Commissioner Beck and senior staff presented the Department of Social Services budget and described recent internal improvements while warning legislators of potential near-term pressures from federal funding changes.

Commissioner Beck said the department has implemented staff and process changes and that the agency’s vacancy rate had fallen; she highlighted a current staffing level of roughly 92.5 percent and said promotions and internal hires reduced prior turnover. Jim Longwell, the department’s finance director, described the budget structure and said about 70 percent of many social-services program appropriations are reimbursed by state or federal aid, but the overall reimbursement profile is uneven across programs.

Beck and Longwell warned that federal actions could materially change the county’s fiscal outlook. Beck said the department is tracking the federal government’s guidance related to SNAP and other benefit programs and described potential local impacts if federal reimbursement is curtailed: “Winter is coming,” she said, repeating that an expected federal change effective Nov. 1 could reduce federal reimbursement and shift costs to the state and counties. Longwell gave a planning estimate of roughly $3.3 million tied to anticipated changes in federal funding and program demands, a figure he described as a moving target and subject to refinement.

Officials described steps intended to reduce county spending on homelessness. Beck and staff said a new shelter run by IPH in Amsterdam will increase available beds and let the county move some people out of hotel placements, which have been costly; Beck said contracting with IPH should lower per-person hotel costs while still leaving some county expense. The department also reported use of grants and ARPA-funded programs for targeted services including a rental supplement program and investments in domestic-violence services that, they said, returned more reimbursements than the county invested.

Beck emphasized the scale of the department’s operations: roughly 121 full-time employees and daily in-person traffic averaging about 60 people. She and staff asked legislators to retain some budget authority for discretionary uses, including a modest $10,000 commissioner’s fund intended to allow immediate emergency payments (for example, a single-night hotel placement) without relying on the county credit card process.

Ending: Legislators commended DSS for improved staffing and internal controls but asked the department to continue supplying up-to-date cost projections and documentation so the legislature can evaluate potential funding gaps if federal reimbursements are reduced.