STATE AGENCIES EXPRESS CONCERN OVER FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS

The director of the Missouri Department of Social Services says Congress has a "lifeboat mentality" in making budget cuts: There is only so much room on the boat, and, if you make it, great; if you don't, better be able to swim.

The director, Gary Stangler, and heads of five other state agencies participated in a teleconference Tuesday to address current human services-cutting proposals before Congress. The House and Senate want to reform the way they give money to states for Medicaid, child care, Aid for Dependent Children and other programs.

Sponsored by Citizens for Missouri's Children, the teleconference attracted people to 10 sites throughout Missouri. Locally, about 30 state employees crowded into the Cape Girardeau County Extension Center in Jackson.

Stangler and officials with the state Division of Budget and Planning, Department of Health, Department of Mental Health, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education explained how their budgets would be cut should the proposals be passed.

Pamela Walker, chief of community relations for the Department of Health, said 233,000 children receiving free immunizations and dental care may no longer be helped, and 37,000 women receiving free family-planning services may not be helped either.

Sandra Moore, director of the Department of Labor, predicted eight Job Service offices in Missouri would close if a proposed 18 percent were cut from the $181 million her department receives yearly in federal funds.

But Medicaid would take the biggest hit, because it is what Stangler referred to as "the mother of all block grants." Both the House and Senate passed resolutions for cuts in Medicaid. Over the summer, both chambers will develop detailed plans to implement the cuts, according to Citizens for Missouri's Children information sheets.

At the end of the conference, participants were encouraged to write their senators and representatives about the cuts.

Paul J. Schniedermeyer, director of children and family services for Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau, said the teleconference was informative.

"Our biggest program works with the severely and chronically mentally ill, and Medicaid delivers it," Schniedermeyer said. "We also have case management for severely mentally ill kids, and that's Medicaid. Nobody knows how we will be impacted."

Shirley Ramsey, executive coordinator of the Community Caring Counseling in Cape Girardeau, said her organization is already making moves to deal with cuts.

Caring Counseling is one of seven community partnerships in the state, working with five state departments to serve families. With the departments working together, services aren't duplicated and money is saved. Community partnerships should allow for dollars to be used more flexibly and effectively to meet the needs of families, Ramsey said.

Results of the proposal before Congress should be known by Oct. 1. Citizens for Missouri's Children will sponsor another conference after that date.