Budget cuts could affect drug treatment in Baker County

Gov. Ted Kulongoski has directed agencies that receive state general fund money, including New Directions, to prepare for cuts of 10 percent to 15 percent if voters cancel the corporate and income tax increases approved by the 2009 Legislature.

If voters defeat Measures 66 and 67, and New Directions is forced to take a 12-percent budget cut, it would eliminate about 790 bed days for alcohol and drug treatment for adults, including mothers, said Bart Murray, director and CEO of New Directions.

“This will equate to eliminating treatment for approximately 7.5 adult men and women and eliminating treatment for about two adult women with children,” Murray wrote in a Nov. 4 report.

The loss of state money also would eliminate 246 bed days for adolescents — equivalent to 2.75 adolescent clients, Murray wrote in a statement e-mailed to the Baker City Herald.

“As of the end of this biennium (June 30, 2011), we will have gone 12 years with only a 5.5 percent increase in funding for adult treatment. It is becoming more and more difficult to continue to provide these services to help men and women in their recovery process when costs continue to rise in supplies and services to operate our facilities,” Murray wrote.

He said New Directions is anticipating a 10 percent increase in health insurance costs and an increase of about 2.5 percent in the cost of services and supplies in 2010.

“We anticipate this will result in the agency’s inability to provide our staff with a cost of living increase and the possibility of requiring employees to contribute to the cost of their health insurance coverage,” Murray said. “Our staff salaries are already well below comparable positions.”

Alcohol and drug treatment provided on an outpatient basis would also be reduced by about eight clients per year, based on a 12 percent budget cut, according to the report.

“By reducing the number of clients we are able to treat in our outpatient capacity, our community will be impacted adversely in that those untreated individuals will not have the opportunity to get the help they need to eliminate their addiction to drugs or alcohol and to become responsible, productive members of our community and better parents to their children,” Murray wrote.

He warned that untreated individuals will be prone to committing crimes such as robbery and identity theft.

Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario,  and Fred Warner Jr., chairman of the Baker County Commission, met with Murray in October to discuss the potential budget cuts.

Bentz said New Directions is the largest drug and alcohol treatment center in Oregon east of the Cascades. It provides treatment programs which are housed in the Baker House, Recovery Village and at Elkhorn Adolescent Treatment Center.

New Directions also operates an Employee Assistance Program in conjunction with the Baker County Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Coalition.

“These treatment programs are of great benefit to Baker City and to the Baker County community,” Bentz said. “I will do what I can, in this time of economic uncertainty and budget difficulty, to try to help Director Murray fund the continuation of these important and beneficial programs.”

Although Bentz voted against increasing corporate and personal income taxes during the legislative session earlier this year, he said he believes it is important to inform the public about the potential effects on state programs if voters overturn the taxes in January.

“I wanted people to understand there would be some significant cuts going down,” Bentz said. “I hope to soften some of the blow on the small communities in Eastern Oregon, and on organizations and service providers like New Directions, from cuts.”

Warner said nobody knows precisely what will happen if voters overturn the tax increases, but he is concerned that important programs such as New Directions’ alcohol and treatment facilities in Baker County, and well as post prison parole and funding for other criminal justice programs the county operates with state funds, could be adversely affected.

As for prison programs, Warner said the Powder River Correctional Facility has escaped any drastic budget cuts so far.

“Where Baker County will see the most effect, I believe, is in parole and probation — post prison supervision,” Warner said. “That is the biggest portion of funding we get from the state. It amounts to about $425,000, between the jail and probation.”

However, he said he’s confident the Legislature won’t slash those budgets too much, because the money pays the county to provide those services for the state.

If deep cuts in those programs are proposed, Warner said the Baker County Commission would likely stop providing the services and turn them back over to the state.

That, he said, would wind up costing the state more money in the long run.

“They can’t run it as efficiently as we can,” Warner said.

Human services is another area that lawmakers could target for funding cuts, but Warner said that would be hard to do during these tough economic times.

“In these hard times, child welfare is overloaded already. To take money from their budget would be devastating,” Warner said. 

Despite the potential budget cuts, Warner said he hasn’t taken a position on whether voters should endorse or overturn the tax increases.

“I don’t really have a stance on the tax measures. My issue is the inequitable way the Legislature may make cuts based on that (how the vote comes out),” Warner said.