Sheltered Workshops Cope With State Cuts

The Missouri Association of Sheltered Workshop Managers met with Jefferson City lawmakers Wednesday to discuss state spending cuts as Governor Jay Nixon and lawmakers in the General Assembly try to close a one-half-billion dollar budget gap. Sheltered workshops are small businesses that hire individuals with disabilities.

"It's going to be a rough year," director Ken Wagner of Capital Projects Inc., a sheltered workshop in Jefferson City, said. "The state's out of money and it's going to be a rough year. We know that."

Unlike other state agencies, sheltered workshops do not receive direct appropriations. Instead, they are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem for each employee. The per diem applies to a six-hour work day. But over the last few years, the state has paid only 18 dollars, resulting in a four-million reduction for sheltered workshops statewide. Wagner said Capital Projects lost roughly 20 percent of its state revenue in 2011. But despite the setback, the workshop was able to avoid layoffs by taking advantage of a reserve it had built up from better business years.

"We've been able to keep our employees here," manager Tami Bock said. "But we've had many days where we've just sat and had nothing to do."

Bock said Capitol Projects hasn't had to lay anyone off in 25 years, but she's unsure about the future of the workshop. Capitol Projects currently employs 125 workers with disabilities.

The association met with lawmakers on Wednesday to persuade them to maintain current levels of support for workshops statewide.

"We have to teach the legislators what the workshop is because they really don't know necessarily what we are," Wagner said. "We try to get them to come to our shops and see what we do and the type of people we serve."

Representative Mike Bernskoetter, R-Cole County, says he understands the importance of sheltered workshops, but he's not sure if the state can provide them with more funding anytime soon.

"Because of the budget shortfalls we've had, we're just not getting the revenue in like we'd like," he said.

Funding workplaces for the disabled saves tax dollars over time. Wagner said that while sheltered workplaces are funded 19 dollars-a-day per diem, other programs are over 100 dollars-a-day. Last year, Missouri sheltered workshops paid 80 million back into their communities.

Source and More:
http://www.komu.com/news/sheltered-workshops-cope-with-state-cuts/

Mentally ill suffer effects of government cutbacks

Because confusion has arisen lately regarding federal and state budget cuts and their effect on our ability to adequately care for the mentally ill, I thought I should clarify a few important issues. Many changes have been made during the past three years, and Missouri’s 2012 mental health budget calls for another funding cut of $21.2 million in services.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, has been specific in outlining how budget cuts in every state have affected the mentally ill during the past few years and how budget cuts will continue to affect the mentally ill in the future. Without rehashing the numerical data and the dire prophesies about what might occur in Missouri if these trends continue, I’ll point out a few of the most disturbing trends in Boone County during my first term.

Source and More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/jan/08/budgetary-disorder/?commentary