A Note From:
IOA Director Victor Marshall
The budget situation has been a preoccupation for me as Director of the Institute on Aging, just has it has been a preoccupation for many of you who read this newsletter, particularly if you are on state funds. As I write, the Governor has just announced a deepening of budget cuts from 7% to 9%. The impact of these on the Institute on Aging is unknown at this time. Fortunately, state funds are only a minority share of our budget, which comes largely from research grants and contracts. Our state budget has now fallen well below its peak of over $600,000 to just over $550,000 but we are able to support operations over the $3,200,000 level because of other funding sources.
The biggest reduction to our programming during the coming year will be our inability to work with our many partners to organize the North Carolina Conference on Aging (see notice in this newsletter). This is not for a lack of funds, as the Conference has become largely self-sufficient through donations, exhibitors, and conference fees. Rather, we cannot hold the Conference because most people are unable to come. The state government has put a hold on all but essential travel and training activities, and most local agencies in the aging network have followed suit. We can afford to have a conference only if people can afford to come to it and donors and exhibitors can afford to support it. We consider the North Carolina Conference on Aging to be a major program area for the Institute on Aging, and we will work with our partners to bring it back as soon as the fiscal conditions allow.
We will also do some scaling back of programs. On the Chapel Hill campus we will be meeting with the leadership team that partners with us to hold the annual research day, The Aging Exchange, to see if we can manage a scaled-back version. Statewide, we will be able to maintain the Senior Leadership Enhancement Intitiative, but with a somewhat smaller intake to the program. Until the budget situation clarifies, we will not seek a replacement for Jim Mitchell in the position of Associate Director for Multi-Campus Initiatives (see news item in this issue) but will try to cover his duties with existing staff.
Our preoccupation is not, however, confined to budget issues. We are primarily concerned about how to meet our mission with reduced resources, and how we can reconfigure our activities and programs to address emerging needs that stem from the difficult economic times. The Institute has always tried to pay a lot of attention to vulnerable populations, and these are times in which vulnerability is increasing. For example, the cuts to the state’s health and community services budget so far amount to $91 million and go far beyond travel restrictions and administrative expenses. The Home and Community Care program that provides services to seniors so they can stay at home and out of more expensive institutions was reduced by $2.5 million. As the Fitzimmons File for February 25 noted, these cuts “will be a starting point. Senate leaders have told their budget writers to cut $500 million out of the health and human services budget, more than five times as much as the cuts that are denying children vaccinations and ending services to fragile senior citizens.”
We are consulting with the Division of Aging and Adult Services and other organizations to explore what we can do to continue to be of service to the aging services network and to North Carolina’s older citizens themselves. I would personally also welcome any ideas from the aging services sector or from other campuses in the UNC system and the independent campuses that participate in NCCAN, the North Carolina College Aging Network. Let me know how you think the Institute could help, perhaps with its communications resources. Please contact me directly at victor_marshall@unc.edu