Editor’s note: Con Hogan is a member of the Vtdigger.org. He appeared before the House and Senate human services committee on Jan. 20.
Con Hogan, former longtime secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, conveyed a sobering message to lawmakers on Wednesday: If the state cuts $70 million from the Agency of Human Services this year, and $29 million in fiscal year 2012, he estimates Vermont will lose an additional $150 million in matching federal funds for key programs for Vermont’s most vulnerable citizens.
The agency provides aid to needy children and families, long-term care for the elderly, medical care for the poor and psychiatric care for mentally ill Vermonters.
“This will mean a reduction in services to people in an order of magnitude of a quarter of a billion dollars,” Hogan told a joint House and Senate human services committee hearing. “The Agency of Human services might be responsible for prolonging the recession. It is that big, and I don’t think that’s sunk in yet to any of us at this stage in the game.”
Doug Racine, Senate Health and Human Welfare Committee chairman, quietly retorted, “Perhaps some have figured it out.”
The Douglas administration is proposing to cut $53 million in services and $17 million through the “Challenges for Change” plan in fiscal year 2011 and $29 million in fiscal year 2012.
Hogan’s analysis didn’t come as a shock to members of the Senate committee and the House Human Services Committee. In fact, several members openly concurred with the former secretary’s assessment. Ann Pugh, chairwoman of the House committee, piled on to Racine’s remark. “It’s always good to say what someone else is thinking,” she said.
Racine asked Hogan about how difficult it would be to create a single portal for Vermonters to access services. This “client-centric intake and care management” system was developed under the “Challenges for Change” proposal by lawmakers, members of the administration and the consulting firm, Public Strategies Group.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” Hogan said.
“Can it be done in 18 months?” Racine asked. “No,” Hogan replied. “Six months?” Racine asked. “No,” Hogan said again. Another member of the committee asked, “How about four weeks?” A ripple of laughter went through Room 10, one of the larger committee rooms in the Statehouse.
“It can be done,” Hogan assured the joint committee. “The technology has gotten easier to deal with, but it’s a major investment, and those kinds of investments have to be staged over a period of time.”
He said the agency tried a single portal project for three districts during his tenure as agency secretary in the mid-1990s that failed because the agency wasn’t able to make an adequate investment in technology and other infrastructure changes.
“It takes time, and it takes a culture change, and cultures in big organizations and even small organizations don’t change overnight,” Hogan said.
“To me, some of the stuff in this report just covers a cut, and they’re going to make the cut, and they have to make the cut,” he said. “But it’s not going to be achieved in this kind of timeframe.”
Hogan pointed out that the committee doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel in order to create outcomes under the new “challenges” plan proposed by the Joint Legislative Government Accountability Committee. He suggested that lawmakers look at the set of results-oriented outcomes written into law in the mid-1990s that the administration and lawmakers subsequently ignored.
These outcomes are based on aspirations for individuals within the larger state community, such as thriving children and well-cared-for elderly.
He said the committee could use the outcomes listed in the “Challenges for Change” report as indicators for desired results in human services.
In general, since the mid-1990s, the state has lost some important opportunities to save money and provide better services, Hogan said. One example he cited was the 1994 Zuccaro Commission report. That report stated that Vermont could immediately save $10 million in General Fund monies for incarceration costs through electronic supervision of nonviolent offenders and detentioners.
“That got put on the shelf and (Public Strategies Group is) recommending the same thing,” Hogan said. “If this body and the administration had acted in 1994, there (would be) $60 million on your plate you wouldn’t have to be scrambling for now.”
