April Edition 2010 - New York Nonprofit Press

6 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz April 2010
NEWS
Advocates Express Concern over Westchester Cuts
Westchester providers and advocates
are concerned about how new County Executive
Rob Astorino’s first round of budget
cuts will play out – and what it may
portend for the next four years. As we
went to press, they were hoping to share
those concerns directly with Astorino at a
meeting scheduled for March 19th.
On March 9th, Astorino announced
$16 million of cuts to current year programs
as the first step towards closing
what is estimated to be a $166 million
annual deficit. Several aspects of the
planned cuts seem clear. Others, including
cuts to Community Optional Preventive
Services (COPS) and family shelter
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programs, had yet to be finalized.
“Thirty-seven percent of these reductions come
out of the Department of Social Services and most of
that is services for children,” says Cora Greenberg,
Executive Director of the Westchester Children’s Association.
“The County Executive has said that layoffs
are a last resort. We’d like to think that cutting
services for children should be the last resort.”
Of the $5.8 million in social service budget
cuts, the largest portion, $3.3 million, comes from
projected savings due to reductions in the County’s
foster care census and/or the placement of children
in less restrictive and therefore less expensive levels
of care.
“There is no reduction in services to kids in
care,” says DSS Commissioner Kevin Mahon. “This
is a good story, a great story. A year and a half ago
we started looking at our kids in care and how we
could provide better services locally so we could either
get them home faster or step them down faster.”
Greenberg appreciates the success of this effort
but differs as to what to do with the savings from
having fewer young people in care. “If you can save
$3.3 million in foster care, you should be plowing
that money back into services,” she says. “Where are
these kids going Just because they are leaving care
doesn’t mean they don’t need services to keep them
safe. We have to do better than that.”
The second major area of savings is in child care
subsidies where Astorino plans to reduce expenditures
by $1.5 million. The savings will come from
three areas – reducing a “scholarship” program that
provides subsidies to families with income exceeding
200 percent of the poverty level, increasing parent
co-pays for families with income between 100%
and 200% of poverty, and ending new admissions to
the Title XX child care program.
“This is a level of subsidy not available anyplace
else,” says County spokesperson Ned McCormack of
the “scholarship” program. “We are coming back to
the mandated targets.”
Mahon stated that the increase in parent copay
from 15% to 20% would have varying impact
on families depending on where they fell within the
100%-200% of poverty income bracket. He estimated
that the maximum increase for a family of three
would be $80 per month, bringing total monthly parent
fees to just under $300. “And, it is for families,”
“Drop Your Guns!”
AG Shuts Down Yonkers SPCA
he emphasized. “If you have two or three children,
you only pay once.”
The County plans to get $750,000 in savings
through reduction in expenditures for family
shelters. “We don’t have that many people
in our shelters,” says Mahon. “We have a vacancy
factor that will allow us to reduce costs.” Mahon
indicated that the County would be meeting with
providers to go over its estimates of how reduced
occupancy can reduce contractual expenses.
Finally, the County is looking to its Community
Optional Preventive Services (COPS) programs
for an estimated $272,000 in County taxlevy
savings. “These are optional programs. By
definition, these programs serve low risk kids,”
says Mahon.
However, Mahon says that no final decision
have been made on how or where cuts to COPS
programs will be made, despite the fact that individual
programs received letters outlining their
budget reductions. “They went with a number and
they were supposed to react to the department,”
says Mahon. “We have a meeting next week to
talk about the impact. We are clearly not going
to put ourselves in a position where we bring kids
back into care. We just want to make sure we understand
totally what each one of these programs
does and the impact. We have time and we want
to do this right.”
Greenberg argues that cuts to COPS programs
are counterproductive on a number of
fronts. From a cost benefit standpoint, she stresses
that the County will be giving up far more
than it saves. Westchester pays only 35 cents on
the dollar for COPS programs. Consequently,
the $272,000 cut will cost the County twice that
amount in Federal and State aid.
And, she says, these services make sense programmatically.
“These are the programs that keep
kids safely at home. One program, for example,
keeps young children out of psychiatric hospitals.
If you don’t have alternatives to detention, PINS
diversions and these other things, you are going
to wind up with kids in jail or in much higherend
residential placement. That is what these programs
are preventing.”
Greenberg was be one of several advocates
and providers who were to meet with County Executive
Astorino to express these concerns at the
March 19th meeting.
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Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has obtained
an order to shut down the Yonkers Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The
organization had given Peace Officer status to over
a dozen individuals, allowing them to carry guns
without providing any service to the community.
“The individuals behind the Yonkers SPCA
took advantage of a nationally renowned non-profit
to masquerade as a law enforcement entity with no
responsibilities or oversight,” said Attorney General
Cuomo. “Since this organization provides no service
to the community, we have shut it down.”
Yonkers SPCA, headquartered at 976 McLean
Avenue in Yonkers, was incorporated in 1912 but
has not conducted any legitimate programmatic
operations in decades, according to the AG. The
SPCA of Westchester had expanded its territory to
include Yonkers and has provided and continues to
provide prevention of cruelty to animal services to
the city. In 2007, despite the fact that the SPCA
of Westchester was handling animal cruelty cases
in Yonkers, Sean Collins, 43, of Millerton, resurrected
the long-dormant Yonkers SPCA and established
a new Board of Directors without the proper
authority. The newly reconstituted Yonkers SPCA
conducted no law enforcement activities.
Nevertheless, the organization conferred
peace officer status to at least 16 members over
the past three years, essentially allowing them to
carry guns while not doing any activities relating
to the prevention of cruelty to animals. By
comparison, the SPCA of Westchester conducts
all such enforcement across the county and has
only two peace officers.