The three Democratic Candidates are committed to providing a County Health Department for Delaware County.
At a round table discussion on Wednesday, David Landau and John Innelli explored the issue with researcher and professor of communications Dr. Pamela Poe and pharmacist and Chairwoman of the Board of the Delaware County Pharmacists Association Rosemarie Halt. (Ann O'Keefe was out of town.)
There are many opportunities to save public health costs through disease prevention and education, but you can't get the funding without a county health department.
Under various state laws, said Halt, the department would receive half its budget from the state government, plus additional money back per resident and grants for emergency preparedness....
Halt also cited several major instances wherein a county health department would have been useful over the last few years, such as a three-day loss of water at Riddle Memorial Hospital; a contaminated emergency room at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital; numerous sewer problems; and several contagious outbreaks including syphilis and influenza, and fatal cases of Tuberculosis and Meningitis.
And for those of who remember the flu vaccine shortages a few years ago or are worried about future outbreaks, a county health department is the entity we would need make requests for vaccines.
Pete Peterson, campaign director for the Republican county council candidates, and all around wet-blanket regarding progressive initiatives, claimed in an email (to the Times) that such health departments, at an annual cost of about $12 million, actually drain money from counties. But, later, when confronted with Halt's facts that most of the money would come from the state, Peterson whined [my choice of words] that a county health department could increase the annual budget by $4 million to $6 million.
Hey, Peterson, here are some clues for you:
- The all-GOP Delco council budget is $560 million. ($100 million more than Montco)
- An additional 1% of that for a county health department would amount to only a mere $10 per resident.
- But, said Innelli, "consolidation of many of the other county offices (into the department) may in fact result in savings, cost savings" to county government.
- The Democrats can easily trim more than 1% from the current bloated pork-filled budget you, the Delco GOP and your candidates refer to as "the same common sense approach to county government"
So, if voters are proud of Delaware County as having the third highest number of AIDS cases in the state, increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases, and death rates from cancer and stroke exceeding those for all other Pennsylvania counties, then they should vote for the GOP's Three Stooges.
However, if Delco residents are interested in responsible Health Care investment and management by County Council, then DEMOCRATS John Innelli, David Landau and Ann O'Keefe are the team to elect in November.
7 comments:
Looks good David, but I'm willing to bet the county budget has actually went down since we took over Delco Council in '79. (adjusted for inflation, of course)
evan-
I think you would lose that bet.
Somewhere in the material I looked at for my earlier postings about the $560 million, I saw something that said it had risen greater than rate of inflation.
Does anybody out there have a list of the budget numbers?
Pre-emptive strike: If (when) the numbers show budget has risen faster than inflation, GOP will spin that by pointing to some new, popular service and ignoring other unnessary services.
However, they still can't explain the more than 50% per capita costs for Delco resident over Montco and the high level of GOP contributors in patronage jobs.
Once you factor out all of the federal and state pass throughs -- ie) mandated social services like drug counseling, mental health, mental retardation, etc, the County's budget is actually much less than other suburban counties. All these federal and state programs do not cost county taxpayers a single dime -- and instead reflect an aging population, etc.
Should the County reject funds for mental retardation just so they cna claim they cut the budget. Of course not, there are peopel that depend on that state money. This is why the Democrat's argument is so ridiculous.
Just because you say something over and over again David does not make it true.
Pre-emptive strike -- David will try to cite only Montco numbers but conveniently leave out Chester and Bucks figures becuase they prove my point that Delco's is actually lower.
Tracked down the numbers. Of that $560 million operating budget, $350 million is state and federal mandated spending programs (drugs, menatal health, social services, etc). As mentioned above, these are fed and state pass thoughs that are not paid for by county taxes.
Compare the new figure after subtracting similar pass throughs for the other suburban counties and what do you get?
Delco = $12 million less than Montco
Delco = $18 million less than Chesco
Delco = $20 million less than Bucks
The Dems are hoping that voters are too lazy or not smart enough to figure out the truth. Pretty disgusting approach to "debating" the issues.
Ok David,
I did a little research, and I think I owe you one. According to the Inquirer, the general fund was $81.5M in 1981 which would equal about $174M in today's economy (I used an online inflation calculator I'm somewhat skeptical of)
The current budget is around $290M, so I guess your looking at a significant increase.
It still looks like the other counties are lower though.
Delco-
Chester county is the wealthiest county in Pennsylvania. It has a 25% higher income per capita that Delco and a poverty rate of 5.2% whereas Delco has poverty level of 8.0%.
Montco's population is MUCH higher than Delco's and if you take the budget numbers and divide by the population, we are STILL paying more per person than Montco.
The Bucks also has a larger population than Delco and an average 10% higher per capita income. The Bucks budget didn't break out the state/federal, so I couldn't make the comparison.
TWO interesting points:
Bucks,Chestco and Montco need only 3 commissioners each to run their bipartisan County Councils. How come we need 5 members of the same party to run ours? (especially when the all vote the same way anyhow)
Why are we spending so much more State/Federal money per capita? How much of that is going to Salaries for GOP appointees and contracts for GOP contributors? Are we spending the money wisely or handing it out to cronies?
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