The Capitol Region Council of Governments is asking the state health department not to pursue a proposal to require all towns to join regional health departments, saying that towns’ costs would soar without receiving additional services.
The Department of Public Health is considering proposing legislation to consolidate the state’s 73 current health departments, which include individual towns and municipal groups, by county.
In a letter to health Commissioner Raul Pino, CRCOG Chairperson Stewart “Chip” Beckett cites “a number of concerns” that CRCOG’s board has with the proposal.
“The CRCOG municipalities fail to see any clear benefit to the state and its residents regarding this proposal,” Beckett wrote in the letter sent Wednesday.
The proposal could have a significant impact on town budgets, Beckett, a Glastonbury Republican, said.
Most pressingly, it would sharply increase the amount a given town would pay to receive health services. Each town would pay up to 1.5 percent of its overall budget, under the current proposal. In Man-chester, for instance, the budget for health services would leap from about $850,000 this year to approximately $2.75 million.
“The major areas of concern are that the demonstration of benefits to municipalities and our residents has not been clearly defined,” Beckett writes, “and that the costs are much higher than current expenditures, which will have a negative budget impact in very tight fiscal times.
“In many cases, costs will triple or quadruple or more beyond current costs,” he says. “At a time when the state and municipalities are already facing considerable financial pressures, this is an added unnecessary burden on local governments and taxpayers.
“Such a major increase in costs should have a demonstrated increase in benefits but we do not see such clear benefits in the proposal,” Beckett writes. He adds that the proposed governance structure “diminishes the role of municipal officials, which will disconnect the proposed districts from the elected leadership.”
CRCOG also is concerned that the consolidation of the health departments would lead to leadership changes, saying that regional health directors would be chosen by the state department and Pino, giving towns less direct control.
Further, Beckett says that CRCOG municipalities generally receive “excellent service” from their current health departments, especially as several “raise and use their funds to address issues specific to their residents.”
Beckett cites the Farmington Valley Health District Board, noting its increase in staffing to ensure effective inspection as more food service businesses open. If a larger community is responsible for such decisions, key issues in towns could go overlooked, he said.
CRCOG, an organization of elected officials in the Hartford area, also is concerned that current expectations of regionalization will “de-grade some services currently offered and performed” by health districts and departments. Any concerns with current health department services should be dealt with individually, Beckett writes, as reworking them on a larger scale may not be an effective use of resources.
CRCOG also said local municipalities haven’t had input into the proposal and the significant changes should include all parties and without discussion, “the process becomes adversarial or unproductive.”
“CRCOG operates or supports a large number of successful regional programs and services and was not invited to suggest improvements” as the proposal’s development was underway, Beckett writes.
A chief worry cited by health professionals when the idea was first discussed was the dissolution of important cross-department relationships and a fracturing of networks among towns and regions, and Beckett echoes them.
“The health districts that are currently in place represent years of effort to build trust among communities,” he says. “To reorganize the districts by fiat … would both damage these relationships and discourage voluntary efforts,” as towns’ partners would be subject to change by legislative action.
If the state goes forward with the plans, it would “raise property taxes on the Connecticut residents, further stressing the finances of already distressed communities, without offering clear benefits to those communities,” Beckett concludes. “The proposal is unacceptable.”
