A looming fiscal crisis
Idaho budget slashes have officials of elderly care organizations
worried about the future
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 10:36 AM PST
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| KATIE PIZZA | ARGUS OBSERVER
Payette Senior Center Head Cook Shelly Abbe-Williamson prepares chicken noodle casserole at the center Monday afternoon. The Elderly Opportunity Agency which oversees senior centers in Adams, Boise, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, Valley and Washington counties has seen a $87,000 budget cut. However, the Payette Senior Center Board of Directors co-chairman Leonard Burns said local seniors will not see a decrease in services. |
Payette — Some Idaho agencies offering food and care for local senior citizens are finding upcoming budget cuts hard to swallow.
The Southwest Idaho Area Agency on Aging plans to cut funding to eight Idaho counties, a move that will impact some Meals on Wheels programs, transportation services, health promotion programs and senior center meals.
The Emmett-based Elderly Opportunity Agency (EOA) Executive Director Donna Waters said the funding slashes are part of a $27 million budget cut ordered by Idaho Gov. Butch Otter for fiscal year 2009.
Waters said the Elderly Opportunity Agency, which serves Adams, Boise, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, Valley and Washington counties, will see the Meals on Wheels budget reduced 5.8 percent, the senior center meals budget cut by 7 percent, senior transportation services reduced 57 percent and health promotion programs reduced 48 percent.
Waters said EOA’s total budget, which also consists of federal dollars, will be reduced by $87,000.
“The majority of the federal funding is for salaries,” she said.
Waters said Meals on Wheels drivers are funded by the Southwest Idaho Area Agency on Aging and that a cut in funding may mean a decrease in how many homes can be served by the program.
Waters said the Elderly Opportunity Agency is not the only entity affected by the cuts. Waters said the Canyon County Office on Aging (CCOA) also suffered a budget hit as well, with a 50 percent cut in its homemaker program and 63 percent of funding sliced from its transportation program.
Canyon County Office on Aging Executive Director Rich Stelling said the homemaker program, for example, remains important but will still suffer a cut.
That program involves a person coming to a seniors’ home once a week or every other week to help with chores, laundry or simply making a grocery run.
“Transportation services, for some folks,” Stelling said, “is the only way they can make it to medical appointments and to senior centers for their congregate meal.”
Stelling also said the homemaker program is needed because it can delay or even prevent a senior’s transfer to a long-term assisted-living home.
Waters said she thought it was unfair the cuts, which will take place during the next six-month budget cycle beginning in January, were not made equally to all agencies.
“The area agency on aging handed down these cuts to our two agencies,” she said. “It seems like CCOA and EOA bore the brunt of the cuts.”
Waters said EOA will look toward grants in an effort to boost funding.
Stelling also said CCOA plans to look at other sources of funding, such as private foundations, but said those funding sources would take “quite awhile” to come in.
He recommended those interested in the budget plight contact their legislators to make their voices heard.
He also shared Water’s opinion cuts were not made equally across the board.
Stelling said the seniors he spoke to are used to hard times and would not mind the cuts as much if they were distributed to all departments fairly.
“They’ve all lived through a lot tougher times than you and I have,” he said.
However, he said, those seniors do take issue with bearing the brunt of the cuts.
Waters recommended Otter dip into the state’s three rainy day funds, which currently total $300 million.
However, Otter has previously said he plans to tap those funds in 2010 in the event Idaho’s economic climate worsens and he must use then to maintain current services, according to the Associated Press.
However, Waters continued to speak out in support of Idaho’s older population.
“These are critical, essential services for our seniors,” Waters said.
However, one senior center official said the center will continue to dish up meals for seniors through congregate meals and Meals on Wheels regardless of the cuts.
“We will never let seniors go hungry,” Payette Senior Center Board of Directors co-chairman Leonard Burns said.
Burns said, while the center is “not exactly flushed” with cash, it does raise money through dances, hall rentals and other fundraisers and will continue to serve eligible seniors.
Both Waters and Stelling said they do not know what the future will hold after the current six-month budget cycle.
“Funding cuts in senior services are a penny wise, pound foolish move that endangers Idaho’s elderly population,” Waters said.
Waters said these services are needed because of the expense associated with long-term care.
“It’s reaching over a dime to save a penny,” she said.
