By Stephen Smoot
The West Virginia State Legislature convenes this week for its annual regular 90 day session. Although both chambers, the majority party, State officials, and individual legislators all have agendas to bring forward and work upon, local government officials want to make sure that their needs are recognized as well.
Pendleton and Hardy counties both rely on the same watershed, contend with the same ridges and mountains, have agricultural economies that deal with the same issues, and both have many of the same challenges of rural counties, including challenges with keeping volunteer first responder organizations operating at full potential.
Hardy County Commission President Steven Schetrom opened with an important concern regarding the South Branch Day Report Center and laid blame with Senate Bill 128, passed last session.
The bill itself related to ordering courts to pay for various services at the Medicaid rates, but triggered significant problems with Day Report Centers statewide receiving what they need.
Commission President Schetrom provided an analysis of the impact, which reads “SB 128 disrupted the payments and the invoicing we had in place for services and testing we provide for DoHS (West Virginia Department of Human Services, formerly part of WV DHHR)”
No Day Report Center has “received a payment for invoiced services since July.” The last payment arrived at about the point that SB 128 took effect on July 11 of last year. Problems have come in the State not issuing payments due to Day Report Centers around the state struggling to adjust to a new system. “We have adjusted our invoicing to the standard only to have it returned to us in the mail and then have to resubmit.”
One of the key points of accountability for Day Report lies in regular testing, since the vast majority come to the program with a drug problem. Testing utilized prior was billed by Day Report at a rate of “$220 per test with $100 going to lab fees and we did a significant number of them monthly.” Currently “the Department now only wants to pay $12.40 for a visual confirmation Urine test. That’s it.”
Testing billing, according to the analysis provided by Schetrom, has always been more than for services, approximately $10,000 to $12,000 per month for the latter, $60 to $70,000 per month for testing.
Because of the discrepancies between what DoHS wants to fund and the operating costs surrounding drug testing “it may come to a point that testing for the department will not be feasible.” Without the accountability provided by testing, the mission of Day Report may suffer.
Pendleton County Commission President Carl Hevener blasted the State on rising expectations of local government. “They need to cut down on unfunded state mandates.” He and fellow Commissioner and former state USDA official Roger Dahmer explained that the State, through the Legislature or other process, will place requirements of counties to perform some kind of function or task.
Counties have both no way to opt out, nor any funding help from the State. This occurs on a much more massive scale in the relationship between the states and the federal government.
Hevener went on to add that “some counties can afford this” and gave Kanawha and Cabell as examples of local governments with broad bases of funding support. Hevener aid then “some counties can’t” due to budgetary constraints. Officials explained that every county government has a baseline operating cost regardless of population and larger counties with larger budgets, Hevener stated, have a better margin of error than less populated.
Commissioner Dahmer added a proposal concerning a “911 funding mechanism” that would move the State away from “distribution based solely on population.” Pendleton County emergency services coordinator Rick Gillespie then suggested that a policy similar to the “1,400 floor” policy that gives sparsely populated counties extra support for their school system. It recognizes that funding for 1,400 students is the minimum needed for a county school system that otherwise has sound financial and budgetary practices. “911 only scales down so small,” Gillespie noted.
Pendleton County recently decided to increase the 911 landline fee for the first time in approximately three decades. That funding helps, but does not cover, operations.
Commission President Hevener shared that he would like to see a similar mechanism also cover EMS, saying for schools “the 1,400 floor is a good plan. “Funding does not take into account the transport times for ambulances in counties that do not have their own hospitals,” he explained, going on to add that “transport times are a minimum of four hours or more.” Mike Alt, Training Officer for Pendleton County Emergency Rescue, has also pointed out in past meetings that it becomes more difficult when patients needing transport request to go to hospitals farther, sometimes much farther, away than a closer facility that could provide the same service.
Commission President Schetrom proposed a different funding mechanism for those and other county-based, but cash strapped services. He explained that “the County Commissioners Association is asking the Legislature to pass the Public Safety Bill in the upcoming session.
Modeled on Senate Bill 748, the bill stated that “Under traditional funding mechanisms, many county commissions, sheriffs’ departments, fire departments, and emergency and ambulance services struggle to meet the emergency service and public safety needs in unincorporated areas of this state” and also that “Under traditional funding mechanisms, county boards of education have struggled to secure an adequate number of school resource officers to keep students safe.”
If passed by county voters on a general election, counties that met certain requirements could pass an amusement tax or up to a one percent sales tax to benefit those services. One logistical obstacle in the bill for this session lies in creating “carve outs” to exclude from that tax those municipalities that charge their own one percent tax. This will prevent town or city residents from the burden of supporting both with sales taxes.
Commissioner Dahmer also brought up continuing issues related to the National Radio Quiet Zone and how they impact not only Pendleton, but also Pocahontas and Rockingham and Highland in Virginia. He urged the State Legislature or other State officials to “come up with ways to get involved, go to bat for us with the federal government.”
Commission President Hevener expressed a general issue that a number of counties with sparse populations express as well, among them those geographically far from the State Capital. “In Charleston, they don’t even know we exist,” he stated in frustration, “so our county doesn’t matter much. We’re not even on their radar.”
