NASHVILLE-Discussions about the cumulative impact of Tennessee budget cuts took a dramatic turn Wednesday when the state's mental health services chief likened pending reductions to lopping off a finger.
Mental Health Commissioner Doug Varney used the graphic image while describing to new Gov. Bill Haslam what would happen if $16 million is cut from safety-net services.
The figure includes $11.5 million in previous cuts to community mental health services that had been put off until July 1 by federal stimulus funds and budget reserves. Those include $1.3 million in crisis services to help the seriously mentally ill.
Another $4.5 million in possible cuts would affect community mental health and alcohol and drug services. A comprehensive approach is necessary, Varney said, instead of slashing spending across the board.
"We can't just keep cutting little pieces of finger off," Varney told Haslam. "Pretty soon the hands won't work. I think we may have to decide to cut a finger off here or there. At least the hands will still work."
Haslam noted that Varney had made similar comments in private conversations with him.
"The picture works," Haslam said. "What you're hearing from us is, you're going to have to tell us what that looks like."
Varney, a Haslam appointee, later said likening cuts to amputations "is probably not the best analogy." But he said in recent years the state has "tried to shave, shave and cut little pieces" of programs and funding.
"It was a crude one, but I think it does graphically illustrate the pain that's associated because these are real people and real lives," he said.
Haslam told reporters Varney is right.
"Eventually if you keep cutting off enough of your fingers, you won't have any fingers that work," he said. "Or maybe you say we totally redesign how we're doing things."
Haslam said mental health's problems illustrate what many areas of state government face as federal stimulus funds dry up. State reserves cannot be expected to carry the load, he said.
Later in the day, Fred Hix, assistant commissioner of the new Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, described how planned 3 percent reductions would affect the state's only center where judges can send mentally retarded people to see if they are competent to stand trial.
Closing the center, which would save the state $6.9 million annually, would be an "injustice," Hix told the governor.
Earlier, Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons warned that Tennesseans could see 35 fewer highway patrol officers on roads and find 26 fewer workers at driver's license stations under $4 million in possible budget cuts at that agency.
"The impact ... would be a significant reduction in coverage by the highway patrol and an increase in wait times at our driver license centers," Gibbons said.
He cautioned it would "stretch us" if troopers, including eight lieutenants, were laid off.