western Stark County, citizens recently heard about local finances at a town-hall meeting with the county commissioners and other county officials.  Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Perez was there, and was blunt in his response when asked by a local resident about cutbacks in police protection…

[Perez and citizen]  “……I’m citizen of Tuscarawas Township, and I’ve heard where the deputies aren’t even going to come to Tuscarawas Township unless it’s a violent crime…” “(Perez)…you know how many I’ve got on the road right now?  Two.”  “(citizen)…. well I go to the city court and I see two deputies standing there checking people for guns…TWO!” “(Perez)…I’ll tell you why, it’s mandated…the courts tell us what we have to provide.  Our mandates in our budget are about two and a half million dollars…"

Perez did say some mandates like the deputies at the court are paid for by the court.  But, his department still had to lay off forty one employees.   

Meanwhile,  the county is trying to get voters to approve a sales tax to replace one this expiring this year. 

The new budget plan for the state is forcing some complex trade-off decisions:  cutting some programs though that may increase the cost of others; and cutting  state taxes, though that may force local governments to ask their citizens for more.