March 20, 2008: The Indiana General Assembly passed sweeping property tax legislation that was signed into law this week. While it caps all property taxes by one of three categories for all residents, the legislators did include language that preserves the permissive funding of programs for citizens with developmental disabilities. Originally the current option was eliminated. This was a huge issue for CDC and almost every other non-profit provider in the state – for us we get roughly 5% of our total budget from the five principle counties served by the agency. These critical dollars underwrite our transportation service losses, sustains the quality of all of our services and enables us to serve people who are desperate for services but must wait their turn on a waiting list. We are delighted in the support we had from area legislators in supporting this exception.

The problem still remains long-term for all community rehabilitation facilities because as the counties adjust to the restrictions of the property tax it will be difficult for local elected officials to continue funding organizations like CDC in the future. While counties could continue to support our agency it becomes a struggle over how to allocate a smaller pie. We know of no county that wants to trim our funding but also recognize that we stand to lose if the options are public safety personnel or our narrower but key mission. We are going to work diligently with each of our counties to seek local solutions during the current year. With the property tax cap rolling out over the next two years we have time to craft strategies that would preserve this essential base of program support.

At the federal level there is grave concern about our country’s fiscal woes. The most recent budget sent to Congress from the administration essentially proposed the elimination of Medicaid funding for day services – that would close all of our adult services except for the group homes. Whether a political ploy or not I resent consumers placed into the crossfire of party maneuvering. It appears as if these recommendations will not gain traction but deficit federal spending continues and could well lead to reduced service funding in the near future regardless of our next President. As our state and national economy weakens it puts all human services in a more vulnerable position.

December 3, 2007: The Board, staff and consumers are extremely excited that, after three frustrating attempts, the organization was a recipient of a Community Focus Fund grant in Rensselaer for $414,000 to replace the old part of our roof, expand/upgrade the parking lot, add a children’s classroom and expand space for adult services. Jasper County government sponsored this effort. Match funds came from CDC’s replacement reserve and the Jasper Foundation.

Now we are finalizing the plans before the architect converts them into working drawings for bid. We are shooting for a spring groundbreaking and fall completion. Stay tuned.

The celebration continues further south where the Carroll County BZA unanimously approved the multi-agency service facility proposed by North Central Health Services (NCHS). CDC will be an active beneficiary of this project which will house our Heartland offices and provide meeting space for county residents joining with other tenants – Area IV Council on Aging, Family Health Clinic of Carroll County, WIC and CAP of Western Indiana.

July 23, 2007: After much work, CDC has finally unveiled its new website to give it a fresher look, make it more informative and easier to navigate than our previous website. There may be a few elements under construction but we are too close to not make the site available to the community. We have new information on Access Housing and are setup to maintain more timely updates than in the past. We have also done a lot to keep staff more informed of training and HR information.

Mid-summer 2007: CDC is fully involved with the OASIS project that is being rolled out in Area IV as a pilot. Area IV is a strangely shaped service area that includes Bloomington, Terre Haute, Lafayette and the counties of Benton, Carroll and White. The state expects this to be fully operational next July and that is when we will find out if it can deliver funding in a more equitable and streamlined manner as hoped – so far so good.

We are busy overhauling Day Services components to improve flexibility and outcomes. This is also part of a major agency-wide effort to improve quality and customer service. Continuous improvement is required within the organization – we owe it to our customers, the mission and our community.