By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Arlington County is planning to slash 30 jobs and make cuts in about 40 human service programs to cover a $7.5 million budget shortfall, officials said yesterday.

The far-ranging service cuts would affect such key programs as housing for the mentally disabled, prescription drugs for seniors, mental health counseling and nutrition services. Longer waiting lists and heavier caseloads for social workers are likely, officials said.

"Real people are going to get hurt. There's no way to sugarcoat it," said Patrick Hope, chairman of Arlington's Community Services Board, a citizen advisory panel.

The plan, which officials said is needed because the state suspended a county funding program, will be completed next month. The cuts will be made administratively and do not require a vote of the County Board.

"It's a serious impact on services because it suspends two programs we were counting on, and it makes reductions across 40-some programs which will have an impact on service levels," Deputy County Manager Marsha Allgeier said yesterday.

A countywide hiring freeze for nonessential workers is also in effect through June, Allgeier said.

Advocates for the mentally disabled and seniors said the proposed cuts would be devastating for the county's neediest residents -- from the loss or delay of a $6.5 million senior care center to limiting elderly residents at Claridge House senior home to $7 boxed dinners instead of family-style meals.

Because of the shortfall, the county will put on hold plans to expand an adult day-care program and to create 400 supportive housing apartments for the mentally disabled by 2009, officials said. Only 42 of the apartments -- where residents live on their own with visits from social workers -- are in place.

Also in jeopardy is Oak Springs, a planned assisted living home for 52 mentally disabled seniors for which the county and a local nonprofit have received a $4.8 million federal grant. It will cost an additional $1.7 million to fix up the building and more than $1 million a year to run it. Now the county does not have that money and might have to return the grant, Allgeier said.

"It's going to be a devastating loss if we can't use Oak Springs," said Carol Skelly, a member of the Community Services Board. "These are people who are becoming too sick or too frail to stay in our existing group-home system and are too poor to find services in the private sector. . . . Our population is aging along with the baby boomers, so it's a rising need and is becoming critical."

Hope questioned the county's spending priorities, noting that the county has a nearly $1 billion budget and several high-dollar building projects underway. News last week that the county might buy a piece of water-view property priced at about $45 million to build its sports complex "makes me absolutely sick," Hope said.

Arlington officials say the shortfall was the result of a complicated legal dispute between the state and federal officials over reimbursement for foster-care funds. In May, Virginia settled with the federal government for $42 million for improper reimbursements.

As a result, the state suspended two spending plans in Arlington and Fairfax County. A federal inspector general is completing an audit of those plans.

Arlington had aggressively sought federal reimbursements for a variety of new programs. Since 2002, it had billed or was slated to bill the federal government for $33.4 million. Fairfax will lose about $2 million a year but won't have to cut jobs or services, officials have said.

Allgeier said that the county is pursuing other ways to make up the spending gap, such as asking the state for help. It has deferred some of the cuts until February in hopes that some of next year's budget can absorb the losses, she said.