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Cuomo proposes flat pay for caretakers of disabled for 6th straight year

February 12, 2014 By Michael Virtanen Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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ALBANY- The Cuomo administration has proposed keeping pay flat for the sixth straight year for caretakers of the disabled and others at state-funded nonprofits.

Most Assembly members, in response, have signed a letter calling for the 2 percent cost-of-living increase in the final negotiated budget for the next fiscal year. They say that continuing the already low pay forces many staff to work unsafe amounts of overtime or take second jobs.

Advocates say that also erodes care for the vulnerable people in the nonprofits’ group homes and programs because of attrition and turnover.

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“In a perfect world people should get a raise when they deserve a raise. It’s not a perfect world. It’s not a perfect economy,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. “We’re trying to reduce costs for the state. We’re trying to spur the economy. Would it be nice if everybody got a raise every year? Yes.”

The administration estimates saving $76 million by deferring the 2 percent increase for human services workers, part of its effort to keep overall state spending increases annually below 2 percent. It will affect about 5,200 community-based programs operated by nonprofits in the statewide service system for mental hygiene, according to the Budget Division.

The administration’s longer-term financial plan currently assumes adding raises the following three years.

Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, a Long Island Democrat, said lawmakers enacted a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, in the 2006 budget for nonprofit providers licensed by six state agencies, but it has been eliminated nearly every year since. Budgets are negotiated between legislative leaders and governor’s office. In a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver this week, endorsed by 101 colleagues or two-thirds of the Assembly, he asked they put the raise back for the fiscal year that starts in April.

The six agencies are the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, Office of Mental Health, Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuses Services, Department of Health, Office for Children and Family Services and State Office for the Aging.

“Collectively, these individuals provide vital quality-of-life service for those who are truly unable to care for themselves due to developmental disabilities, mental health issues, debilitating diseases and other physical limitations,” Weisenberg wrote. “The low salaries, coupled with the absence of a COLA, have had a devastating impact on job retention in these positions.”

Allison Sesso, deputy executive director of the Human Services Council, said they don’t know how many workers are affected statewide since, but it’s in the thousands and ranges from cooks to social workers in a profession where few people make more than $40,000 a year.


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