Bell, Hanger hear from local residents at Board meeting

By Susan Gibbs, Record Reporter
Published: October 2, 2008

About 40 county residents turned out to hear Delegate Rob Bell (R-58th District) and Senator Hanger (R-Mount Solon) talk about unfunded mandates at the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, September 23.
Those mandates, officials say, could drive the county into bankruptcy.
“We’re going to have a public hearing to illustrate some of the frustrations we’re having as a locality,“ explained Chairman Steve Catalano.
For almost an hour, Bell and Hanger listened to concerns centered primarily on two programs:  the Comprehensive Services Act (CSA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
CSA is a 1993 Virginia law that mandates high quality, child-centered, family focused, cost effective, community-based services to high risk youth and their families - that is not fully funded by the state. The state allots the county a specified amount of funding each fiscal year, but if supplemental funds are required and the state does not make them available, the county is left holding the bag.
NCLB, a federal act signed into law in 2002, is based on the belief that setting high expectations and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. However, it is expensive, and the federal government has failed to fully fund it. Schools that fail to comply can be stripped of their overall federal funding.
Both Bell and Hanger were direct in their responses.
“If the agenda tonight is ‘let’s identify some unfunded mandates and get rid of those mandates’ I’d say let’s roll,“ said Bell. “Make a laundry list of programs you don’t want and Emmett and I will go down to Richmond with that laundry list and hopefully find ways not to mandate that you pay them.“
But Bell made it clear that he would not advocate eliminating unfunded mandates by shifting the costs of those mandates in another direction.
Hanger said he was ready to get rid of one mandate entirely; that for the last several years he had wanted Virginia to drop out of NCLB but that the federal government had threatened to withhold other education and social services-related funds if it did so.
This year, he said, the state might be able to make a strong argument for its case.
“As we meet the need to tighten our belts we can say to the State Board of Education, to other legislators and to the federal government, ‘We can save a significant amount of money if we … withdraw from No Child Left Behind,“ Hanger said.
Both legislators spoke directly to CSA after Randy Corpening, director of special services for Greene’s school district, said that if that program’s funding was not continued or increased, the County could be crippled.
Corpening reminded the legislators that special education is driven by No Child Left Behind and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that most of his department’s funding comes from the federal and state governments.
“Just to give you a rough idea of what we’re talking about funding-wise, we have three students, two of whom moved into Greene County specifically to access our CSA funding,“ Corpening explained. “Education for those three students costs in excess of $1 million. While Greene County has a significant state funding stream … if these funds are not continued or increased … (the mandate) has the potential to cripple Greene County.“
Corpening continued: “We have to provide these services to these students. We have no alternative. Most of these costs are unfunded or underfunded … so the burden falls on Greene County. It’s a small county. For three students, $1 million is a lot of money.“
Bell commiserated, saying, “CSA … is eating the state alive.“ But he pointed out that the solution to that problem will require a fundamental change.  “There’s no way to provide a million dollars worth of services for three kids without spending a million dollars.“
Hanger agreed that CSA is “a huge problem” defined the current system as “flawed.“
“The state was short $50 million for CSA in the ‘08 budget. When we proposed our new biannual budget we had to come up with $90 million (for) the first year and $60 million (for the second year). You’re talking about an additional expenditure from the general fund of $200 million just for CSA.“
Hanger said he has been working on fixing the flawed system for about three years and had sponsored a resolution to have the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee “take a look at what’s going on here.  That’s an area I hope we’re going to make some progress on this year because it has implications not only for (CSA) but for your regional jail and state corrections.“
Hanger noted that about 67 percent of the populations of both the regional jail and state correction facilities are there “for substance abuse issues.
“A lot of CSA cases involve children taken away from their parents, who are in the judicial system, and put in foster care. We collectively have to take care of these children and it’s expensive to do that,“ Hanger said.
Other citizens who spoke to Bell and Hanger of their concerns included Sonny Clay, representing the Greene County Taxpayers Association, Circuit Court Clerk Marie Durrer, Sheriff Scott Haas and Superintendent of Schools Dave Jeck.
In addition, Catalano had specifically requested the Ruckersville Citizens Council to lobby legislators on the state of the county. At least three known members of that group were present to do so.