GOPs screw Milwaukee again, this time on child services that Walker messed up

In last night’s Joint Finance Committee meeting, one of the departments that was discussed was the Department of Children and Families. And it led to an ugly exchange between two committee members that divided on “Milwaukee vs outstate” lines.

Rep. Evan Goyke called the GOP plan "screwing" over the county while Sen. LaTonya Johnson said it wasn't fair.

"Seventy-two percent of this state's poor resides in Milwaukee," Johnson said. "Milwaukee always finds itself at the front and center of the firing squad, yet we can't figure out why Milwaukee doesn't have the resources that it needs to take care of its own poor."

But Republican lawmakers on the Legislature's finance committee said it's the state's support for Milwaukee County's child protective services that isn't fair when costs to provide child protective services in other counties are skyrocketing. The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services is the only child welfare department in the state to be administered by the state Department of Children and Families and not county officials.

"We should be asking why you are not thanking us," Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said about state funds paid by taxpayers elsewhere going to Milwaukee's child protective services.

"You say it's been a screwing of Milwaukee. I'd say it's been a screwing in the opposite direction and we're going to stop that tonight," he said to Goyke.

No one understands urban life like this guy

So what happened here? If you look at the multi-part budget motion that GOPs on Joint Finance sprung on the rest of us last night, it includes the following segment as part of a bill that otherwise added $30 million in funding to aids to local communities that DCF gives out.

Further, modify Milwaukee County's contribution for child welfare services provided by the Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) as follows. Under current law, Milwaukee County contributes $58,893,500 per fiscal year for the provision of DMCPS services, primarily through the reduction from state aid and shared revenue payments to the county. Modify Milwaukee's contribution from $58,893,500 to the greater of that amount or the amount in the schedule for the child welfare services aids appropriation for providing services to children and families in a county having a population of 750,000 or more. Based on the funding provided under the bill for DMPCS child welfare services aids, the amounts in that appropriation would exceed the prior contribution amount of $58,893,500, and thereby reducing shared revenue payments, by $6,824,500 in 2020 and by $7,599,100 in 2021. Estimate GPR lapse from the sum sufficient appropriation of $6,824,500 in 2020-21 and an additional GPR lapse outside the biennium of $7,599,100 in 2021-22.

In other words, the state would raise its funding to all areas of Wisconsin (including Milwaukee County). But only Milwaukee County will have that increased aid offset by having its general shared revenues cut by the same amount. So basically, next to NOTHING of this $30 million increase will go to Milwaukee.

How can they single out the state’s largest county? Let’s take a step back and look at how the state’s child welfare system works, and why Milwaukee’s situation is a unique case in the state. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s budget paper on the Children and Families local aids program explains it well.

In Wisconsin, the child welfare system is county-operated and state-supervised, except in Milwaukee County, where the system is administered by the Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) in the Department of Children and Families (DCF). All county and state child welfare systems operate under the same federal and state laws, regulations, and standards. Eleven tribes in Wisconsin also provide child welfare services directly based on their tribal codes, policies, and tribal practices, although many have written agreements with county agencies.

Each county has its own child welfare system that includes the county department of human or social services (except in Milwaukee County), the courts, and other agencies that provide services to children and their families. The child protective services unit in each county department is responsible for providing services to abused and neglected children. The responsibility for the care of children in the system is shared between the juvenile court and the county department of human services or social services. Child welfare services are provided to Native American children by tribal social services departments.

Quick reminder, the reason Milwaukee County isn’t allowed to do things on their own is because the state took it over in 1998 following claims of mismanagement and understaffing. The state then had to sign on to a corrective action plan in 2009 after the well-publicized death of 13-month-old Chris Thomas. State officials failed to make required home visits to check up on Chris, who was killed by his abusive aunt after being placed with her in foster care in 2008, and the plan required improved staffing and services for the state office at that time.

But it turns out that DCF services still weren’t keeping up with needs in Milwaukee during the Walker years. So much so that the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) had to step in and tell the state to shape up. Take a look at this section of the LFB paper on DCF services.

13. Overall, DHHS determined that Wisconsin was not in substantial conformance with any of the seven outcome areas and only one of the seven systemic factors. The final CFSR report found an increase in reports of maltreatment related to parental substance abuse, but that achieving permanency was affected by a lack of family engagement and an inadequate array of services, including wait lists for inpatient and outpatient substance abuse treatment, housing, transportation, and visitation facilitators. Further, based on interviews conducted as part of the CFSR, the report identified a severe shortage of foster homes and noted that the number of residential beds in Wisconsin to care for children with complex needs has decreased, increasing the need to send children out of the state to receive services.

14. In response to the CFSR, DCF is developing a program improvement plan (PIP) to address the areas identified as needing improvement and submitted a preliminary plan to DHHS in December, 2018. In the preliminary PIP submitted to DHHS for review, DCF stated that the increase in workload and caseloads on child welfare workers is the major root cause of any weaknesses in performance on case practice items identified in the CFSR.

We were warned....

I was also reminded of this lawsuit that was filed in federal court against Walker’s hacks right before the November 2018 elections. Especially because it came from another GOP hack.

A former state Department of Children and Families civil service employee claims she was unlawfully terminated for political reasons — including speaking out against sexual harassment and declining to provide false data — according to a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Deanna Alexander, a conservative Milwaukee County Board supervisor, claims her ouster in June after less than two years as a section chief in DCF’s Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services was retaliation for statements against a political ally of Republican Gov. Scott Walker and for her refusal to report false data relating to the state’s compliance with a court order…
DCF is required to provide quarterly reports to Children’s Rights and semiannual reports to the public on topics relating to case management and abuse and neglect in Milwaukee’s child welfare system.

Alexander said on April 12 she found inaccurate information in the report, but when she alerted the report’s author and later [DCF Legal counsel Mary] Burke (note, this is not the 2014 Dem candidate for governor), she was told the data were final and the department would have to tell Children’s Rights the numbers were correct, which Alexander believed to be fraud. [Alexander’s supervisor] corroborated the account.

The lawsuit says when a Children’s Rights lawyer in a meeting asked Alexander about the inaccurate figures, she deferred the question to Burke, who told the lawyer there was an oversight and that the numbers were incorrect.

So in typical GOP fashion, they have underfunded needed services, especially in the majority-minority city they love to demonize to their rube constituents. And then they punish that city to try to continue the cycle of decline and economic apartheid so mediocre white people like themselves can whine about “THOSE PEOPLE” and feel better about themselves.

You wonder why Milwaukee is losing population and why our state was 39th for job growth with this type of mentality being central to GOP “strategy” on social services the last 8 years? Talk about a screw job.