San Jose
– Confidential birth-control counseling and other health
services for 39,000 teens at 22 high schools, including Gilroy
students, are on the chopping block in this year’s round of county
budget cuts.
San Jose – Confidential birth-control counseling and other health services for 39,000 teens at 22 high schools, including Gilroy students, are on the chopping block in this year’s round of county budget cuts.
The elimination of the county’s school-linked health care services, along with 50 full-time positions, would save about $5.2 million a year. It’s a relative drop in the bucket, as county departments struggle to meet reduction targets of $156 million. A whopping 71 percent of that total – nearly $110 million – will likely come out of the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System.
Margo Maida, director of Community Outreach Services, which focuses on preventative health care strategies including the school-site counseling services, is expecting a 77 percent budget cut of $6.7 million. Her budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, is $9.4 million.
To meet the reduction target assigned to her last September by Santa Clara County Executive Pete Kutras, Maida is forced to plan for the end of counseling, case-management, health advocacy and truancy services serving thousands of teens and their families.
“Perhaps most importantly, (these services) increase parent involvement in their child’s education, ensure consistent and reliable access points and reduce truancy,” Maida told the board of supervisors’ Health and Hospital Committee Wednesday afternoon.
Like many department heads facing cuts, Maida said the reduction would result in a transferred cost to other departments.
“We expect referrals to mental health, public health and social services are likely to increase,” she told the committee.
The county is facing a $230 million deficit for the fiscal year starting July 1. During the past five years, administrators have been forced to cut $800 million from the budget and eliminate $300 million in services to residents. Even if the county meets its reduction targets this year, it faces another $100 million in deficits for the following year.
Most of the county’s revenues come from the state and the federal governments, sources that have either declined or flattened out as local programs have become more expensive to run.
“The cold hard reality I struggle with is we don’t have enough money to sustain our operation,” Kutras said. “I can’t find the money.”
The county currently runs 622 programs – a higher level of service than it’s legally required to offer – and contracts with more than 120 community-based organizations. Many administrators, including Kutras, sense more demand for services in the community form needy residents.
“What we are faced with is a reduction in programs we believe are vital,” he said. “There’s no quarrel with the testimony I am hearing.”
