Novstrup said community support providers remain underfunded. It’s a problem he’d like to resolve, but he said he has not talked to the groups to get their thoughts on a bill for this year.
In the end, he said, there are two options: create a new source of revenue from property or sales taxes or re-appropriate existing revenue. He thinks doing one or the other is important [Elisa Sand, “Nonmeandered Waters Will Be Back Before Legislators, Again,” Aberdeen American News, 2018.01.06].
Raise taxes or reäppropriate—uh, duh. Session starts Tuesday, and Senator Novstrup not only hasn’t come up with a new idea but hasn’t bothered to visit with Aspire or other providers to get their input?
Oh BROTHER! I am LIVID! Why is Novstrup studying ways to fund a “For profit” support provider like ASPIRE, when current “not for profit” providers like Black Hills Works have built the infrastructure necessary to provide services to people with disabilities in this state? OOOH! This story just begs for advocates to come out of the woodwork and educate legislators on the gems, like BHW, Advance, and the Northern Hills Training Center, we have already before us !!
Consider this. Lately, there were THIRTY SIX job openings at my favorite CSP ! Why is THIS? In reality, a person can earn a better wage starting out at a fast food eatery than the person can at a CSP with far less responsibility!
Why in the world would a “For profit” CSP set up shop in South Dakota?
In a forum I attended in Huron many years ago, the key note speaker stated unequivocally the Adult system for providing services to people with disabilities is a “train wreck waiting to happen”.
What are the people of SD willing to do to shore up the Community Support Providers already in place?
grudznick
2018-01-07 13:47
Mr. Novstrup, the elder, should find a better location for his breakfasting. I don’t know where the McDonalds is, so maybe the location and traffic are fine, but if you’re going to take input from constituents you should at least do it over some decent vittles.
I see nothing wrong with go-carts, I wish I could still drive a go-cart like the old days, but I do see things wrong with just shuffling the moneys around through this reappropriating and raising taxes. BAH on all that.
You’re right about the part, though. It appears Mr. Novstrup is going away from the bangs look to a swell part. Still right up there with Mr. Bolin for leading haircuts in the legislatures.
Hold on, JK—Aspire is not public, but they are non-profit. Last year, Novstrup drew support from other CSPs around the state. I’ll reword above to clarify.
Nonetheless, I find it interesting that a supposedly conservative, anti-tax Republican is again talking about giving government money to a subset of private employers to subsidize the services those employers provide. What other non-profits receive that sort of wage subsidy from state government?
It’s the 6th Ave SE McDonald’s, Grudznick, on the east side of town. The N 2nd St McDonald’s is closer to both my house and to Al’s house.
Roger Cornelius
2018-01-07 15:49
Senator Stan used to regularly meet with his constituents at the Mount Rushmore Road McDonald’s.
Donald Pay
2018-01-07 16:06
Non-profit corporations are handling these needed services with state money because the state rightly closed certain facilities that separated and warehoused many people with disabilities at state institutions. Those who were fortunate enough not to be separated from their families and communities received very few services and were warehoused at home. It was simply not working for anyone, and especially not for people who had abilities that were not even recognized back then.
So, there was a push for community-based services, and the best way to provide those services was thought to be through community-based non-profits. I was involved in a couple of programs at Black Hills Works (then called “Workshop”) and Community Transitions in Rapid City, and with Goodwill Industries in Madison, WI. The programs that I have worked in have “person-centered” approaches, called by various names in various programs. There are regular meetings held with participants, their families, guardians, and professional staff in vocational, medical and residential areas to establish activities, jobs, and future goals, and to monitor health.
Wisconsin has been pushing a different approach, called “Family Care,” in the last few years. It utilizes a top-down insurance-based model because it can be easier for state bureaucrats to manage, it cuts down on local control and it supposedly cheaper. Authoritarians like Scott Walker and the Republicans seem to be all about cutting out families, controlling non-profits and giving the money saved to cons like Foxconn. Dane County is one of the last counties to be converted over. I retired before that happened because it was going to hurt our clients, and I didn’t want to be involved in shoving that down their throats.
Now, I do prefer the way SD has their non-profit system set up. In Wisconsin, there are numerous non-profits in one locality that compete for clients. Competition in this area seems to be driven more by careerism than to improve client services. In SD, each non-profit has their service area, which means less duplication, fewer salaries for administrative staff, etc. However, one of the things that bothered many BHWorks staff was the high salaries some of the upper level folks.
Ah ha! Donald! So in trying to add funding for CSPs to the state budget, Novstrup is just trying to get us back to some past level of state care for a certain segment of our population! He’s trying to undo some of the harmful cost-cutting and privatization his party wrought on us.
Donald, when the state closed those facilities, did it increase funding in any other areas dealing with the developmentally disabled?
The policy shifted to fund community treatment centers that would provide trained professionals to deliver counseling and prescribe the new antipsychotic drugs that were beginning to be introduced. The goal was to support patients while they remained in their communities and worked jobs, in order to allow them to live more normal lives.
The problem was that the states, including South Dakota, failed to use the savings from hospital closures to invest in community programming. Then, during the 1980s, the federal government drastically cut its funding and converted the aid to block grants that the states could designate as they saw fit, leaving community mental health to compete with other claimants for the federal funds, and state mental health funding suffered even more [Tim Bjorkman, “A State In Shackles,” South Dakota Law Review, Nov 2017, p. 233].
Are Novstrup and Bjorkman on a similar page?
But even if Novstrup makes this valid historical case for the state’s obligation to resume funding services in this area, can he get his conservative Republican colleagues to listen? Or is this another problem that will only be solved by a humane Democratic majority and Governor?
grudznick
2018-01-07 17:27
Mr. Stan met at that McDonalds up there on the hill because it was an easy drive from his house. Plus it wasn’t the down-town McDonalds where it probably wasn’t in his district. Mr. Stan, for all his money and gifting to big parties and artsy things, is much cheaper than the elder Mr. Novstrup when it comes to buying breakfasts for people.
grudznick
2018-01-07 17:53
Mr. Novstrup has his job cut out for him, indeed, but few can step up against these sorts of challenges like he. I expect we will hear much from Al Novstrup during the sessions this year. He is in some position of power and probably will wield it in many directions we have not yet fathomed.
Donald Pay
2018-01-07 21:34
Cory, I don’t look at it that way. These places needed to be closed and a community-based system developed. Those in the community know the situation best, so they are better situated to deliver services, but they often don’t have adequate funding. Funding was always tight, but it’s gotten tighter.
I rarely dealt with funding issues in South Dakota, but I assume most states are similar. A lot of funding for individuals comes through federal Social Security disability payments, some through federal/state Medicaid payments. In Wisconsin, state/counties contribute payments to provide supported employment and community integration services, and add to housing support. The Division of Vocation Rehabilitation will provide job searching support, job coaching if necessary for a specified period of time. Many folks get TANF and some get rent subsidies. Most clients have help to manage their finances provided by a separate agency, called Fiscal Assistance. It is a complicated system, which is probably why the state wanted to simplify it.
In our county, we have vocational only and residential only non-profits that compete for clients. Goodwill, of course, is a vocational agency for DD and TBI, but we also have residential services for mentally ill populations. We hire some of our clients to work in our retail and production areas, but our goal is to train people for work in other jobs in the community and to support them after they are trained. Most cannot work more than a 4 hours a day, many for much less, due to their disability. We do not allow our clients to work for under minimum wage, and some of our people work for above $12/hour.
With Family Care the state is taking power away from counties. Goodwill will lose money, because Family Care won’t pay for community integration. That means people will go to their jobs, then back home, where they will sit alone for the rest of the day. Some will probably go to new day centers, but those haven’t been fully developed yet, and it was supposed to roll out in October. That, apparently, is not a priority for the bureaucrats. The new system is going to cause increased behavioral problems and police calls. So, costs will be the same, but shifted to law enforcement rather than paying staff to oversee five or six clients as they exercise or watch a movie.
I retired so I don’t have to deal with all the ramifications of Family Care. I’ve heard implementation has been delayed because there are all sorts of issues.
Jivin Knute
2018-01-07 22:19
I apologize and stand corrected in that I misread the above editorial and assumed Aspire is a “for profit” CSP.
I agree, Donald, and Bjorkman does, too: we are better off with those facilities closed, and local communities are better equipped to care for their neighbors in need. However, local communities also lack the resources, and the state appears not to have redirected its own resources to support the local providers.
Can the state offer funding to our non-overlapping CSPs without going down the authoritarian Wisconsin road and trying to control them?
Jivin, no sweat—my original language invited such a mis-reading.
Donald Pay
2018-01-08 13:32
Cory, There are always some inefficiencies in human services work that can’t be squeezed out. South Dakota runs a very, very tight ship. I do know that it sometimes looks as if a lot of money is going to the top-end administrators. So, if South Dakota is having problems, it’s likely due to failure to increase funding at a rate that is necessary. These are responsibilities of South Dakota state government, and shouldn’t require local property tax payers to foot the entire bill. As we saw with teacher salaries, you can’t fund adequate services with just sales and property taxes.
Oh BROTHER! I am LIVID! Why is Novstrup studying ways to fund a “For profit” support provider like ASPIRE, when current “not for profit” providers like Black Hills Works have built the infrastructure necessary to provide services to people with disabilities in this state? OOOH! This story just begs for advocates to come out of the woodwork and educate legislators on the gems, like BHW, Advance, and the Northern Hills Training Center, we have already before us !!
Consider this. Lately, there were THIRTY SIX job openings at my favorite CSP ! Why is THIS? In reality, a person can earn a better wage starting out at a fast food eatery than the person can at a CSP with far less responsibility!
Why in the world would a “For profit” CSP set up shop in South Dakota?
In a forum I attended in Huron many years ago, the key note speaker stated unequivocally the Adult system for providing services to people with disabilities is a “train wreck waiting to happen”.
What are the people of SD willing to do to shore up the Community Support Providers already in place?
Mr. Novstrup, the elder, should find a better location for his breakfasting. I don’t know where the McDonalds is, so maybe the location and traffic are fine, but if you’re going to take input from constituents you should at least do it over some decent vittles.
I see nothing wrong with go-carts, I wish I could still drive a go-cart like the old days, but I do see things wrong with just shuffling the moneys around through this reappropriating and raising taxes. BAH on all that.
You’re right about the part, though. It appears Mr. Novstrup is going away from the bangs look to a swell part. Still right up there with Mr. Bolin for leading haircuts in the legislatures.
Hold on, JK—Aspire is not public, but they are non-profit. Last year, Novstrup drew support from other CSPs around the state. I’ll reword above to clarify.
Nonetheless, I find it interesting that a supposedly conservative, anti-tax Republican is again talking about giving government money to a subset of private employers to subsidize the services those employers provide. What other non-profits receive that sort of wage subsidy from state government?
It’s the 6th Ave SE McDonald’s, Grudznick, on the east side of town. The N 2nd St McDonald’s is closer to both my house and to Al’s house.
Senator Stan used to regularly meet with his constituents at the Mount Rushmore Road McDonald’s.
Non-profit corporations are handling these needed services with state money because the state rightly closed certain facilities that separated and warehoused many people with disabilities at state institutions. Those who were fortunate enough not to be separated from their families and communities received very few services and were warehoused at home. It was simply not working for anyone, and especially not for people who had abilities that were not even recognized back then.
So, there was a push for community-based services, and the best way to provide those services was thought to be through community-based non-profits. I was involved in a couple of programs at Black Hills Works (then called “Workshop”) and Community Transitions in Rapid City, and with Goodwill Industries in Madison, WI. The programs that I have worked in have “person-centered” approaches, called by various names in various programs. There are regular meetings held with participants, their families, guardians, and professional staff in vocational, medical and residential areas to establish activities, jobs, and future goals, and to monitor health.
Wisconsin has been pushing a different approach, called “Family Care,” in the last few years. It utilizes a top-down insurance-based model because it can be easier for state bureaucrats to manage, it cuts down on local control and it supposedly cheaper. Authoritarians like Scott Walker and the Republicans seem to be all about cutting out families, controlling non-profits and giving the money saved to cons like Foxconn. Dane County is one of the last counties to be converted over. I retired before that happened because it was going to hurt our clients, and I didn’t want to be involved in shoving that down their throats.
Now, I do prefer the way SD has their non-profit system set up. In Wisconsin, there are numerous non-profits in one locality that compete for clients. Competition in this area seems to be driven more by careerism than to improve client services. In SD, each non-profit has their service area, which means less duplication, fewer salaries for administrative staff, etc. However, one of the things that bothered many BHWorks staff was the high salaries some of the upper level folks.
Ah ha! Donald! So in trying to add funding for CSPs to the state budget, Novstrup is just trying to get us back to some past level of state care for a certain segment of our population! He’s trying to undo some of the harmful cost-cutting and privatization his party wrought on us.
Donald, when the state closed those facilities, did it increase funding in any other areas dealing with the developmentally disabled?
I didn’t focus on this issue when I reviewed Tim Bjorkman’s wonderful position paper on incarceration, but he addressed exactly that deinstitutionalization:
Are Novstrup and Bjorkman on a similar page?
But even if Novstrup makes this valid historical case for the state’s obligation to resume funding services in this area, can he get his conservative Republican colleagues to listen? Or is this another problem that will only be solved by a humane Democratic majority and Governor?
Mr. Stan met at that McDonalds up there on the hill because it was an easy drive from his house. Plus it wasn’t the down-town McDonalds where it probably wasn’t in his district. Mr. Stan, for all his money and gifting to big parties and artsy things, is much cheaper than the elder Mr. Novstrup when it comes to buying breakfasts for people.
Mr. Novstrup has his job cut out for him, indeed, but few can step up against these sorts of challenges like he. I expect we will hear much from Al Novstrup during the sessions this year. He is in some position of power and probably will wield it in many directions we have not yet fathomed.
Cory, I don’t look at it that way. These places needed to be closed and a community-based system developed. Those in the community know the situation best, so they are better situated to deliver services, but they often don’t have adequate funding. Funding was always tight, but it’s gotten tighter.
I rarely dealt with funding issues in South Dakota, but I assume most states are similar. A lot of funding for individuals comes through federal Social Security disability payments, some through federal/state Medicaid payments. In Wisconsin, state/counties contribute payments to provide supported employment and community integration services, and add to housing support. The Division of Vocation Rehabilitation will provide job searching support, job coaching if necessary for a specified period of time. Many folks get TANF and some get rent subsidies. Most clients have help to manage their finances provided by a separate agency, called Fiscal Assistance. It is a complicated system, which is probably why the state wanted to simplify it.
In our county, we have vocational only and residential only non-profits that compete for clients. Goodwill, of course, is a vocational agency for DD and TBI, but we also have residential services for mentally ill populations. We hire some of our clients to work in our retail and production areas, but our goal is to train people for work in other jobs in the community and to support them after they are trained. Most cannot work more than a 4 hours a day, many for much less, due to their disability. We do not allow our clients to work for under minimum wage, and some of our people work for above $12/hour.
With Family Care the state is taking power away from counties. Goodwill will lose money, because Family Care won’t pay for community integration. That means people will go to their jobs, then back home, where they will sit alone for the rest of the day. Some will probably go to new day centers, but those haven’t been fully developed yet, and it was supposed to roll out in October. That, apparently, is not a priority for the bureaucrats. The new system is going to cause increased behavioral problems and police calls. So, costs will be the same, but shifted to law enforcement rather than paying staff to oversee five or six clients as they exercise or watch a movie.
I retired so I don’t have to deal with all the ramifications of Family Care. I’ve heard implementation has been delayed because there are all sorts of issues.
I apologize and stand corrected in that I misread the above editorial and assumed Aspire is a “for profit” CSP.
I agree, Donald, and Bjorkman does, too: we are better off with those facilities closed, and local communities are better equipped to care for their neighbors in need. However, local communities also lack the resources, and the state appears not to have redirected its own resources to support the local providers.
Can the state offer funding to our non-overlapping CSPs without going down the authoritarian Wisconsin road and trying to control them?
Jivin, no sweat—my original language invited such a mis-reading.
Cory, There are always some inefficiencies in human services work that can’t be squeezed out. South Dakota runs a very, very tight ship. I do know that it sometimes looks as if a lot of money is going to the top-end administrators. So, if South Dakota is having problems, it’s likely due to failure to increase funding at a rate that is necessary. These are responsibilities of South Dakota state government, and shouldn’t require local property tax payers to foot the entire bill. As we saw with teacher salaries, you can’t fund adequate services with just sales and property taxes.