Disability Centers FINALLY Get Funding

Following up on my posts from here and here, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration has finally decided to give up the 2.5 million last years legislature appropriated to disability agencies.  However, FSSA still bullied the agencies into “agreeing” to some form of “reporting”, which isn’t being explained well.

According to the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel;

FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said state funding to the centers, once as little as $40,000, has grown to the point where the administration and the Legislature needed assurances that taxpayers were getting their money’s worth.

Hmmmm, I guess we really need to thank Sec. Roob for appointing himself disability appropriations god.  I mean, of course the legislature didn’t think they were getting their money’s worth when they passed the measure, nor did the Governor when he signed the legislation.  Hey, I an idea, lets save a bunch of money and get rid of both the legislature and Governor and let Sec. Roob make all the decisions.  Oh wait, he already is!

Roob Continues to Balk, Won’t Pay Up

Back on November 25, 2007 I posted on the Family and Social Services Administration not following legislative directives by withholding payment to  seven centers around the state.  According to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Mitch Roob continues to balk at paying up.  Despite “some movement”, Roob continues to want the centers to contractually agree to goals and objectives and continues the mantra “that a higher level of review [is] attached to the new money”.  Now, this softening is not because Roob felt like being a nice guy.  Apparently, a few legislators are ticked and this has caused Roob to soften somewhat.  However, at least one of the Directors of these centers is talking, and he says Roob is funding the increase, not with money allocated by the legislature, but by funds already available to FSSA.  Those funds, the Blogmeister would guess, probably require the accountability Roob wants from the centers.   Legislators have told the Centers not to sign the contract because if the money the legislature allocated to them is not used, it will revert back to the general fund and will take additional legislation to allocate more.  Therefore, it will not be available in the future.  So, if the centers sign they will get their money, from other sources, this year, but there is no guarantee of future funding. 

The big question here is:  Why won’t Roob fund the centers with the money allocated by the legislature?  My guess is he has access to some big federal dollars he has to use, which require the accountability.  He may not be able to come up with a single program, but by combining a bunch of programs he can get the money.  He can then look like a great guy because he saved the state a bunch of cash.  However, it doesn’t appear, if my guess is correct, that the pile of scratch he can get his hands on is a sure thing in the years to come.  Anyone have any better ideas?