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Commissioners shift multiple community-partner lines toward behavioral-health fund and approve several one-time pledges
Summary
During budget deliberations, commissioners agreed in principle to move numerous community-partner program lines into the behavioral-health fund, signaled support for one-time capital pledges (e.g., Bert Nash), and wrestled with whether to reduce operational funding for some mature nonprofits.
Staff presented a consolidated list of community partners and asked the commission whether several lines should move from the general fund into the behavioral-health fund as offsets to reduce the mill levy.
Brooke, the budget analyst, showed the line items staff had flagged; commissioners signaled majority support for moving the permanent supportive housing program and related financial-empowerment items into the behavioral-health bucket. On the Lawrence Community Shelter (LCS) line, Commissioner Dorsey proposed reducing the county contribution and reallocating approximately $100,000 to behavioral-health programs; commissioners noted many shelter clients have behavioral-health needs.
The Baldwin City child-care request prompted debate about which fund to use: equipment-reserve, general-fund one-time dollars, or behavioral-health. Some commissioners favored full funding at the $500,000 ask and using equipment-reserve or year-end transfers; others recommended splitting or delaying to avoid audit or precedent issues.
On capital pledges, commissioners signaled majority support for a one-time conditional pledge to the Bert Nash Youth Recovery Center under the behavioral-health fund, contingent on other funds being raised before county dollars would be expended.
Commissioners also reviewed housing capital asks such as loan payoffs for Family Promise and other supportive-housing projects; several commissioners supported using one-time funds to pay down loans to free operating dollars, while others cautioned about precedent and requested deed restrictions or first-right-of-refusal protections for county-funded assets.
What happens next: staff will recalculate the behavioral-health fund capacity after the line-item moves and present updated figures and a recomputed mill levy at the next meeting. Several funding decisions were treated as contingent or to be memorialized later through resolution.
