Brad Shannon:
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Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.

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UPDATED: County health agencies worry over I-1033, budget cuts

• Published October 21, 2009

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Washington state's county health departments are struggling with budget cuts, and some advocates say passage of Initiative 1033 could make the squeeze even worse.

The nonpartisan but left-leaning Washington State Budget and Policy Center released a report today along with the Washington State Public Health Association and Washington State Nurses Association. It shows some of the struggles agencies face from recession-spurred budget cuts at county and state levels. Twenty-four of 31 local public health jurisdictions covered in the report had budget cuts, reduced staff and reduced services.

I-1033 sponsor Tim Eyman says the measure allows a reasonable yearly growth rate for government that is a factor of inflation and population growth, diverting excess general-fund revenues of the state, cities and counties into property tax relief the following year.

But in a teleconference with representatives of the groups, Sofia Aragon of the nurses group said ~~today~~Wednesday that I-1033's passage would severely harm public health agencies' ability to provide services.

A summary of the report is here. Among the counties with reduced budgets is Thurston County, cut by about $1.75 million, the report says, and Mason County cut its nurse-family partnership, according to Stacey Schultz, policy analyst with the center.

According to the report:

In Mason, the child care health program has been eliminated, stopping over 750 consultations with child care providers, along with child care classes, reporting on communicable diseases, and in-depth health and safety assessments. In addition, the nurse family partnership has been ~~cancelled~~ frozen in Mason~~, eliminating over 240 home visits and close to 1,700 direct service encounters to vulnerable first-time mothers~~. [UPDATE: Schultz called to say the report was in error about Mason County, which froze its program; the cancelled program is in Snohomish County.]

The nurse family program is a good example of how public health programs create a safer, healthier state for everyone. The program provides intensive home visitations by a nurse for at-risk, lower income women bearing their first child. The visits last for two years. Research shows that the nurse family partnership has a significant impact on the future criminality of the mothers who participate in the program, reducing crime outcomes by 38 percent. Interestingly, the pro�gram also reduces the future crime levels of the youth by 16 percent compared with similar youth whose families did not participate in the program. ...

It seems to me that state lawmakers might be persuaded by the report to look elsewhere for cuts or to find new revenues to pay for these programs. But the budget center's executive director, Remy Trupin, said in an interview that while the report helps make a case for continued funding of public health, I-1033 would further squeeze state and county budgets by more than $600 million.

Trupin said the diverted revenues makes it harder for governments to sustain funding for vital education and health care programs.

Public health agencies have struggled to find stable funding ever since voters approved Tim Eyman's I-695 in 1999, ending a steady stream of motor-vehicle excise tax revenues that had gone partly to counties. Aragon said efforts to secure a stable, dedicated source of funding is ongoing at the Legislature.

Laura Hitchcock, executive director of the state association of local public health officials, said public health agencies in Washington have lost 320 positions this year, which is equivalent to 627,200 hours of work by public health staffers.

Barry Kling, administrator for the Chelen-Douglas counties health district, said the losses began before the recession and he's seen his staff shrink from 65 since he joined the agency six years ago. "Now it�s 40 and it's about to get worse," Kling said. He said counties have such large responsibilities for criminal-justice funding that "they are not always able to adjust their priorities" in a recession.