SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki, right, awaits his appearance before the House Appropriations Committee in January. He’s joined by the department’s legislative liaison, Gary Haulmark, center, and chief of staff, Jeff Kahrs. by phil_cauthon
TOPEKA — A top official from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services has told mental health advocates that the agency plans to eliminate several grants and contracts effective July 1 as part of an ongoing cost-cutting initiative.
Rick Shults, SRS’ director of mental health services, provided a list of the targeted services to members of the Kansas Mental Health Coalition last week.
“All of us are very concerned,” said Amy Campbell, the coalition’s executive director. “We all knew something like this was coming and that this list is just a piece of the bigger picture. But it’s a picture that, at this point, none of us can see. We don’t know where SRS is taking us.”
None of the individual grantees or contractors on the list have been notified in writing of the planned funding cuts, she said.
Eliminating the grants and contracts is expected reduce the department’s draw on the State General Fund by almost $940,000; $1.3 million all funds.
Last month, Gary Haulmark, director of legislative affairs at SRS, said the department needed to cut almost $40 million from its all-funds budget.
Continue reading at khi.org.
Tagged: srs mental health grants Social Rehabilitation Services Siedlecki
Comments
Bob_Loblaw (anonymous) says…
Start by cutting the salary of SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki ($115,000....see: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/mar...)
Also in that article..."Siedlecki said that after the Legislature finalized the SRS budget, he would reallocate funds to faith-based initiatives..."
I guess they all can just pray to Jesus to remove the 'demons from their minds'....
hartcindy (Cindy Hart) says…
Locally, it's still not clear what these cuts are going to mean to the Bert Nash Center. We're hoping that will be more apparent by the end of this week. As Dave Johnson, CEO of the Bert Nash Center said in this post: http://wellcommons.com/groups/bert-na... , the only thing that we're sure of is that the "changing environments" portion of our mission is definitely in play in 2011.
And the hits keep coming by David Johnson