SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
July 9, 2024
Sullivan’s Salvos 7/11/24
In this edition:
*General Mills
*John Deere
*A Rotten Mental Health Decision!
*Did You Know?
*General Mills
General Mills just paid a $300 million dividend to investors. Then they bought back $150 million worth of stock, enriching top management and their largest investors. They pay their CEO $16 million per year. General Mills earned $2.1 BILLION in profits last year.
Now they are raising the price of cereal 20%, blaming “inflation.” It’s bullshit! Joe Biden has nothing to do with this – greedy corporations do!
*John Deere
John Deere recently announced that they are cutting 610 jobs at 3 Iowa locations and moving production to Mexico. In 2023, Iowa gave it’s largest-ever Research Activities Credit to John Deere - $14.5 million. That is a flat out subsidy from the State of Iowa.
So, Kim Reynolds – are we going to ask for that money back? That is not hypothetical – we deserve our money back!
*A Rotten Mental Health Decision!
I was extremely angry over a recent decision of our Mental Health Regional Governing Board.
Here is some background from the 2-1-24 edition of Salvos:
Last Saturday I went to an open house at Healing Prairie Farm just southeast of Iowa City. It is a beautiful setting, and I am excited about all the good things that can happen there. Healing Prairie Farm will be a basic youth shelter, and also provide child crisis observation services.
First, some background… for decades, Iowa City was home to a youth shelter. It was run first by Youth Homes, and after a merger, by Four Oaks. Youth shelters are an important piece of the continuum of care. There is currently some very limited counseling for kids who need it. There is juvenile court for kids who get in trouble with the law, and juvenile detention for kids who get in very serious trouble with the law.
But what about the children who really need to get away from home, but have not committed a crime? There are scores of kids in Johnson County who just need a place to go for a little while. The youth shelter used to fill this need. Unfortunately, Four Oaks was no longer able to make the youth shelter work financially, and it closed in July.
There is also a void when it comes to children’s mental health services. Ask any parent who has had to deal with a child’s brain health issues – there is very little out there. The State of Iowa has been talking about children’s mental health for over 30 years, but has never really done anything. Recently, the East Central Mental Health Region (ECR) (of which Johnson County is a part) made some money available for children’s mental health. As a member of the ECR Board, I was extremely proud to make this funding available.
So kids with shelter and/or mental health needs in Johnson County were going to be even more desperate. CommUnity Crisis Services and United Action for Youth decided to step into this void. They decided to open a facility to serve both general shelter and crisis observation mental health needs for local youth. And as luck would have it, they were able to purchase the former Kinderfarm property just southeast of Iowa City. Kinderfarm was a longtime area daycare that featured a pond and a bunch of farm animals. The animals even came with the property as part of the deal!
They got $1 million from the ECR for the purchase, which was great. But refurbishing the old house, adding sprinklers, etc. was more than anticipated. If they wanted to get it done, they would need another million. The ECR said no, it was not in the budget. So Johnson County stepped forward with the $1 million, and asked the ECR to consider paying us back if there is money left at the end of the year.
I hope Johnson County gets the $1 million back. But even if we do not, Healing Prairie Farm is going to be worth the investment. This is badly needed. Now the plans are to begin taking referrals in March! Thanks to CommUnity and UAY for their vision and leadership!
Again, I wrote that in February. Fast forward to now. The renovations did not cost quite as much as CommUnity and UAY expected. Rather than spending $1 million to finish the project, they spent $707,000. Great!
A couple of months ago, the RGB, seeing that there would in fact be unspent fund balance, repaid Johnson County $500,000 of that $707,000. Again, great!
I have been asking the Director of our MH Region to put the topic of a complete repayment on the June RGB agenda for months now. June is the end of the fiscal year, and is the last opportunity to make that commitment. She did put it on the agenda, but the language was vague. This led a couple of Board Members to ask if they could even take action, and she never answered them! I think this was an abdication duty. The question was asked, and it deserved to be answered. And it should have been answered with a clear “yes”!
Basically, the item died for a lack of a vote. There was no vote taken. There was zero support. This, despite the fact that the RGB had *JUST* been told that they were going to end the year with $1 million unspent.
And it will be more than $1 million. In the *ENTIRE HISTORY* of the Region, it has NEVER ended the year with less money than projected. Never! Not one time! And it will end up greater than $1 million once the books are closed on FY24 – mark my words!
What’s more, even if the fund balance projections were off by 50% the “wrong” direction, the RGB would still have plenty of money to repay Johnson County. 50%!
On top of that, there is no penalty for overspending your budget. None. The State simply says, “Don’t do it again.” I want to emphasize – they are *NOT* going to overspend, even with this $207,000. They will *NOT* go over. I just add this to reinforce how bad the decisions is.
One final thing that chaps my ass: one of the Supervisors from another county who sits on the Board said, “We already have a lot invested in this; what are they contributing?” You mean CommUnity? You mean the nonprofit that feeds the hungry? You mean UAY? You mean the nonprofit that helps needy children? Where in God’s name are they getting something to “contribute”?
This drives me crazy! This isn’t everyone pitching in to split a damn pizza! CommUnity and UAY are doing ALL the work! How are they supposed to pay for it? Seriously? Where are they supposed to get their “contribution”?
I guess he thinks it is fine for needy children to sit on wait lists while nonprofits do bake sales and raffles. Frankly, I think that is bullshit! They are providing a service to the public. The public (government) should pay for it. It is the responsibility of the Region to pay what is necessary to make these services available. It was not and is not Johnson County’s job. Johnson County stepped up when asked. The Mental Health Region whiffed when given the same opportunity.
Why does the MH Region exist? To pay for mental health services. So provide them! Don’t force nonprofits to rely on bake sales and raffles to serve folks with mental illness. Pay what it takes!
I am hugely disappointed in the MH Region. They are going to send these $207,000 in tax dollars back to the State of Iowa, where they will be used for tax cuts for the wealthy. Johnson County would have spent the $207,000 helping needy people.
*DID YOU KNOW? Johnson County may be moved to a different mental health catchment area starting in July of 2025. We are supposed to find out in just over two weeks.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 9:11 PM
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