| Death by a Thousand Cuts |
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| Friday, 22 January 2010 15:28 |
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Was it a bloodbath or a surgical strike? The impact of Governor David Paterson’s Executive Budget for FY2010-11, which proposes to close a $7.4 billion deficit with $5.5 billion in spending cuts and $1.4 billion in taxes and other revenues, varies markedly across the nonprofit human service sector. Most providers and advocates were expecting something close to Armageddon – or even California. At the end of the day, some programs had escaped relatively unscathed while others were eliminated entirely. The most common assessment was “death by a thousand cuts” as another round of significant budget reductions followed multiple prior year cuts, slicing ever deeper into the heart of services.
On a macro level, the Governor proposes that state agencies cut approximately $1 billion from their operations. The two largest components of the budget were given the highest profile in announcing initiatives to close the gap. School aid would be reduced by $1.1 billion while health care would absorb a $1.9 billion gap closing plan, including $1 billion in spending cuts and over $216 million in Medicaid Provider Assessments. The response from these two sectors was swift and strongly worded. “The Governor’s proposal to cut another $1 billion in health care funding is not public policy; it is anti-public policy, especially when one considers that 29 hospitals and more than 50 nursing homes have closed in the ten past years,” said Daniel Sisto, President of the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS). “Particularly hard hit are the hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies,” said Ronald Soloway, Managing Director of Government and External Relations for UJA-Federation of New York. “After three years of continuing declines, it has to have an impact on the quality of the services being delivered.” Cuts impacting human services were less prominent in the Governor’s presentation. Receiving the most attention were moves to shutter several correctional facilities and continue juvenile justice restructuring, including the closing of several more state-run facilities. As we went to press, two days after release of the budget, human service advocates and providers were still sifting through budget documents to assess the damage. Across the entire human service landscape, the results appeared to be very mixed with relatively good news in several key areas while many programs took substantial cuts or were eliminated entirely. One consistent theme impacting human service programs was major cuts to programs which had been funded using federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds. These TANF-Surplus funds – savings accrued by the state as Public Assistance (PA) rolls declined following welfare reform -- had been used over the past decade to support a wide range of human service programs. As part of the Governor’s Executive Budget, a substantial portion of these funds will be redirected back to support increasing PA costs due to rising enrollments and higher benefits. As a result, approximately $132 million in funding has been stripped away from over 30 separate programs which provide job training, youth services, alternatives to incarceration, supportive housing, refugee resettlement, home visiting, child care and more. In most cases, the loss of TANF funding was total. Therefore, programs which had been fully-supported by these federal funds are completely eliminated in the Governor’s budget proposal. Among the victims are the Summer Youth Employment Program ($35 million), OCFS Preventive Services ($18.8 million), Supportive Housing for Families and Young Adults ($5 million), and many more. Those programs previously funded through a combination of TANF and State funds are typically losing all TANF funds and 10% of State monies. The combined impacts are devastating. Programs which provide Alternatives to Incarceration/Alternatives to Residential Placement for juveniles lost $10.8 million in TANF funding, close to 80% of their total funding. Advantage Afterschool took a $11.4 million TANF cut, bringing total proposed funding down to $17.25 million -- 39% below its current FY2010 budget and a full 43% below its $30.5 million starting point at the beginning of FY2010. At the same time, providers and advocates were relieved to avoid more devastating cuts in several major funding areas, including child welfare, mental health, mental retardation and developmental disabilities and substance abuse services. “We are very pleased that the core funding streams were preserved,” said Jim Purcell, CEO at the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA), noting that there were no reductions in the Child Welfare Block Grant or fundamental structure of State funding for preventive services. “We are still looking at the impact of elimination of a lot of other funding for services needed by our clients.” Laurie Cole, Executive Director of the NYS Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, echoed this sentiment. “There are many positive attributes to this budget in terms of attempting to maintain core programs and services in both mental health and substance abuse.” “Governor Paterson’s proposed budget for the coming year continues a pattern of making big cuts to the Office of Mental Health ($132 million) in a way that again postpones the COLA for the community workforce but does not make across the board cuts to community services or to SSI,” said Harvey Rosenthal, Executive Director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS). “Most of the cuts are delivered by reductions in the state hospital system and to the state workforce, by heightened cost cutting and in restructuring outpatient clinic funding. Precise details of all the cuts are still being fleshed out so we can’t be sure about the possibility of hidden cuts or whether the legislative process will jeopardize community services.” “Overall the Governor and the Division of Budget did an excellent job of being very surgical about the way they are trying to save money in our sector,” said John Coppola, Executive Director of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State (ASAP). Given the varying range of impacts on individual programs, reaction to the budget among providers is clearly mixed. For many, it is much less damaging than they originally had feared. For others, it is that as bad as it can possibly be. “For those programs that are being zeroed out, I don’t know how much worse it could have been,” says Bich Ha Pham, Director of Policy Advocacy and Research at the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA). “HSC appreciates the significant steps begun to streamline and make State agencies more efficient, investments in addiction treatment to support the drug law reform, the rightsizing of juvenile detention, and the maintenance of many child care programs,” said Michael Stoller, Executive Director, Human Services Council of New York City. “However, we do have concerns about the impact many of the proposed cuts will have on the increasing number of those in need of shelter, early intervention, domestic violence services, employment assistance, alternatives to detention and delinquency prevention, and many more.” “While we appreciate the Governor’s efforts to balance the State budget through revenue-raising, cost-saving, and mandate relief initiatives, these cuts go too far,” said Susan Stamler, Director of Policy and Advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses. “The proposed cuts to after school programs, citizenship classes, homelessness prevention and domestic violence programs similarly threaten critical services for our State’s most vulnerable residents. We are particularly concerned about the elimination in the proposed FY2010-11 State budget of the Summer Youth Employment Program and Career Pathways, both of which provide needed opportunities for employment to thousands of New Yorkers.” “We are concerned about the broad range of cuts this budget proposal includes,” says FPWA’s Bich Ha Pham. “It really impacts upon child care, aging, child welfare, welfare programs and youth services at a time when we have so many unemployed New Yorkers and so much need.” Adding to the concerns of advocates and providers is the cumulative impact of the budget’s proposed FY2010-2011 budget cuts on top of multiple cuts taken over the past several years. “I call it slow water torture,” says UJA-Federation’s Ron Soloway, noting that even providers not facing major new cuts are losing ground. “Every year, they lose two or three percent of their income because there is no Cost of Living Adjustment. Compared to three years ago there is 10-12% less income available. What we are seeing in our surveys is the closure and consolidation of some services and layoffs. The shrinking of human service system is going to continue while the demand for services is continuing at a very high level.” Add in the impact of this year’s Deficit Reduction Plan and similar reductions in prior years and providers are hurting badly. “It is death by a thousand cuts,” says Bobbie Sackman, Director of Public Policy for the Council of Senior Centers and Services. An Overview As we went to press, analysts were identifying some of the key proposals in the Governor’s budget proposal. Here are just a few of the items raising the most concern – as well as a few provisions drawing praise. After-School and Perhaps the largest single cut to human services programming is the complete elimination of funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). Last year, the State had allocated $35 million of its TANF funds to support the program. Advocates were stunned by the budget’s proposal to zero out the program entirely. Advantage Afterschool will take an $11.4 million cut under the Governor’s proposal. “Nearly 10,500 fewer students in New York State will be able to attend after-school programs as a result,” said John Albert, Vice President for External Relations at The After-School Corporation (TASC). “Given the magnitude of these cuts, I worry that this could be the beginning of a dismantling of the statewide after-school system that’s taken a decade to build,” said TASC President Lucy N. Friedman. Juvenile Justice The Governor’s budget offered advocates both good news and bad news with respect to the State’s ongoing effort to reform its Juvenile Justice system. On the one hand, it proposed further closings of underutilized juvenile justice facilities operated by the Office of Children and Family Services – as well as significant investments to upgrade the quality and range of services in its remaining facilities. At the same time, however, it slashed funding for community-based alternatives to incarceration programs designed to divert young people from placement in these juvenile jails. “While CCC is supportive of the Governor’s proposal to close additional juvenile placement facilities and invest in needed staffing and health and mental health services for youth in facility care, we are deeply dismayed that the Executive Budget eliminates over $11 million in funds for alternatives to detention and placement programs,” said Jennifer March-Joly, Executive Director of the Citizen’s Committee for Children of New York. “These community based programs keep youth out of costly state facilities, provide youth with services and supports close to home, and have a proven track record for reducing recidivism.” Supportive Housing Several key Supportive Housing programs took significant budget cuts as a result of the shift in TANF funding, including the complete elimination of the Supportive Housing for Families and Young Adults (SHFYA). “While we appreciate the Governor singling out supportive housing as one of the seven most difficult choices he had to make in creating this budget, the proposed cuts put at risk 30 years of supportive housing success,” said Ted Houghton, Executive Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York. “They will, quite simply, prevent homeless people from becoming housed, and make disabled people who are now housed homeless. “If the $5 million cut to SHFYA goes through, over 1,200 families will lose essential services that help them remain housed. If just one-tenth of these families become homeless, any savings will be washed away by the increase in shelter costs alone.” Child Care Primary funding sources for child care services remained intact, including $392.9 million of TANF funding which was carved out of the Flexible Fund for Family Services. However a number of targeted child care initiatives lost TANF funding, including Child Care Demonstration Projects ($10.9 million), Child Care for Migrant Workers ($1.7 million), Child Care CUNY ($1.4 million) and Child Care SUNY ($1.9 million). Child Welfare, Family Support and DV Programs A number of child welfare and family support programs took significant funding cuts as a result of the loss of TANF Funds. A total of $18.8 million was eliminated for preventive, aftercare and post adoption services which are provided under direct contracts with the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). Cuts also were imposed on Home Visiting ($5.8 million), Nurse-Family Partnership programs ($5 million) and Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers ($2.8 million) programs. The Non-Residential Domestic Violence Program also lost $3 million. Substance Abuse Advocates had good things to say about the Governor’s proposals in the area of substance abuse treatment and prevention services. “We were very pleased that the Governor included funding to implement drug law reform,” said John Coppola, Executive Director of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State (ASAP). “The Commissioner has the ability to expand residential treatment, and outpatient as well, to meet the increased demand for services.” Mental Health Clinic Restructuring remained a primary focus for community mental health providers and advocates. In this context, attention turned to the need to address reimbursement disparities between Fee for Service Medicaid clients and those covered by Medicaid Managed Care. “We would have liked to see some language in the budget with regard to the State’s responsibility to make Medicaid Managed Care Rates on a par with Medicaid FFS rates,” said Laurie Cole of the NYS Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. “Clinc reform is unlikely to succeed unless the State takes this issue in hand and makes a firm commitment. We look forward to continuing our advocacy on this issue.” Cole also expressed concern about proposals to expand the categories of drugs included on the Preferred Drug List. “When a consumer and a clinician work hard to put together a medication regime that works, any kind of regulation that stands in the way of which drugs that client can use gets in the way of successful treatment.” Senior Services The State Office of the Aging (SOFA) has taken a $9.8 million cuts, says Bobbie Sackman of CSCS. “This is a very large cut for a small agency,” says Sackman. “This will impact meals on wheels, transportation programs, home care and case management. Cuts to these services will affect hundreds of thousands of seniors across the state.” Employment Training Employment programs also were hit by the loss of TANF funding. Among the programs taking cuts are Career Pathways ($10 million), Advanced Technology Training and Information Networking ($7 million), Educational Resources ($3 million) and Green Jobs Corps ($2 million). “It is just not the time to be cutting programs that are helping to put people back to work,” said Rebecca Brown, Interim Executive Director at the NYC Employment & Training Coalition. Mandate Relief The Governor’s budgt also included proposals for mandate relief for both localities and nonprofit provider agencies. One proposal which quickly drew praise from provider groups is a continued exemption from the requirements of the Social Work Licensing Law for organizations operating under contract with certain State agencies. “We are thrilled that the governor proposed the extension,” said Phillip Saperia, Executive Director of the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies. “This is a provision that is vitally important to our field,” said ASAP’s John Coppola. “There are problems with the social work licensing bill that would essentially make a number of our staff people ineligible to continue with their work.” “This four-year extension will give us time to work a solution to this issue,” said Saperia. Impact on Localities Many advocates fear the additional impacts of the Governor’s budget proposals will come as reductions in local aid force further program cuts at the City and County level. “We also remain concerned about the impact of the proposed budget on New York City’s human services, as the budget significantly reduces funding for municipalities,” said UNH’s Susan Stamler. On to the Legislature Providers and advocates will now turn to the Legislature for relief from the Governor’s proposed budget cuts. Hearings begin February 1st. Advocacy starts immediately. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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