Rockford mental health board members call budget cuts 'bogus, nonsensical'
Winnebago County Mental Health Board members are bristling at questions being raised about the estimated $28 million they have built up in reserves and how much they are spending on program administration.
Members of the Winnebago County Board recently voted to slash the board's $31 million 2024 budget appropriation to $12 million in what amounts to a largely symbolic gesture. Mental Health Board Member Linda Sandquist said she is upset the County Board has decided to "second-guess the way we are allocating funds."
"It is bogus, frankly, for anyone to question the quality of programs being done by the amount of administrative costs," Sandquist said at a recent board meeting. "That is an old model that nonprofit agencies have been held to for decades. It is nonsensical ... You cannot tell how good a program is by the amount of so-called administrative oversight."
Slashing the budget allocation is a measure that should have little real-world impact on the board's spending, but sends a clear political warning. The Winnebago County Board by law cannot spend that money on its own and does not have line item authority. In addition, the money must be spent on providing mental health services.
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It will sit in a bank account until Jan. 1, when a new law takes effect that clearly places the Mental Health Board in charge of the appropriation, according to a memorandum from Winnebago County State's Attorney J. Hanley.
But the dispute could have implications for the Mental Health Board's future.
The board is funded by a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2020 that will sunset after six years unless renewed. The county board's recent vote could signal that renewal may face opposition.
County Board Member Paul Arena is raising questions about why the Mental Health Board has built up millions in reserves. He is also questioning why the Mental Health Board — which utilizes the Region 1 Planning Council to provide administration services — is spending what he says is $1,000 per business day on administrative costs.
Arena said he led a charge to withhold any new mental health appropriations to raise public awareness. He said the public should start asking questions about how mental health tax dollars are being spent, if taxpayers are getting the results they should and if they feel comfortable with how much is being spent to administer mental health services.
"The money doesn’t seem to be moving out into the community as fast we expected it to and the administrative costs are higher than we feel comfortable with," Arena said. "It doesn't seem like there is recognition from this board that there needs to be some ceiling on administrative costs. For that reason, we have withheld the allocation of new money to the board. They have $28 million they are sitting on now, so it doesn’t hamstring the board."
Mental Health Board President Mary Ann Abate and Board member Wendy Larson defended what is being spent on administration. They said working with R1 saved money on all sorts of start-up costs like phones, desks and computers.
Larson said they are getting "top-notch oversight" of 44 mental health grant recipients. And without careful oversight, Larson said they would run the risk of fraud allegations.
Abate said that although Arena has made the costs sound high, it is not when the size of the budget is considered and compared to other community mental health boards in Illinois.
"We are by far the leanest," Abate said. "We are under 10% and ... it's not an unreasonable amount we are paying. As a matter of fact, with the 44 grants we fund and oversee, we should probably have even more staff engaged in this process, to tell you the truth."
Jeff Kolkey can be reached at (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on Twitter @jeffkolkey.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Winnebago County, mental health leaders at odds over budget, spending
