The budget slashing proposed by County Mayor Jim Coppinger, and likely to be adopted Thursday morning by the County Commission, won’t just zero out funding for the county’s most vital civic-service agencies. It will effectively bleed out the heart of county government here and the varied social services that have become a hallmark of compassion and aid in the times of need for so many families here.
The cuts will leave only the inert shell of bureaucratic functionality. The county will still fill potholes and resurface some roads, staff the jail and sheriff’s patrol, replace street signs, keep the courthouse open and audit the constitutional offices that fill that space.
But it won’t provide a dime’s worth of social services for people and families in crisis or those with special needs, nor will it do anything to lift its constituents’ spirits. In fact, it will effectively gut, for the first time in the memory of most residents here, the very services that show any broad concern for the well being of county government’s constituents and taxpayers.
True, the county plans to still provide reduced funding for the state-mandated health department. But the cruel new budget would decimate the essential core of helpful social services that for long decades have demonstrated this county’s compassionate spirit and constructive help in both immediate crises and long-term services. Alongside that, it will also gut funding for the half-dozen agencies under the Allied Arts umbrella that often unveil the first rays of artistic endeavor into the lives of our most disadvantaged children.
Many of the agencies that now seem destined to have their county funding completely terminated have been household names for years.