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Councils of governments warn of Meals on Wheels shortfalls, flag transportation planning gaps
Summary
Representatives of the state's councils of governments told the Constitutional Subcommittee that aging services face near-term funding shortfalls and that transportation project planning can falter in the handoff to the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
Representatives from several regional councils of governments told the Constitutional Subcommittee that aging services — including home-delivered meals — are facing funding shortfalls and that some transportation projects are experiencing information and implementation gaps between local planning organizations and the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
Joette Dukes and other council representatives described the councils' work across economic development, transportation and aging services and highlighted an annual state appropriation of $1,500,000 that is divided by formula among the 10 councils.
"We are deeply grateful for the $1,500,000 that is appropriated to our councils each year, which we divide by formula among the 10 of us," a council presenter said.
Bill Molnar, a regional director who spoke for his council, told senators his region has more than 800 people on the waiting list for home-delivered meal services and that councils are not adding new clients because funding and meal costs have strained local providers.
"Our region currently has over 800 people on the waiting list for home delivered meal services and we are not adding people to the waiting list," Molnar said. "Now funding is getting smaller and inflation has gone up. So our meal prices have not quite doubled, but almost. So we are able to serve fewer people with the same amount of money, but we have more people to serve."
Council representatives said part of the problem is federal funding uncertainty and the timing of reimbursements. Several speakers said the councils received a notice of funding availability (NOFA) within the last couple of weeks in March for some additional federal funds that can be used for meals, but they do not have written guarantees about how long that funding will last and other federal funding streams remain unclear.
"We have been issued a notice of funding availability, but the bad news is no one at the Department of Aging can tell us how long we need to make that funding last," one council representative said. "So if it is till September 30 then that means we're not adding anybody who's on our waiting list to the rolls." (Staff identified the state office that handles aging reimbursements as the Department of Aging.)
On transportation, the councils described how local committees and boards develop project lists that feed into metropolitan and rural plans; projects that move from long-range plans into the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) are then programmed by SCDOT. Presenters described a recent example — a proposed traffic circle on Highway 11 — that illustrated local uncertainty about which body controls design and construction once a project is submitted to DOT.
"Once we pass that project off to SCDOT, they are in charge of the engineering, the design, right-of-way acquisition and project implementation. And we simply get project updates at our meetings," a Waccamaw-area representative said, describing the process by which rural project lists are ranked against SCDOT scoring criteria and voted into the TIP.
Representatives also reported grant-related delays: an Economic Development Administration partnership planning grant was described as awarded but not yet fully authorized, and some transportation staffing and contracting shortages were cited as causes for project lag. Speakers named the Older Americans Act and WIOA as federal programs that have not been reauthorized and flagged the potential for future funding disruption.
Committee members asked about the reimbursement process for meal providers; council staff said they contract with local councils on aging, pay contractors, and then submit reimbursement requests to the state. Speakers said reimbursement delays are sometimes caused by reporting and tracking system transitions at the state office, which can require duplicate or triple reporting from local providers.
Council representatives offered to follow up with DOT staff on the Highway 11 project and to provide further documentation on the NOFA and timing of federal reimbursements. There was no formal vote or committee action taken at the meeting on these issues.
