The Cascade City-County Health Department is grappling with ongoing budget challenges as rising costs outpace grant revenues, forcing difficult decisions about programs and staffing.
At Wednesday's Board of Health meeting, Chairman Joe Briggs said the board focused on evaluating grant-funded programs that are not mandated and now operate at a loss.
"Today, for example, there were a number of the grant funds that are showing losses for the year. A certain amount of that is because of the time it takes to get reimbursed for services, but some of them are also structurally out of balance, which means that they are set up to spend more than we derive back," Briggs said.
"We have to make conscious decision about which grants are important enough that we should subsidize that grant to provide that service," Briggs said.
Budget pressures have also affected staffing. Briggs said 19 positions were reduced, mostly through vacancies, and some workers were laid off as part of cost-cutting measures.
"Others have been shifted into other roles. We have a couple of people that are retiring in the near future. We're not likely to immediately replace those positions until we get this all figured out," Briggs said.
The board plans to continue reviewing financial reports and make decisions about which services the health department can sustain going forward.
