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Richland County committee asks staff to draft resolution for new economic-support QC lead funded by Wisconsin Act 116
Summary
The Richland County Community Health Services Standing Committee voted July 2 to ask staff to draft a resolution creating a mid‑year economic‑support quality‑control lead position funded under Wisconsin Act 116; staff said the funding is available through 2027 and the position aims to prevent federal penalties tied to FoodShare error rates.
The Richland County Community Health Services Standing Committee voted July 2 to ask staff to draft a resolution creating an economic‑support quality‑control lead position funded under Wisconsin Act 116.
The proposal, introduced by an agency official, says the state allocated money to hire lead positions in consortium counties to perform front‑end quality control on FoodShare and related economic‑support cases. "The money is actually available right now. It was available yesterday," the agency official said, urging the committee to move the request forward to executive finance and then the county board.
Why it matters: staff warned that poor error‑rate performance on federal reviews can expose counties to substantial penalties. The agency official said the Act includes funds to help counties avoid what was described as "up to $205,000,000 in penalty fees if error rates exceed 6%" and noted recent federal‑fiscal‑year numbers were above that threshold.
Committee members pressed for fiscal details before finalizing a position. The county was given an illustrative salary figure of about $93,000 for the lead role; staff said fringe benefits (FICA, state retirement, health and dental insurance and related payroll costs) are included in reimbursement calculations and that many overhead costs — for equipment, phones and software — can also be claimed. One member requested a clearer breakdown of what "overhead" covers and how much the county would bear if state funding were not rolled into base allocations.
On duration and sustainability, staff said Act 116 funding is committed through 2027 and that communications from the state indicate the intent to roll positions into the base maintenance allocation afterward. "If it is not, we would have to cross that bridge when we get there," the agency official said, acknowledging some long‑term risk.
Next steps: the committee approved a motion to have staff prepare a resolution with the amendments discussed and send it to executive finance; the resolution will be scheduled for the county board after that review.
The committee did not adopt a final job description or detailed budget in the July 2 meeting; staff committed to include salary, fringe, overhead and space logistics in the resolution packet forwarded to executive finance.
