The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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July 11, 2012

Our View: Counties should continue to cooperate

The Free Press

— An innovative program to reduce county human service spending and still deliver needed services experienced a setback recently when several counties decided to pull out of the cooperative effort.

Human service leaders have been working on a joint venture for three years that would pool the efforts of 12 southeastern Minnesota counties and save county taxpayers about $30 million over five years.

Waseca County was part of the group, which also included Rice, Olmsted, Freeborn, Mower and several other southeastern Minnesota counties. Waseca, Steele, Dodge, Freeborn and Mower counties are still willing to give the joint operation a try. There are plenty of reasons for Waseca County and others to stick with the idea and make a smaller cooperative if necessary.

The proposal called for reducing duplicative staff from about 850 to 700 employees, through attrition. It also  was experimenting with different methods of service that were less labor intensive, but still useful and helpful to clients.

All the human service programs require a certain amount of expertise, and some proponents argue that a large cooperative group would allow the hiring of such expertise to deliver services with more efficiency and higher quality.

A Bush Foundation study showed that savings for the entire project would be about $60 million over five years, half going to counties and half to federal and state funding. The program has been an ambitious experiment being watched by county associations, foundations and other human service providers.

The project also can look to a cooperative program in southwestern Minnesota started in 1973 that has been operating successfully for decades. Pipestone County recently voted to join the Southwest Health and Human Services cooperative because it works, saves money and delivers services better than one county alone could do, say county human service officials.

County elected officials seem to be the biggest roadblock to the cooperative efforts. Many worry about job losses for their counties and loss of their authority and control on human services. In the southeast initiative, Olmsted County officials voted against joining in part because of a proposal that called for decisions by a one-county, one-vote rule that would reduce their authority while they would be paying about half the bill.

Still, organizers will be pressing on and determining the next step at a meeting Thursday.

They should do all they can to keep this kind of cooperative effort going, even if on a smaller scale. Delivering human services makes up about one-third of county spending and with an aging population, demand for services is only likely to grow.

Cooperative efforts can work. It’s not easy, but it will be a long-run value for the taxpayers, and that is who county officials should have in mind when they decide on moving forward.

 

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