Among the hardest hit by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s unallotments last week, local governments and human service departments are readying plans to deal with the cuts.

Mower County Human Services is looking at a $367,142 cut in 2009 as part of the governor’s overall slashing of $236 million to health and human services across the state.

That reduction equals about 4 percent of the total budget for Mower County Human Services, director Julie Stevermer said, and will impact everyday people.

A bulk of the loss will be felt through reductions to different grants that help support various social service programs.

Mower County — $208,304

City of Austin — $380,012

Mower County Human Services — $367,142

Stevermer said children and community service grants are slated to be slashed by 25 percent this year and 33 percent in 2010. This will mean a loss of $135,000 in 2009 alone.

In addition, Mower County Human Services is looking at partial or complete reductions to child support enforcement grants and mental health grants.

Stevermer said these are “major” cuts that will “have an immense impact on a number of our providers in the community as well as the clients that receive services.”

Now comes the hard part — figuring out how to handle the cuts while keeping that impact to a minimum.

To that end, Stevermer said her department is slated to meet with the county board’s finance committee July 7.

While Stevermer said she didn’t want to discuss details before that meeting, she did acknowledge that some plans are ready to be presented.

County coordinator Craig Oscarson said human services is a main area of concern because it could be hit with a “double whammy” — in addition to state cuts, the department could face program-aid reductions from the county.

However, human services isn’t the only area of concern for the county, Oscarson said.

Mower County is projected to lose $208,304 this year in county program aid and $422,920 next year in CPA through unallotment. The county has done a good deal of planning and has a number of items being considered, including reducing funding to the fair, closing the county water lab and reducing staff in various departments.

These items are likely to go to the board by the end of July — in the meantime, county commissioners will be ranking the cuts in order of feasibility and necessity, Oscarson said.

Austin City Administrator Jim Hurm has said the city is also largely ready for a 2009 reduction in local government aid because of cuts the city has already planned. However, Hurm said he is still worried about an end-of-the-year cut — like Pawlenty did in December 2008 — and said 2010 is just as worrisome.

“We can’t count on the state not making even further cuts,” he said.

The city for now is likely to take a long look at the budget at their next work session on July 6. Hurm said he is likely to advise the council not to undo cuts they committed to in April, and to possibly consider future cuts and budget changes for down the road.

“We can’t just think of the next six months,” Hurm said. “We need to think of the next three to four years.”

In April, the City Council approved a number of line items that were first put forth in March. These range from not filling a librarian vacancy, to reducing funding to outside agencies, to shortening the pool season. All told, the council approved $537,548 in cuts, according to a June 22 memo from Hurm.

These cuts would seemingly offset the city’s 2009 LGA cut of $380,012, but Hurm warned that state funding is a “moving target.”

The council also approved $741,401 in cuts for 2010, which is less than the $876,833 the city is expected to lose in LGA. However, as Hurm noted in the memo, the city’s yet-to-be certified LGA amount for 2010 is higher than expected, meaning the cut might not be as severe as the more-than $800,000 figure would indicate.

That doesn’t mean Austin is in the clear — Hurm said the city’s general philosophy is to expect that the state will provide less and less funding in coming years. While that doesn’t necessarily mean bigger cost-saving ideas, like dropping funding for the Nature Center or selling Nob Hill, are guaranteed to go forward, it does mean they will remain on the table for consideration.

Like Hurm, Oscarson said he doesn’t expect lost state funding to return anytime soon, and knows the county has to plan for the long-term. However, he did acknowledge that cuts could’ve been worse.

“This is better than we thought,” he said, “but it���s still something we have to deal with.”