MONEY SPENT ON HUMAN SERVICES (Watch it Grow!!!)

The Minnesota Department of Humans Services recently released an audit report with data from selected counties on Human Service Performance and the dollars spent per capita. Below are listed some of the figures for Nicollet County and some comparisons with neighboring counties. Remember that there are many extenuating factors that can possibly skew data such as this.

The total Human Services spending per capita for Nicollet County for 2006 was $1,147. (This figure would also include state and federal dollars that pass through the county). The median for all counties studied was $1,608. Our neighboring county amounts were as follows: LeSueur-$1,315; Blue Earth-$1,391; Brown-$1,594; and Sibley-$1,402.

The amount of county dollars spent per capita on Human Services (inflation adjusted 2006 dollars) was $221. Our neighboring counties were as follows: Le Sueur-$198; Blue Earth-$307; Brown-$247; Sibley-$209. It is likely these numbers will increase as more of the costs are being pushed down to the county (example: targeted case management). Also, the downturn in the economy and nation wide recession will mean more use of the Human Service Programs.

It should be noted that there are external factors that enter into the picture when county to county comparisons are made. A few of these include: percent of people with severe mental health diagnosis that live in a county; the population density of the county; the percent of residents who are elderly in the county; the percent of residents who are children; and the number of people in the county who have received federal disability determination per 10,000 population. end