Once, twice, thrice...four times fleeced!
A story and a question. This time, the question first:
Do things like this happen in your town?
If they do, let me know....would just like to know.....
Being on the local Budget Committe in our village of 7,400, I've learned a lot. Today, I learned something new from this story in one of the local papers (The Citizen):
County balks at funding Genesis
We are what is known as an SB2 town here in NH. This means that we do not have the traditional Town Meeting that NH has been known for (one or two nights of the year, all of the townfolk go to the meeting place, discuss what is to be voted on ["the Warrants"] and vote on them - even if it takes until 1 or 2 in the morning) but we do have Deliberative Meetings - one for the Town Budget and one for the School Budget.
Same as non-SB2 towns except we then vote later instead of during - using paper ballots instead of voice or hand raising. But I digress....
One of the things that the Budget Committee has struggled with over the years is removing funding for what are known as "outside agencies"; I call them NGOs - Non-Governmental Organizations. One of them, Genesis Behavioral Health, seems to have been doing an end run for funding itself:
Yes, it seems to get a bit more interesting here.LACONIA - Belknap County's contribution to Genesis Behavioral Health was up and then went back down on Monday after a debate was sparked over some legislators' belief that the mental health agency is "double-dipping" in asking both the county and individual towns for financial backing.
There was a fair amount of heat for doing that, yet a majority of us felt that compelling taxpayers to effectively donate to a charity via their taxes to organizations that they may not wish to give to otherwise was wrong. Property taxes, we felt, were better used on direct Town services and not giving them to NGOs, even if they do good works.
If people want to, they could give directly. Why force giving coercively? Anyways, more a bit further down....
Genesis is among nine "outside agencies" that receive annual funding from the county budget and this year requested a $34,200 appropriation to cover expenses relating to the care of its residents, many of whom cannot pay for their mental health services.
County Commission Chair Philip "Bud" Daigneault said his panel voted in favor of lowering that amount and funding $27,500 — an amount that still would provide a 10-percent increase over the $26,000 the agency received in 2006. [snip]
"We thought Genesis should work within that number," said Daigneault, noting that it also receives state and federal support.
This I kinda figured on. What I didn't know is that the County gives them money as well. Not a single, not a double, not even a trifecta! This is a quad-dipping! Why? Nice funding. I hope that someone at each level is getting ready to ask "and how is your billing doing" just to make sure.
Familiar? I'm quite sure of that now. Mrs. Millham (R-Gilford) was also the one that lobbied the 300 or so voters that showed up for the Town's Deliberative Session (out of the 6,000 voters in Town) to put the Genesis funding back into our budget. They voted the funding back in.However, members of the legislative subcommittee working on the Genesis portion of the county budget voted to raise the amount to the $34,200 that was originally requested.
Rep. Alida Millham, R-Gilford, and Judie Reever, D-Laconia, outvoted Laurie Boyce, R-Alton, in recommending that the amount be funded at the original request and defended their decision on Monday.
Millham said she has been familiar with Genesis since its inception and expressed confidence that the organization was asking for an amount that would cover its costs.[snip]
Daigneault said he respects the work Genesis does but he expressed concern with what he believes constitutes going back on an agreement made more than a decade ago that would have the county supporting the agency and not the towns.
The county commission chair said Genesis has been violating that arrangement by going out annually and requesting funds from towns on an annual basis that appear on town warrants for approval by taxpayers.
I guess what I am not happy with is that in being a long term member of the County delegation, she would have known of the above agreement (gee, shades of the football kerfuffle in Gilford too - say one thing do another!). Yet, she was the one who lobbied Gilford and now the County - against that agreement.
A disfavor? An understatement indeed - as far as I'm concerned, I would have been using other language. As Rep. Wendelboe points out, I certainly was not aware that the County paid these costs! Thus when she rattled off the stats of how many people Genesis helped in Gilford during the DS, it may well be the case that Genesis was already getting funding from the County for these same individuals. Don't know for sure, but it sure doesn't look good, does it?[snip]
Rep. Fran Wendelboe, R-New Hampton, agreed and noted that they regularly ask for contributions that appear to be asking taxpayers from Belknap County to fund them twice.
She said Genesis representatives show up at town meetings and tell of the thousands upon thousands of dollars in care they provide to residents of a given town and then ask for a modest sum without explaining that they get state, county and federal funding.
"I think it's kind of misleading how it's reported to the towns," said Wendelboe.
Daigneault said the action is a simple matter of the group "double-dipping".
[snip]
Millham said it would be doing Genesis a "disfavor" to say it is duping taxpayers and noted that some expenses — like mental health experts' trips to the emergency room for suicidal patients — may not be covered otherwise.
Not nice, not cool.
Why would she do this? Well, the article did say that "Millham said she has been familiar with Genesis since its inception".
Well, from another paper, The Gilford Steamer, (2/7/07, Stakes are raised on Budget Committee issue) in town, I quote:
Earlier in the meeting, the residents present in the meeting voted to redo a portion of the committee's work on the municipal budget. Resident Alida Millham made a motion to amend Article 12 to include funding for three outside agencies at a total of $13,879.
"These agencies provide real support for the real Gilford people," said Millham, a member of the Genesis Behavioral Health Advisory Committee. "The attitude should not be to let someone else do it."
As a conservative Republican, I have a problem with THAT attitude - forcing taxpayers to support an organization that they otherwise might not just because Ms. Millham thinks that they should.
The definition of Charity begins and ends with individual giving - not collectively unless that group of people do it on their own. Charity is willingly given - not demanded. As she has done.
Without letting us know of her advocacy.
The Budget Committee had previously excluded funds for the Red Cross, Genesis Behavioral Health, a mental health crisis facility, and New Beginnings, a women's shelter.
I was not aware that when Mrs. Millham lobbied for re-inserting the funding, she was on the Genesis Committee.
She can belong to any organization that she wishes to be on. She can certainly advocate for anyone or thing she wishes to. However, I do think that the right thing would have been to announce that she had that connection.
Does the County delegation know that? Did the 300 at the DS know that? Maybe I'm the one just not in the know? It would have been nice to have known that she was advocating at two level for funding for a group that had agreed not to.
Or would the better thing to do would have been to recuse herself.
