County Supervisor Baumgart asks Is the county wise to save money by cutting meals to the homebound?
Penny wise or dollar foolish? That may be the question Sheboygan County Health and Human Services Division of Community Programs may be dealing with when considering possible limitations (known as a freeze) on home delivery meals to homebound residents.
For all levels of government in Wisconsin, budget planning this season is much tougher than usual. Although the Sheboygan County Board is in a difficult financial position this year, it has done better than most county boards. It has lowered real property taxes for the past two years. However, with the economy in a serious recession, the board will be lucky just to keep the property tax rate near or at the same level as last year.
Let’s take a moment to review the overall financial situation here and elsewhere. And, before we try to direct blame onto others, remember the whole country entered the new year on the edge of a major financial crash. It was real! Property values fell. Homes began to be foreclosed by the millions. Jobs were lost. The stock market experienced a major drop.
In my own situation, my daughter’s college funds lost at least 30 percent of their value. She is a high school senior and those funds will not regain their value by the time she graduates from high school. One of my stocks (Wachovia Securities) went from $5,500 to $500 and would likely have lost more, but Wells Fargo stepped in to purchase that firm.
Homes in my neighborhood now sell for less, my house has lost thousands of dollars of value as have my neighbors’ homes.
The same kind of stories are true for millions of Americans. Everyone got hurt; Bill Gates and Warren Buffet lost $17 billion during the same period. Within a relatively few months, we became a nation more than $2 trillion dollars poorer.
How does this affect Sheboygan County? Well, most older citizens who had money invested lost money. For some, it caused a major financial burden they had not expected or planned for.
Which brings me back to the Sheboygan County budget. Sheboygan County’s population is nearly120,000. A growing number of these are seniors. Many within this group need help of one kind or another.
One of the great support programs Sheboygan County provides is meals for the homebound. That includes the elderly and those with a disability. To those who qualify as homebound, volunteers deliver healthy well-balanced meals (volunteers are paid mileage, but their services are free) and the recipients pay for the food an amount they feel they can afford.
Well, as you may have guessed, with the economic difficulty people are facing and the steady increase in the elderly and disabled population, the cost of this program to Sheboygan County has sharply increased.
Because of budgetary demands and the budgetary goals set by the Sheboygan County Board, the Health and Human Services Division has decided (or was forced) to freeze the number of individuals allowed into the homebound program. In their proposal, they do provide for emergency situations and a few other exceptions. But the bottom line is they will limit meal support to homebound people.
In the long run, this limitation of support may well be a penny wise but a dollar foolish.
It is suggested that some Federal Stimulus funds might be available to be used in 2010 by the Sheboygan County Board to allow the county to bypass the use of a freeze for a year. But the rules being promoted would not stop a freeze from taking place in 2011. The issue will then become both financial and moral.
Next week, I will present specific details on the number of homebound individuals being served and the costs and benefits.
