County funds to fight child abuse cut by lawmakers

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State lawmakers are poised to keep Clark County from receiving $2.2 million in state funding for child abuse caseworkers.

A Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee approved several welfare budgets Tuesday including one in which Gov. Kenny Guinn recommends Clark County receive $756,825 in each of the two coming fiscal years.

Washoe County is also going to lose $1.3 million over the next two fiscal years in state aid, under the plan passed by the subcommittee.

Mike Alastuey, lobbyist for Clark County, said the state, when it ran into financial problems, cut the county's aid this year.

"They enjoyed it so much they did it for the next two fiscal years," he said. "It's a lousy idea."

He said it was "incongruous" that the state is asking the counties to do more and then cutting their funding. This money, he said, is for front-line caseworkers in Clark County to answer calls of child abuse in the home.

Not optimistic about getting the full Senate Finance Committee or the Assembly Ways and Means Committee to restore the money, Alastuey said the county would have to cut somewhere to make up the difference.

In fiscal 2002, Clark County received $3 million, but that was reduced this year because of the state's financial plight.

The subcommittee also reduced grants to nonprofit agencies involved in domestic violence, statutory rape prevention and substance abuse prevention.

Funding for nonprofit domestic violence programs was reduced to $621,458 for each of the next two fiscal years, a savings of $106,092; statutory rape projects will receive $150,000 in the next two years, a reduction of $75,000; and substance abuse programs will receive $1 million, a cut of $213,468.

The subcommittee slashed more than $15.5 million from Guinn's budget for aid to welfare families. Guinn had estimated originally that the number of recipients on the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families would grow to 46,175 in 2005, up from the present 30,179.

The subcommittee provided enough money to make payments to 35,349 by 2005. An average grant for a family of three is $348 a month. Total appropriation will be close to $140 million for the two years.

The subcommittee approved a $5.1 million biennial budget for the Kinship Care program in which a relative such as a grandparent who establishes guardianship for a welfare child receives a state grant.

The program, established two years ago, provides $534 per child ages 12 and under and $616 per child ages 13 and over. There was no restriction on the amount of money a guardian could receive until the state in November 2002 decided that the grant level for each additional child after one would be reduced to $100.

The subcommittee decided to keep the present policy of $100 for each additional child but agreed to put it on a priority list if additional state revenue becomes available.

The welfare division estimates there will be 664 children next fiscal year and 904 children in 2005 in that program.

The subcommittee also approved 129 new positions in the state Welfare Division, down from the 240 sought by Guinn.