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February 26, 2009

Counties hit with big bill for youth services

State wants back payments from Clinton, Essex, Franklin

By JOE LoTEMPLIO

PLATTSBURGH — Adjusted bills from the state for youth services — some going back seven years — are hitting counties hard.

Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties have each had to come up with significant amounts to pay their share to the state's Office of Children and Family Services.

The bills stem from the counties sending troubled youths to under-utilized state facilities at a high cost.

Clinton County was given a bill of about $200,000, Franklin County is looking at around $172,000, and Essex County must pay about $185,000.

"We've always had some kind of retroactive adjustments in bills, but nothing like this," Clinton County Commissioner of Social Services Jay T. LePage said.

"Hopefully, they will do it right from now on."

FEWER SENT
The problem is due to fewer youths being sent to state facilities.

The cost of the system is based on occupancies in facilities, and numbers have gone way down since 2000.

The facilities in question are places such as Adirondack Youth Center in Schuyler Falls, where troubled kids go for rehabilitation and other services.

Ed Borges, spokesperson for the Office of Children and Family Services, said 2,223 youths were in state facilities in 2000 but only 958 now.

Some facilities have closed in recent years, but 511 empty beds remain.

"The cost of running these facilities is per bed, and it's between $140,000 and $200,000 per bed," Borges said.

The counties and state share the cost of each youth evenly.

ALTERNATIVES
In recent years, counties have been opting for less-expensive services than youth facilities, when available.

At-risk youths are also being kept in programs closer to home rather than shipping them to facilities up to 300 miles away.

Most of the kids in the system are from New York City or Suffolk and Nassau counties on Long Island.

In Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties, only one to four kids have been sent to state facilities each year since 2002.

CLOSURES COMING
Borges said that even though many beds may be empty, the facilities remain open, which drives up costs.

He noted that a facility in Cattaraugus County, in extreme western New York, has 25 beds but no kids. Yet, due to contracts, the staff remains on the job.

The state has made moves to correct the situation, announcing that it will close several of these facilities, including Adirondack Youth Center in Schuyler Falls and the one in Cattaraugus County.

But, due to agreements with labor unions, the closures will take up to 12 months.

Ultimately, Borges said, the cuts will save the state about $16.4 million.

BACK BILLS
In the meantime, the state has gone back to 2002 to adjust bills for each county.

Even though counties were warned each year that their bills could be adjusted, the recent wallop has department heads frustrated.

"No private business could ever operate that way," Franklin County Commissioner of Social Services Lesley Lyon said.

"No one has ever given us who hold the purse strings an explanation as to why this was. I can see going back a year or two, but going back five years is just not right."

PAYMENTS
Essex County Manager Daniel Palmer said the county, fortunately, set aside about $300,000 in anticipation of a big bill.

"We knew it was coming."

The state is giving counties the option of paying the bill over three years, which Franklin County expects to do.

Clinton County legislators recently agreed to pay the bill in full, as will Essex County.

"We had the money budgeted for this and, fortunately, we didn't have a lot of kids in the system, so we could pay it," LePage said. "But if we had one more kid in, we wouldn't have been able to pay it."

Borges said the state simply failed to adjust the rates when it should have, from 2002 until 2006, when the Democratic regime of then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer was in place.

Gov. David Paterson has taken steps to correct the billing procedure.

"It was absurd," Borges said.

He said county executives should pound a message to state leaders.

"They should tell them that they don't want to pay for empty beds."

E-mail Joe LoTemplio at: jlotemplio@pressrepublican.com

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