Hit by what Victoria Bryant called “the double whammy” – declining revenue and rising expenses, the Arc of St. Charles would have to start shutting down programs within three years without help.
“There’s so much stuff – it’s just overwhelming,” said Bryant, Arc executive director, of a budget crunch that has steadily pushed its $3 million budget into the red since 2010.
The first program to be cut would likely be the Cajun Village Square Thrift Store, which serves as a work program for Arc clients who have developmental and intellectual disabilities, and special needs.
“We could not afford that building,” Bryant said. “The services would have to be cut and then the clients would have to stay at home.”
Although the nonprofit organization has been able to deal with deficits through cost cutting and fundraisers in recent years, Bryant said that was when the shortfall was manageable. But this year, she said, auditor Pat Bowes advised that, without new funding to address the “unfunded mandates,” the Arc would have to slash services and even possibly close the doors.
The Arc’s deficit started at $17,616 in 2010, steadily grew to $34,927 in 2012, jumped to $232,376 in 2014 and is projected to hit $260,325 this year, according to Bowe’s audit. With savings eroded by the deficits, Bryant said they looked for options and observed the Arc of St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany ARC were getting financial assistance through property taxes. This is when Bryant presented Arc’s audit and a request for a .7-mill tax to the St. Charles Parish Council, which is approved to be placed on the May 2 special election ballot.
The council agreed, but it also asked how the situation got to this point.
“People seem to think we ask for a lot, but we work very hard,” Bryant said. “All the budget cuts over all these years took us to this point – having used savings and used fundraisers. So, we have pretty much exhausted what we considered savings to offset the budget cuts.”
Since 2006, she said the nonprofit cut wherever possible and avoided expenditures where possible, but runaway costs just kept coming.
“We cut back. We cut wages and benefits,” Bryant said. “We cut costs and did fundraisers and used more volunteers. We have a lot of dedicated staff who will get the job done by any means necessary. We’re fighting, asking the people of St. Charles Parish to support this program.”
This is what voters will decide when they pull the lever on a property tax for Arc.
If they approve, the 10-year tax would provide $843,000 a year from 2015 through 2024. Projected budget numbers show a $21,030 surplus by next year, a figure that would grow to $58,480 by 2019.
Kelly Serrett, executive director of the Arc of Louisiana, said the Arc budget crunch from unfunded mandates is “absolutely a problem” and so much so that she is concerned they will force closures. “They are getting paid less and less and are expected to do more and more.”
An example is medication administration, which required hiring a nurse to ensure medications are administered appropriately to Arc clients. Serrett called it “a good thing,” but it required hiring a nurse, which was “a huge expense.”
Additionally, Arcs were hit by the companion rule that required direct support professionals be paid overtime.“When all of these start adding up, what I’m afraid of, for Arcs in these rural areas is they will have to close down,” Serrett said.
The companion law effective this year mandated Arc staff be paid overtime rate after 40 hours, which Bryant said actually hurt their pay.
“There are people out there saying it wasn’t fair to the staff, but they didn’t realize the additional income helped the staff,” she said. “Few companies are allowing their people to make more than 40 hours, but it benefited them and, as a result effective June 1, that overtime is gone.”These workers received a low wage so it helped them to make extra money even though it was straight pay, Bryant said.
“We’ve done everything and we’re exhausting the little money we had in savings,” Bryant said. “What people don’t realize is we employee people with disabilities to work on these crews, but they require paying more people to do the job. It’s needed to give them opportunities.”
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