Salt Lake County Director of the Division of Substance Abuse Patrick Fleming is hoping that a portion of Medicaid enhancement and criminal justice funding that's coming into state coffers by way of the federal stimulus package will help shore up social programs that are slated for deep reductions in the most recent iterations of the state budget. Fleming said that just in the area of mental health services, a $3.5 million reduction is currently in play at the state level, and about 40 percent of that money would have gone to Salt Lake County programs.

"If we take that kind of hit and we are not allowed to get the enhanced Medicaid, we're really going to be in trouble," Fleming said. "Seven hundred folks who are getting services will be dropped."

Another program at risk is the Drug Offender Reform Act, a statewide program that helps drug offenders stay out of jail. Fleming said an accounting error was made early in this legislative session and the program's funding was cut much deeper than legislators intended, threatening the county's ability to keep it afloat until the end of the fiscal year. That mistake has been recognized, Fleming said, but without some help from the stimulus funding, it could cease to exist.

Fleming, Steadman and others managing county programs heavily reliant on state funding will have answers to at least some of their funding questions very soon. The Legislature has until midnight March 12 to ratify a budget and decide how best to spend the $1.7 billion in federal stimulus funding.

E-mail: araymond@desnews.com