State sends Linn County $1 million for MHDD services

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County will receive a little over $1 million in state aid as it works to close a $5.3 million budget gap for mental health and developmentally disabled (MHDD) services, a state panel ruled.

"It doesn't take care of all the issues that are hitting MHDD, but this will go a long way toward getting people off the waiting list" for services, said Supervisor Ben Rogers, D-Cedar Rapids.

Rogers attended today's meeting in Des Moines of the Department of Human Services board that administers the "risk pool," a state fund for those in most serious need.

Risk pool allocations are reserved for counties that have a waiting list for services. Linn County didn't maintain such a list until this summer, when projections showed it would spend about $37 million on MHDD services during the present fiscal year. State law limits the county to $8 million in property-tax revenues for MHDD services, and Medicaid and state funds are expected to total about $25 million, leaving the shortfall.

People on Linn County's list can expect to wait about seven months for services.

"We'll be able to put it toward some of the programs and the waiting list," Rogers said of today's appropriation.

Rogers said only one other county, Osceola, applied for this round of risk-pool funding, leaving about $6 million in the pool. That may yet help Linn County close its gap, Rogers said.

"We're going to start looking for a supplemental (appropriation) from the state Legislature, but if no other counties are in the risk pool it might be an interesting idea if we could scoop that money," he said.