September Edition 2004 - New York Nonprofit Press

September 2004 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz 5
Any business person knows that planning
is the key to successful management,
and that budgeting is an indispensable part
of the planning process. Yet, New York
City’s budgeting process routinely prevents
not-for-profit providers of human services
from following these basic principles, wasting
the scarce resources allocated to this vital
support system – a reality that is particularly
ironic given Mayor Bloomberg’s
former role as a highly
effective CEO.
Unlike most other
services funded by
the City, much of the
City financing to support
critical human
services is not included
in the Mayor’s
long-term spending
plan. His proposed
plan automatically
fails to renew or
“baseline” funding
for some services for
seniors, at risk and
abused children,
youth, immigrants,
the mentally ill, the
homeless, the disabled,
and others at
the end of every fiscal
year, leaving both the
providers and recipients
with an unclear
picture of the future.
According to a
spokesperson for
Mayor Bloomberg,
this funding is “not
baselined because the
[City] Council’s priorities
shift year to
year” (Jewish Week,
7/2/04). This statement is baffling to human
services providers not only because
many such programs were actually originated
by the executive branch of City government,
but also because these ongoing
services are critical to the overall health
and safety of the City. Contrary to what the
Mayor’s spokesperson would seemingly
have us believe, the programs he sees fit to
cut were created because of long-term and
deep-seated need.
POINT OF VIEW
NYC's Budget Process Must Protect
- Not Politicize- Human Services
These comments reflect the
point of view of the following
organizations:
• Catholic Charities BK/ QNS
• Child Care Inc.
• Coalition of Voluntary Mental
Health Agencies
• Council of Family and Child Caring
Agencies
• Council on Homeless Policies and
Services
• Council on Senior Centers and
Services
• Day Care Council
• Federation of Protestant Welfare
Agencies
• Human Services Council
• Neighborhood Family Services
Coalition
• NYC Employment and Training
Coalition
• New York Immigration Coalition
• United Jewish Appeals-Federation
• United Neighborhood Houses
The Mayor’s long-term plan, for example,
cuts $9 million dollars for child care
slots. Though the need for child care will
certainly not disappear at the end of the
fiscal year, the City is unwilling to make
support of this program a permanent part
of the City’s budget. Similarly, $7.8 million
for services to prevent children from entering
the foster care system will vanish at the
end of June, despite the fact that these programs
save the City
millions of dollars
by focusing on prevention
rather than
aftercare. In the case
of foster care, a mandated
City responsibility,
$19.4 million
are now automatically
eliminated
from future budget
plans. Other such
on-going citywide
priorities include,
Beacon Schools for
youth, food programs
for seniors,
mental health services,
homeless prevention,
and more.
The exclusion of
these and other programs
from the
City’s budget each
year forces
providers that contract
with the City to
devote precious resources
and time to
advocating City
Council members
during the highly
politicized budgetary
process, pulling
their focus from management, planning,
fundraising, and most importantly, the delivery
of services to the poor and vulnera-
port their clients. Some not-for-profit
providers have had to layoff staff, restrict
access to services, or even close their doors
because of the budgetary uncertainties they
face each Spring. Over the last three years
alone more than 600 families in the child
welfare preventive system have been
forced to change providers or stopped receiving
services for some period of time because
of program closures resulting from
unstable City funding.
While campaigning for office, Mayor
Bloomberg recognized the insensible nature
and harmful effects of this process and
promised not to engage in it. Further, after
taking office, Mayor Bloomberg claimed that
any necessary reductions in the City budget
would be made equitably across City government.
This year, however, cuts will fall,
once again, disproportionately on human
services. Providers of human services are
alarmed because approximately $180 million
in human services funding is already missing
from the Fiscal 2006 budget and there is
a projected deficit of some $3 billion. Services
to the poor and vulnerable are then,
more clearly at risk of elimination than those
services that have been baselined.
The human services sector has united
to highlight the impractical nature of this
ble. This process severely hampers
providers’ ability to develop the strategic
budgetary and programmatic plans needed
to direct their scarce resources to best
meet client needs. Each Spring providers
spend countless hours meeting with elected
officials to ensure that their funding is
renewed so that they may continue to supaspect
of the City’s budgeting process and
is urging the Mayor to permanently include
this sector’s critical programming in
his Financial Plan. This effort will be challenging,
in part because of the lack of public
awareness about these damaging cuts.
Last year, for example, the preliminary
budget was presented (and reported on) as
a “good news” budget despite the glaring
absence of funding for several vital human
services. The media did not understand
that the practice of not baselining human
service funding actually left many programs
without a guarantee that services
would still be funded.
It is not only bad business practice to
exclude essential human services funding
from the City’s long-term spending plan,
but also profoundly disruptive. Each program
exists to meet a real and often longterm
need. Without these services many
New Yorkers would have nowhere to turn,
swelling the City’s social problems, and
gravely impacting the quality of life enjoyed
by all residents. Just as we need to
maintain roads, fire and police services, we
need to maintain human services. They
are simply too important to be subject to
the yearly political battles that rage each
Spring on the steps of City Hall. We respectfully
ask Mayor Bloomberg to put all
human service funding streams included
in the City’s adopted Fiscal Year 2005 Budget
in his Fiscal Year 2006 January Financial
Plan.
Let NYNP
Tell Your Story
Call
NYNP
Custom
Publishing
888-933-6967
• Annual Reports
• Newsletters
• Agency Histories