CYFD head predicting cruel service cuts

Another state agency is firing off dire warnings about what will happen if 7 percent budget cuts approved by the New Mexico Legislature go through.

The head of the Children, Youth and Families Department says the cuts she'd have to make would be, "bone-chilling" and "draconian."

CYFD Secretary Dorian Dodson said foster parents, juvenile lockups and department social workers who investigate child-abuse cases all have to brace themselves for hard times.

Foster parents could lose mileage money they now get to take kids to school, or to special programs, she added.

At the YDDC lockup in Albuquerque, Dodson said she fears there will be no money for a critical plan to fix up and rebuild cottages for juvenile inmates to make them feel more like home and less like jail.

“If we cannot do renovations on the cottages at YDDC, we're going to be asking for volunteers to come in and help us paint,” Dodson said.

The secretary added if more kids come into the system at the lockup needing help, she’ll even cover a shift cleaning the kitchen.

But she said she also worries most about her probation officers and social workers who face more work and nine days of unpaid furloughs. That’s the equivalent of a 4 percent pay cut

“At a time when are services are needed most, our resources are decreased,” Dodson said. “And our families are stressed at work and in their own personal lives.”

Dodson said her staffers will try to step up to the challenge of doing more with less but added that with the possible cut of $15 million from her budget the department cannot keep up the same level of social services.

Two days ago it was the state Human Services talking about cuts, and on Wednesday it was Department of Corrections.

All these agencies work in the executive branch under the Gov. Bill Richardson who has been critical of the budget cuts lawmakers worked out in the recent special session of the Legislature.

Legislators interviewed by KRQE News 13 have said that with the governor pressuring them not to cut education, that tied their hands in trying to cover the $650 million shortfall in state income already approved for spending in the current budget year.

Richardson has until Nov. 12 to sign, veto or line-item veto the budget-cutting bills passed by the Legislature.