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Finance staff warns HHS deficit driven by rising youth placements; committee recommends $1.3M transfer
Summary
Finance staff reported HHS ended 2024 with a $1.566 million deficit driven largely by rising youth-justice and out-of-county placements. The finance committee recommended a $1.3 million transfer from the general fund to reduce HHS's reliance on its fund balance.
Finance staff told the Sawyer County Finance Committee that Health & Human Services (HHS) closed 2024 with a structural deficit and that the largest new expense driver is youth-justice placements and contracted out-of-county care.
“Right now, we're sitting at a deficit of 1,566,000.00,” Finance staff told the committee while reviewing department-level reports. The presenter and other speakers described a shift over the last two years: juvenile-justice costs were modest in 2019'22 but rose to about $700,000 in 2023 and increased by roughly $1.1 million in 2024.
Committee materials and presenters said HHS's contracted mental-health and residential placements are large line items. A handout shown to the committee projected contracted mental-health placements totaling about $2,700,000 (committee handout: 04/24 monthly report). Members said transport and distance to placements — some facilities cited included Lincoln Hills, Winnebago and Trempealeau — add to expense and operational complexity.
Finance staff recommended transferring $1,300,000 from the general-fund surplus to HHS so the department would not have to deplete its own fund balance as deeply in 2025. The committee approved forwarding the broader fund-balance designation (including the HHS transfer) to the full County Board for final approval.
Committee members and staff discussed efforts to limit future costs, including better grant and Medicaid billing, targeted grants that align with existing services, and investments in local crisis or community-support services to reduce long-term out-of-county placement costs. Speakers referenced recent county work on youth diversion, truancy interventions and partnerships with providers intended to identify needs earlier and reduce high-cost placements.
One committee member asked whether the increase reflected more referrals; presenters said part of the rise is that previously under-addressed cases are now being identified and referred, and that staffing and reporting changes in HHS had contributed to more referrals to the juvenile-justice system.
Presenters cautioned that while transfers can stabilize HHS in the short term, structural solutions will require maximizing state and Medicaid reimbursement, pursuing fitting grants and evaluating program duplication.
The committee did not take separate final board-level action on HHS alone; the HHS transfer is part of the fund-balance designation resolution that the committee forwarded to the County Board.
