Avoid Cutting Health Services
Fortunately for Ohio Countians, county and Wheeling officials have enough money available to avoid what could have been a dramatic cut in services by the local health department.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department officials learned a few weeks ago their state aid would be reduced by $81,000 for the current fiscal year. Just $255,000 in funding from Charleston will be available.
Both Wheeling and the Ohio County Commission usually provide $25,000 a year for the department. But that support will be increased by $42,000 from each entity this year, making up for the state cut.
That probably is not sustainable, as health department Administrator Howard Gamble noted. “As we move on, we’ll either have to find another revenue source that’s long term or make our own cuts,” he noted.
Here in Ohio County, it may be possible for the health department to adjust its spending. That would mean a decrease in services to local residents, however.
In other counties, smaller health departments operate on much slimmer budgets. For some of them, the state cuts may be devastating. That will be especially true in counties hit by major flooding, where the demand for public health services will go up, while the ability of municipalities and county commissioners to provide supplemental funding goes down.
Obviously, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin should use discretionary and/or emergency funding to help health departments in the flood-ravaged counties.
The next governor and legislators should ask themselves whether there is not somewhere else in the budget to reduce spending without affecting public health services adversely. Surely $4 million in cuts, the total amount saved by reducing county health department funding, can be found somewhere else in state government.
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