Judy Fitzgerald talks about budget cuts for Georgia mental health services at the Capitol on Jan. 23, 2010. (Phot by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – State budget cuts could hit mental health services hard in Georgia, forcing behavioral health officials to pump more money into handling crisis situations instead of programs to prevent those situations, the state’s mental health chief said Thursday.
In three days of budget hearings this week, state agency heads said they plan to meet Gov. Brian Kemp’s orders for spending cuts mostly by eliminating vacant staff positions, upgrading technology and shifting funds between programs. Those cuts target behind-the-scenes work and, for the most part, would make little difference to the general public.
That’s not the case for the Department of
Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said Commissioner Judy
Fitzgerald. She told lawmakers Thursday that cuts totaling about $80 million
through June 2021 would be felt by more than 200,000 people with mental health
issues in Georgia the agency served last year.
“It was not possible for us to take the
cuts without a reduction of services to individuals in the state,” Fitzgerald
said.
The department drafted a memo last fall warning that some of the proposed cuts could risk “impacting increased suicidality, substance abuse disorders and demand on crisis services.” The memo highlighted how the cuts would especially hurt community service boards, which contract with the state to provide local mental health services in counties, cities and towns.
The cuts would largely affect so-called “core services” that fund programs to help mentally ill people stay in their homes and hold down jobs. Those services, done mostly by community service boards, aim to prevent health and behavioral emergencies that could land someone in jail or a psychiatric ward.
That preventative work has been the agency’s focus since 2010 under a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to curb lengthy stays in psychiatric hospitals for Georgia’s mentally ill. Since then, admissions to the state’s five psychiatric hospitals have stopped. And lawmakers have approved more than $270 million to bolster the agency over the past decade.
But along with the cuts, Fitzgerald said
the agency plans to shift $13 million to fund a growing demand for private
psychiatric beds. Those funds were earmarked last year for preventative
services but had to be diverted to the crisis beds as more of the state’s
mentally ill seek intensive treatment, she said.
“The safety net is stretched to the max,”
Fitzgerald said. “But we feel like we’re in this together.”
In August, a report from a federal monitor for the DOJ settlement urged state officials to boost funding for mental health services, not cut it. Fitzgerald declined to elaborate after Thursday’s meeting on whether the cuts and the $13 million shift to hospital beds might run afoul of the federal government.
“We’ll leave it to [the] Department of Justice and the lawyers to determine how that impacts compliance,” she said.
The governor’s office pushed back on Fitzgerald’s assessment of the cuts, arguing that staff in charge of the budgeting process reached different conclusions about the impacts.
“Commissioner Fitzgerald’s claims are not supported by our analysis, nor would we allow such a significant disruption in service to Georgians,” said Kemp’s communications director, Candice Broce.
Fitzgerald’s rundown of the cuts alarmed lawmakers on the House and Senate Appropriations committees.
Rep. Katie Dempsey, who chairs the House
Appropriations subcommittee overseeing mental health, said she was startled to
learn about details of the cuts and see the stark language used in last fall’s
internal agency memo.
“The loss of services, it’s hard to even
imagine right now how we’re going to deal with this,” said Dempsey, R-Rome.
Rural Georgia communities especially could suffer from fewer state dollars for mental health, said Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville. She said crisis episodes involving mentally ill people in rural areas are on the rise, and budget cuts that hinder getting help for those people should not move forward.
“This budget, I cannot see how this is going to work,” Taylor said. “A spoonful of sugar is not going to make this go down.”
This story was updated to include comment from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.
ATLANTA – Legislation
aimed at increasing the number of in-state students admitted to the University
System of Georgia’s top-tier schools is being introduced in the state Senate.
The bill, sponsored
by Sen. Brandon Beach, would require the university system to make sure at
least 90% of early-action admissions to the University of Georgia, Georgia
Tech, Georgia State University and Augusta University are offered to in-state
students.
“In my eight
years in the Senate, the most calls I get are from parents who say, ‘Can you
help my daughter or son get in Georgia or Georgia Tech?’ ” said Beach,
R-Alpharetta. “I want to take care of our parents, who are hardworking
taxpayers, and our students.”
Since the
advent of the popular HOPE Scholarships program during the 1990s, students have
had a harder time getting into the state’s top public universities.
With growing
demand for admission, colleges have been setting higher standards for incoming
students. It’s not uncommon for high school students carrying a 4.0 grade-point
average or better with high standardized test scores to be denied admission.
“They end up
going to Alabama, Auburn or Clemson,” Beach said.
Beach said
students who attend college out of state often stay there to pursue their
careers, and Georgia loses the benefit of their skills and economic
contributions to the state.
“We’re
losing too many kids,” he said.
At the same
time, Beach said, slots at Georgia’s top-tier schools are going increasingly to
high-achieving out-of-state students.
Senate Bill
282 likely will be assigned to the Senate Higher Education Committee next week
when lawmakers go back into session following a week of budget hearings.
Lance
Wallace, a spokesman for the university system, said the agency does not
comment on pending legislation.
ATLANTA – Georgia set another
record last month with an unemployment rate of 3.2%, down from 3.7% in December
2018, state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler reported Thursday.
The state hit record low unemployment
for the second month in a row after tying the mark in October.
Those results helped Georgia
close out 2019 on a strong note with an all-time high of 4.65 million jobs. The
state added just fewer than 70,000 jobs during the last 12 months, including
4,000 in December.
“It’s kind of hard to have any
better year than Georgia had,” Butler said. “Georgia’s done a great job
bringing in new business and helping our local businesses around the state grow
jobs.”
Some job sectors were particularly strong last year. The state
added 25,400 jobs in the education and health services sector, 16,600 in
leisure and hospitality, and 10,400 in trade, transportation and utilities.
Georgia’s labor force continued
to grow but struggled to keep pace with job creation and employment numbers.
“We do need our labor force to expand at a faster pace,” Butler said. “Right
now, we are growing jobs three times as fast.”
The labor force grew by just fewer
than18,000 over the past 12 months to reach a record 5.13 million.
With such low unemployment and growth
in the labor force trailing job creation, State Economist Jeffrey Dorfman said
this week the only way Georgia can continue its healthy economic growth is by
attracting more companies from out of state.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s education chief sought to calm concerns Wednesday over ending the short-lived chief turnaround office, assuring state lawmakers that other Department of Education officials will pick up the slack to help bolster the state’s struggling public schools.
State lawmakers passed a bill creating
the chief turnaround office in 2017 under then-Gov. Nathan Deal. Headed up by
Savannah native Eric Thomas, the office was tasked with improving the state’s
worst-performing schools with help from “turnaround coaches” and outside
specialists.
Thomas, who has actively been looking for
jobs outside Georgia, resigned as chief turnaround officer last Friday amid an
internal audit and reports of workplace discrimination. He disputed the
allegations, claiming instead he was ousted for political reasons after clashes
with state School Superintendent Richard Woods’ office.
Eric Thomas.
Now, the chief turnaround office will be
folded into a different arm of the education department run by Stephanie
Johnson, the deputy superintendent for school improvement. Woods said the
change should not cause any hiccups for 13 low-performing schools the office was
supporting.
“I don’t foresee we will miss anything at
all with that,” Woods said. “In fact, I think we will probably be stronger.”
But several lawmakers seemed unconvinced
Wednesday at a budget hearing for the education department. They complained the
turnaround office’s short tenure makes the state’s focus on low-performing
schools seem fickle and risks letting disadvantaged students slip through
bureaucratic cracks.
“We’ve spent millions of dollars trying
to provide for struggling schools,” said Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson.
“It’s just not happening, especially in the rural areas. We’re still not
getting adequate results.”
Funding for the chief turnaround office was among a handful of budget cuts for the department meant to comply with Gov. Brian Kemp’s spending reduction orders. Lawmakers also highlighted funding cuts to specialized state schools for physically and developmentally disabled students, as well as state-run regional education programs.
“I have a pretty grave concern about the
depth of these cuts,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry
England, R-Auburn. “I just fear that it may be harmful and backward and
regressive from where we’ve tried to go over the last several years.”
The cuts would not affect teacher salaries or core educational programs for students, funding for which would actually increase by about $114 million this fiscal year if lawmakers pass the budget as is. Kemp’s budget also includes about $357 million in additional funding for a $2,000 teacher pay raise, fulfilling a campaign promise.
German automaker Porsche opened its North American headquarters near Atlanta’s airport in 2015.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is spending the rest of the week
in Germany on his second economic development mission since taking office last
year.
Kemp left on Tuesday, accompanied by First Lady Marty Kemp
and Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
They will return to Georgia on Saturday.
The trip will be highlighted by the opening of the economic
development agency’s new Europe office in Munich, which is relocating from its
old digs into a larger space. The delegation also will visit with large and
small German companies with a Georgia presence, including manufacturers with
operations in the Peach State.
“Marty and I are honored to travel to Germany – Georgia’s
fourth largest export market … to reaffirm our strategic partnership and
strengthen business ties across multiple industry sectors,” Kemp said.
There are more than 800 German companies with facilities in
Georgia employing more than 36,000, including the North American headquarters
of Mercedes-Benz in Sandy Springs and Porsche near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport.
Georgia exports to Germany in 2018 were valued at $2.29
billion, while Georgia imported $9.8 billion in goods from Germany that year,
making Germany Georgia’s No.-2 source of imports.
About 107,800 Germans visited Georgia in 2018 and spent more
than $181.1 million, making it a top volume tourism market for the state.
“Georgia’s official presence in Europe for more than 45
years has led to investments from some of Germany’s largest corporations, and
these strategic investments have paid off,” Wilson said. “We are grateful to
have Governor and First Lady Kemp joining us to open our new, expanded office
in the Bavarian region and to deepen our mutual commitment with economic
development partners and industries so we can continue to build on this
foundation for an even stronger future.”
Kemp’s first overseas trip as governor took place last June,
when he spent four days in South Korea meeting with political leaders and
executives from companies doing business in Georgia.
