Seniors latest victims of cuts

Published:  Monday, August 3, 2009 (7 months, 2 weeks ago)
Print

BY MIKE FORD
The Delphos Herald

While economic hemorrhaging persists, a set of vital social services will soon face another round of cuts. However, it will likely be much deeper than earlier in the year.
Ohio’s network of Public Service Agencies routes dollars to help senior citizens around the state with Meals on Wheels, transportation and more. The Tri-county is part of PSA 3 Agency on Aging. Director Jacqi Bradley was recently notified of additional cuts coming from the state that may “snowball” beyond the Buckeye State.
“I just received notice Thursday from the State of Ohio that the state block grant money we use to get matching funds from the federal government is being cut 39 percent. This is a devastating blow and affects our network and services. It especially affects our senior community services, which includes the transportation awards we give out within our seven counties. It also affects our home-delivered meals and personal care,” she said.
The agency was created to allocate Title III funds from the Older Americans Act of 1965. If the federal government doesn’t waive its match requirement, all funds from PSA 3 to Delphos and other senior centers in the region will be terminated.
The Delphos Senior Citizens Center receives transportation dollars from PSA 3, as well as for a program that helps with household chores. The situation has Executive Director Joyce Hale on new ground.
“Our number one priority is medical, so we’ll have to restrict our transportation for doctor’s visits and that will be it. If we get no money for transportation, we’ll have to cut back and that’s something we’ve never had to do. Our levy dollars will have to make up the difference but that’s only one of the services we provide and levy funds are already making up the difference in other areas where we’ve been cut,” she said.
Unfortunately, Hale is on shaky ground by being forced to rely so heavily on local levies, which are based on property tax income to Allen and Van Wert counties. What pie comes out of the taxpayers’ oven is not only sliced, but diced before any greenbacks are funneled to Delphos.
“I don’t know how our levy dollars are going to be impacted because it depends on people paying their property taxes; many families are struggling and are out of work and can’t pay them. Of what does come in, we only get a portion of it. The levy in Allen County is shared by us, the Allen County Council on Aging, Senior Citizens of Lima and Bluffton Senior Citizens. Then, in Van Wert County we share a levy with the Van Wert County Council on Aging and they get the larger portion; we get the small part. We have always used our levy dollars to supplement what we get from PSA 3; the levies keep our programs up and running but we only get a portion of it,” she said.
Bradley says how much worse cuts get before the bleeding stops remains to be seen. Therefore, she can’t yet determine how thick the tourniquet needs to be.
“I don’t know what the total cuts will be because I don’t know how the federal government is going to do. They may allow a portion of their match or none of it. It’s very complicated ­— don’t you just love the federal government? Some programs are matched 10 percent, some 15, some 25 and all the way up to 40 percent and we don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said.
The PSA 3 Board of Directors will meet on August 4 to figure out how to proceed but Bradley is not optimistic.
“We’re looking at options to replace what the state is cutting in hope of still being able to draw federal dollars but at this point, it doesn’t look good. We may not be able to fund personal care services and we may have to put people on waiting lists. All of this will come into play when this budget starts Jan. 1 but the allocations are usually in August or September and right now, we’re up in the air until we find out what the federal government is going to do,” she said.

0 Reader Responses to “Seniors latest victims of cuts”

Complete the form below to leave a response of your own.