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Knox County workforce center warns deep federal cuts will force service reductions
Summary
OhioMeansJobs Knox County told commissioners it faces steep federal allocation cuts — including a 69% reduction in adult WIOA funding and a 52% reduction in youth funding — that could force the center to decline services beginning Oct. 1 unless allocations are revised.
Brandy Booth, OhioMeansJobs Knox County job center administrator, told the Knox County Commissioners on July 17 that the county’s public workforce programs will face large federal allocation reductions next program year and that the cuts will reduce services.
“We're taking a 69% cut in adult funding,” Booth said, adding the county is expecting a 13% cut in dislocated worker funding and a 52% cut in youth funding. She gave a dollar example: an expected $100,000 in adult funding reduced to $34,000 under the state spreadsheet she received.
Booth explained the state methodology used to distribute Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funds: it weights excess unemployment rates (counties above 4.5% receive more), poverty levels, labor-force participation and other metrics. She said the Department of Labor and other agencies have submitted recommendations to the White House and that the new allocations will take effect Oct. 1 unless federal action changes the program.
The job center described the scope of services that could be affected: one-stop job seeker assistance (resume help and mock interviews), incumbent worker training, WIOA adult and dislocated worker training dollars, and youth services that include GED programs, credit recovery and paid work experiences. Booth said the center recorded more than 7,200 visits last year and provided 5,855 individual services; 305 of those visits were first-time visitors.
Booth noted specific program pieces that rely on those allocations: incumbent worker training that offset employer costs ($11,653 spent last year), the RESEA reemployment assessments tied to unemployment extensions and the PRC (prevention-retention-contingency) program that now includes housing, utilities and transportation assistance. She warned commissioners the cuts would make staff “have to say no” to some requests: “So there are gonna be times that we're gonna have to say no because we just don't have the funding,” Booth said.
Commissioners asked for the state methodology and timing details; Booth offered to share a spreadsheet and said allocations will be revisited next summer if program rules remain unchanged. Commissioners thanked Booth and Scott Boone, Knox County Job and Family Services director, who accompanied her and answered procedural questions.
Next steps: Booth advised that the program-year funding and the state allocation methodology will determine service levels beginning Oct. 1; she said the county will know whether the federal executive actions change those allocations after the agencies report their recommendations.
