Final county levy may ask just over $1 million for social services

At a special meeting to set the preliminary tax levy, McLeod County Commissioner Paul Wright sent a harrowing message to McLeodians: behave. His words were in response to rising social services costs in the county, responsible for well over half the dollars in the 2019 preliminary levy. The message was that out-of-home placements and foster care costs are on a patterned slope upwards, and both could be avoided if McLeod County parents were more responsible.
Of the county’s proposed 7.1 percent levy increase — amounting to a $1.5 million hike over last year — 67 percent ($1,007,121) is earmarked for rising program costs in the social services department. Thirty-one percent ($466,138.94) is designated for new hires within the attorney’s office (2), jail (3), sheriff’s office (1) and social services department (5).
An impact report on the 2019 McLeod County budget read, “This includes increases in foster care costs, random drug test fees for clients and their children, detoxification services, extended employment, long-term care services, child support services, out-of-home placement, and consolidated chemical dependency treatment. The county also experiences additional child protection/child welfare costs and expenses arising from parental use and abuse of drugs and alcohol.”

(For the complete story, see the Oct. 24 print edition of The Chronicle.)