Letters on county cuts, KANSEL, health department, consolidation

County budget cuts could limit city

As a recently elected Wichita City Council member, I’ve spent the past three months intensively learning about operations, challenges and our collective future. It’s clear to me that what’s good for Wichita is typically good for the region. However, proposed budget cuts by Sedgwick County for 2016 have the potential to limit city of Wichita plans and services next year.

I understand what the majority of the commission is trying to do, and it’s admirable. But I’ve never known a group or business that’s been able to cut itself to prosperity. It’s an unpopular thing to do and often doesn’t have the desired long-term effect.

On the other hand, when you invest in people, organizations and community, great things happen. I believe the Wichita region is ready for great things. Our residents and businesses are demanding improvements, growth and progress. It’s our job as elected leaders to make sure needs and community visions are brought to reality.

The county budget recommendations certainly don’t help our bottom line. We’ll have to adjust accordingly. As we seek answers, possible solutions might not be popular with our counterparts across Central. But our actions need to be in the best interests of citizens. I’ll continue to be an advocate for communicating and working together to maximize resources, financial responsibility and building relationships for a better Wichita.

Fund KANSEL

Though KANSEL is one of several organizations whose funding is proposed to be eliminated in the 2016 Sedgwick County budget, it is unique in its mission to economically empower students through education.

In Sedgwick County, more than 44,000 adults are without a high school diploma. About 25,000 adults are without functional English skills. U.S. Census data shows that a wage earner without a high school diploma will earn 28 percent less than a person with one.

KANSEL aims to help these residents and, thus, enhance the economy. For the past 17 years, Sedgwick County funding has provided at-risk juveniles with the opportunity to prepare for and take the General Educational Development test at KANSEL. Though 63 percent of these students have a criminal history, nearly all (98 percent) have not recommitted a crime while at KANSEL.

What will happen to these students should the program go away? Please encourage county commissioners to restore the $84,500 in funding to KANSEL.

Perfect timing

The “wind-driven chimes” are begging for local city-county consolidation. Recent events, I believe, prove that “we the people, the government” would fare far better with a unified local government. Bureaucracy overhead cost would drastically decrease. The national trend of consolidating local government will not only continue but accelerate. The timing is perfect.

Shortsighted cuts

Recent actions by three Sedgwick County commissioners seem shortsighted. The Sedgwick County Health Department has for years been an active partner in assuring that women are able to access quality health care. Susan G. Komen has been providing funding since 1990 to community clinics, including the health department, for breast health services. The health department is an active partner with the state program Early Detection Works, which pays for breast and cervical cancer screening for uninsured women.

One of the positions on the budget reduction hit list is a medical assistant who supports breast and cervical cancer screenings. Nearly all, if not all, of the services provided by this position are rebilled to the state Early Detection Works program. Over the past year, more than 550 women were able to access these important services through the health department. A cancer detected early is a cancer that is treatable with a much higher success rate.

Many families regard the health department as their path to good health. Elimination of any of the services provided by the health department is turning a blind eye to the health of our community.

Work threatened

Wichita and Sedgwick County are fortunate to have many partners whose mission is to improve or support the health of the community. At the forefront of this effort has been the Sedgwick County Health Department. But the proposed budget reductions by the Sedgwick County Commission threaten its work.

The Wichita Medical Research and Education Foundation’s mission is to promote research, education and community efforts to improve the health of Kansans. The foundation supports a strong and robust community effort and believes that is best led by a strong health department. Its work (health screenings, public education and immunization programs) creates an environment to educate and provide services to many in our community, and not just the uninsured among us. Equally important, the data gathering of the county health staff provides a clearinghouse of pertinent information for clinician and researcher use when responding to disease outbreaks, identifying priorities, and developing programs to improve the health of all county citizens. These are core functions of a modern health department.

A strong and adequately funded county health department is the backbone to a healthy community.

This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Letters on county cuts, KANSEL, health department, consolidation."