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 Why should everyone care about human services and advocate to preserve them? Human services programs not only provide essential safety-net supports for our most vulnerable citizens and improve the lives of millions of New Yorkers, they contribute greatly to our overall economic progress and stability. Child care, afterschool, elder care, nutrition, health care, and housing programs are all job supports that help families and enable family caregivers to get and keep their jobs.
Work-readiness, literacy, and employment assistance programs run by human services agencies are job supports that help people move up the economic ladder to enter and stay in the middle class.
According to A Lose-Lose Proposition: The Economic Impact of Lost Human Services in New York State, a report released in January by the Human Services Council (HSC), human services provide 1.25 million jobs in the state—15.6% of the 14.5 million state population. And nonprofit human services organizations further stimulate the economy through the purchase of over a billion dollars worth of goods and services as well as the income received by staff.
Yet, despite these vital, obvious social and economic benefits, when faced with a decline in revenue, New York State cut about $800 million in funding for these essential services, resulting in the loss of approximately 27,000 jobs over the last two years.
HSC’s report provides details about how human services programs are suffering from the deferral of more than $150 million in cost-of-living adjustments for the low-wage human services workforce, which results in higher turnover and affects the stability of service delivery; an astounding drop of close to 90% in funding for Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) initiatives—from $216 million in 2010 to $25 million by 2012—which includes the loss of work supports for struggling families; $2.7 billion in spending reductions for state Medicaid; and the shift of human services costs amounting to $160 million from the state to cash-starved localities that are forced to assume the burden.
The timing is awful. As we all know, the high level of poverty in New York State necessitates additional human services programs, which badly need the very funding that has been cut to counter the state deficit. According to another forthcoming HSC report, New York State has the highest rate of income inequality in the country, and New York City has a significantly more unequal income distribution than the rest of the state; 1.8 million city residents or 21.3 percent lived below the poverty threshold in 2009, and half of those residents live in “deep poverty,” meaning that their annual income is half of the federal poverty line, or $10,500 for a family of four. In addition, half of New York City households earn incomes below $30,000, only $8,000 above the federal poverty line for a family of four. Poverty, of course, is a statewide problem; Governor Cuomo pointed out in his State of the State address that Buffalo’s 28% poverty rate is the highest poverty rate in the nation.
Unemployment in New York State reached 8 percent in June 2011 and 8.7 percent in New York City, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These unemployment rates and the rising number of households near or below the poverty line contribute to an ever-increasing demand for crucial social services provided by nonprofits. But with staggering cuts over the last few years, these nonprofits are unable to meet this demand, reducing program scope or eliminating programs altogether.
Here are some examples of how budget cuts have affected just four program areas in New York State.
• Summer Youth Employment: lost 13,000 slots for youth and 1,300 part-time jobs.
• Runaway and Homeless Youth: 640 youth turned away and 75 jobs lost.
• Non-Residential Domestic Violence Services: 146,000 fewer victims served and 85 jobs lost.
• The Infertility Prevention Program: 69,000 fewer screenings and treatments for chlamydia and 68 jobs lost.
In these four examples alone, 228,640 fewer people have access to critical human services that could make a huge difference in their lives. There are many more examples of budget cuts to wide-reaching programs and millions of residents denied these crucial supports.
What can we do?
New York’s human services organizations have long held “lobby days” or “visiting days” and rallies in Albany, gathered signatures on petitions, and hosted visits at home, all aimed at holding onto or increasing funding for particular programs. But these methods are no longer enough. Human services providers have to address the root problem for reductions in funding for our services − not enough revenue flowing into Albany − and to advocate for smart revenue solutions to support funding for human services in the budget.
This is not our traditional role, but hard times require fresh thinking and new approaches. Governor Cuomo made a significant move in December toward a more progressive and fair approach to New York’s income tax structure, and we commend Albany for taking such action. But this new tax formula will not completely erase the state’s budget deficit.
The governor has announced that he will create a tax commission to look at the state’s tax structure, and it’s appropriate for the human services sector to have an opinion on what comes of this effort. For now, advocating for closure of corporate tax loopholes is a good place to start. A loophole, according to Merriam-Webster, is “an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract or obligation may be evaded.” Closing corporate tax loopholes, or tightening the state tax code language to eliminate ambiguities or evasions, would raise over $1 billion for this year’s state budget, according to the 99 New York Coalition.
The 99 New York Coalition, of which HSC is a part, recently brought this to Albany. Based on three principles – enforcement, fairness, and transparency – the coalition asked for better oversight of real estate partnerships, reform of the state’s corporate alternate minimum tax, taxing nonresident hedge fund management fees, and public disclosure of corporate tax payments for publicly traded companies, among other points. The goal: to generate enough revenue to repair the budget deficit without disabling services that millions of struggling New Yorkers, and New York’s economy, depends on.
In his recent State of the State address, Governor Cuomo called for our commitment to help build a New New York. Human services must be preserved so that we can meet this challenge to protect, maintain, and improve New York’s communities.
Allison Sesso is Deputy Executive Director of the Human Services Council of New York.
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