Churchill County social services budget stresses lab expansion, homeless transitional house and Medicaid match limits

Shannon Ernst, director of Churchill County Social Services, told the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 18 that her department kept operating budgets largely flat but is facing pressure from rising professional fees, federal grant uncertainty and statutory limits on local property tax levies that pay the county's Medicaid match.

Ernst said the department is advancing a homeless transitional house project with $1,700,000 in funding already received and "we spent just under, 800,000 to date for the purchase of that project," and she said final approvals for an RFP could come in this or next fiscal year. She warned that ARPA funding that has offset some costs is winding down and that many federal grant programs are under discussion in Washington, leaving future reimbursements uncertain.

The presentation laid out why Social Services budgets differ from…