Today’s News & Record has an editorial defending the cuts to non-profits that County Commissioners made in the new 2007-2008 budget, including cuts to community-based organizations such as a family homeless shelter and three residential drug treatment programs:
“The bottom line: The county’s tax base hasn’t grown enough to offset what is owed. The answer, however, isn’t passing the buck to beleaguered property owners and expecting them to underwrite nonprofits… Thankfully, the door has been left slightly ajar. Commissioners could provide some limited nonprofit funding later this year…”
But what the editorial doesn’t say is that the Commissioners did fund other non-profit, community-based organizations — to the tune of almost $1.4 million. (I’m not sure how they define “limited.”)
My question (and I’m not alone in asking this one) is what was the rationale behind the cuts? From an economic perspective, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to cut funding for programs that save taxpayer dollars in the long term. I left messages for both Commissioners Paul Gibson (Chair) and Billy Yow, architects of the adopted budget. I assume they had a plan. I’d just like to hear their perspective on how they chose who got funded and who didn’t.
Note: Commissioner (Vice-Chair) Skip Alston plans to revisit the topic of non-profit funding at the July 19th meeting. If your non-profit funding was cut, you might want to mark this on your calendar. (Non-profits received little or no notice of the budget cuts and did not have a chance to speak in support of their agencies before the cuts were made.)
| Community-Based Organizations Funded by the Guilford County Commissioners in the Adopted 2007-2008 Budget |
| Non-profit Human Services Organizations |
| Adult Center for Enrichment |
$8,403
|
| Black Child Development |
18,000
|
| Children’s Home Society |
55,500
|
| Family Service of the Piedmont |
123,000
|
| Family Services of the Piedmont |
109,623
|
| Guilford Center for mental health/psychological services (matching funds) |
20,317
|
| One Step Further |
60,000
|
| Senior Resources of Guilford County (for outreach and case assistance) |
40,000
|
| Senior Resources of Guilford County |
107880
|
| Sickle Cell Agency |
55,000
|
| Triad Health Project |
120,000
|
| Women’s Resource Center |
15,000
|
| Youth Focus |
135,785
|
| Human Services CBO Total |
$868,508
|
| Economic Development Organizations |
| Total of eight (8) economic development nonprofits funded |
$529,143
|
| TOTAL NON-PROFIT CBOS FUNDED IN GUILFORD COUNTY 2007-2008 ADOPTED BUDGET |
$1,397,651
|
NOTE: I see some familiar non-profits who do great work (some of them with homeless people!) in the “funded” list above. Good for you! 
P.S. I didn’t get the names of the economic development organizations because that’s really not my area of interest. But if you want to know, call the county budget office. They’ll tell you. They’re nice.
[Update, 06/30/07: Billy Yow returned my call. More here.] Scott Yost answered my question above in this week’s Rhino. Details here.
