You may have seen yesterday that Mayor Michael Bloomberg released his FY 2011 Executive Budget, which includes some significant spending cuts. See below an analysis of how the budget will impact human service agencies that was prepared by the UJA Federation.

The FY 2011 Executive Budget is balanced in large part by the rollover of $3.3 billion of surplus funds from FY 2010, which was generated in large part through three years (or eight rounds) of City budget cuts. Without a State budget in place, the City was forced to make assumptions in the Executive Budget on the amount of tax dollars the State will return to the City – the Executive Budget assumes a State Budget that reduces the amount of tax dollars the State returns to City by $1.3 billion. The City’s current strong fiscal position will limit some of the impact of the disproportionately large reduction of tax dollars the State will return to the City. But the reduction cannot be absorbed without significant consequences in nearly all areas of City services, particularly at the Department of Education.

The Executive Budget proposes a gap closing program for other City agencies of approximately $1.3 billion for FY 2011, in addition to the staff reductions at the Department of Education. The $1.3 billion program is nearly $200 million larger than the FY 2011 gap closing proposal in the January Preliminary Budget. Approximately $800 million of the $1.3 billion in agency gap closing actions are necessary due to the assumed impact of the State budget. An increase in the amount of tax dollars the State returns to the City – above the amount assumed in the Executive Budget – would mitigate the amount of budget cuts that have been proposed. The gap closing actions will cause a total reduction in City headcount of 10,997 employees – 6,026 through layoffs and 4,971 through attrition. The total includes the aforementioned reductions at the Department of Education. There will be no layoffs at uniformed agencies.

The human service highlights below are in addition to the reductions in the Preliminary Budget, which included cuts to City Council programs.

ACS

• $9.9 million in City funds will be saved in 2011 and $13.7 million in City funds will be saved in 2012 through the “One Year Home” initiative, a strategy to ensure that the maximum number of children in foster care achieve permanency within one year by expediting the reunification and adoption processes.

• $9.0 million will be saved in 2011 and $16.3 million will be saved in 2012 through the consolidation of 16 City-leased day care centers. The 1,150 children in these centers will be offered a seat in a setting with available capacity. An additional $2.0 million in expense funds will be saved in 2011 by using capital funding for eligible day care center renovations.

• In 2011, ACS will eliminate through attrition 202 of the 1,944 budgeted positions in the protective/diagnostic unit of the Division of Child Protection. Work units will be reorganized and caseloads are projected to increase from 9.5 to 10.9, remaining below the agency standard of 12 cases per worker.

Preventive Services for Children and Families

• In 2011, ACS will reduce the preventive services budget by $3.6 million in City funds ($9.9 million in total funds). This will eliminate approximately 600 slots for non-mandated preventive service cases and reduce reimbursement for the Family Treatment Rehabilitation (FT/R), Homemaking, and Persons in Need of Supervision (PINS) programs.

Juvenile Justice

• $1.8 million in City funds will support an expansion of alternative to detention programming that is designed to minimize the use of detention for children in the juvenile justice system.

• In 2011, $4.9 million in City funds will be saved through the reduced use of detention services and $2.4 million in City funds will be saved through the administrative integration of juvenile justice services with ACS.

Capital

• $5.2 million in the Four-Year Capital Plan, of which $3.4 million is in 2011, will provide for the development of ACS-Info, an integrated data warehouse that will improve operations and service delivery by providing Agency users with access to unified information from multiple data sources.

• $1.7 million in the 2011 Capital budget will continue to fund a new information technology system to track and monitor early childhood services provided by ACS and other City agencies. The new system will improve eligibility, payment and claiming processes.

• $18.8 million in renovations of Citywide child care centers to correct code violations and provide for handicapped accessibility

DFTA

Expense

• In 2011, all DFTA homecare clients will be assessed for eligibility for the Department of Social Services’ Medicaid-funded homecare program. This will create a single point of entry for clients to access homecare services and ensure that service levels meet client needs. This initiative will achieve savings of $10.3 million while preserving services for clients.
  

• In 2011, DFTA plans to close 50 centers for savings of $4.2 million; however, affected seniors will be served by other nearby centers.

Capital

• DFTA will make infrastructure improvements to the City’s senior center network, including renovations and repairs to existing facilities ($21.2 million).

• DFTA will make information technology upgrades that bridge the digital divide by enhancing the ability of seniors to access services and entitlement programs electronically ($5.3 million).

DOHMH

• $10.5 million of contracted services to individuals with mental health, alcohol/drug abuse or mental retardation/ developmental disability conditions will be reduced.

DYCD

• In 2011, $11.3 million will support a new youth and community program at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) sites.

• In 2011, the Executive Budget restores over 7,090 Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) slots through the addition of $9.7 million in City funds as well as $1.0 million to restore reductions proposed in the Preliminary Budget. City funds of $23.9 million will provide more than 15,700 SYEP slots, which will be supplemented by $7.2 million in Federal CSBG stimulus funding. In total, these funds will support more than 20,500 participants, nearly the same number supported by City funds in 2009.

• In 2011, $0.6 million in City funds restores 1,943 summer slots at Out of School Time (OST) middle school programs that will be matched with $0.7 million in private funds. In total, $102.4 million will provide after school services at 388 OST programs, located primarily in high need communities.

• In 2011, DYCD will eliminate 4,100 OST Elementary and Middle Schools programs that are school-year only and in non-priority zip codes for a City savings of $6 million.

• Beacons serve approximately 92,700 participants annually in 80 schools throughout the City. DYCD will reduce funding for 66 City funded Beacon programs by six percent in 2010 and seven percent in 2011.

• In 2011, DYCD will eliminate $4.6 million in City funds from its Adult Literacy program. This programprovides literacy services to 10,000 adults through English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Adult Basic Education, and General Education Development (GED) course