Originally published in Issue 5 - Mar 17, 1997
Continued Coverage of the City Council Budget Hearings
In this issue of Inside the Budget, IBO continues to report on the City Council’s Preliminary Budget hearings at which City agencies testify. These hearings continue through March 19th and are jointly held by Council Finance Committee and other relevant Council committees. The name and phone number of the IBO budget analyst who examines the agency is provided for your use.
Welfare Committee Presses HRA to “Show Us the Numbers”
Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services
Committee on General Welfare
(Stephen DiBrienza, Chair)
Tuesday, March 11, 1997
Key Witness: Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli
IBO Analyst: Sofia Quintero - 676-9248
Commissioner Barrios-Paoli’s first appearance before the General Welfare Committee quickly grew tense when HRA’s senior staff was unprepared to give several budgetary and programmatic figures, particularly on the impact of federal and state welfare reform.
- Councilmember DiBrienza noted that the Mayor’s budget overlooks federal welfare reform and questioned why HRA did not construct “best case, middle case, worst case scenarios” in anticipation of the welfare reform changes. Incidentally, the IBO provided such estimates in its October report The Fiscal Impact of the New Federal Welfare Law on New York City.
- The commissioner testified that the City opened an 82 bed shelter for domestic violence survivors at the end of January and that the Mayor’s budget provides $2 million for an additional 100 beds. Councilmember DiBrienza suggested that HRA contract residential services to community-based organizations because “You only run one, and you can’t do that well.” However, he conceded the commissioner’s argument that while contracting might be a viable future alternative, labor issues made it difficult to realize in the short term.
- Despite sweeping Medicaid changes proposed by the Governor, the committee spent a New York minute on this program. City Medicaid savings in the Mayor’s budget of $260 million 1998 depend heavily on the enactment of these unlikely proposals. For further analysis, read IBO’s New York City’s Fiscal Outlook.
- Staffing reductions at the Division of AIDS Services and Income Support (DASIS) remain a concern of the committee. Although HRA staff assured that the reduction merely reflected reforecasting based on caseload reestimates to “bring the budget in line with caseload data,” the committee vowed to push legislation that would essentially mandate DASIS’ continued existence.
Look for IBO’s upcoming March and May reports for more discussion on DASIS restructuring, the City’s Domestic Violence Initiative, and other social service issues.
Spending Less, Housing Fewer
Department of Homeless Services
Committee on General Welfare
(Stephen DiBrienza, Chair)
Tuesday, March 11, 1997
Key Witness: Commissioner Gordon Campbell
IBO Analyst: Jonathan Cortell, 442-8617
At the end of a long day of hearings, the General Welfare Committee questioned the commissioner about core issues relating to homeless services provision.
- Committee members questioned the Mayor’s proposed funding for DHS from $391 million in 1997 to $369 million in 1998. While DHS has not spent all of its allocated funds during the last three years, the committee feared reductions since welfare reform may increase the incidence of homelessness. The commissioner testified that the agency has made cuts only in areas of decreased need.
- Intensive eligibility evaluations will decrease the number of families in temporary housing during 1998. Responding to committee member queries, the commissioner reported that 3,500 families had been deemed ineligible for shelter services since October. Only 8 percent of eligibility determinations are challenged and even fewer are reversed, although the commissioner conceded that families with legal representation were more likely to have their determinations reversed.
Last week, the State lifted fire, safety, and health requirements for shelters, as well as caps on the number of people that may be sheltered in one facility. The Commissioner sought to mitigate fears about the absence of state regulations, arguing that the City has some of the most stringent requirements in the world. He also reiterated his opposition to shelter caps, which he believes limited flexibility at DHS. Committee members contended that housing more than two hundred people in one shelter compromises service delivery.
Checking the Health of Our Hospitals
Health and Hospitals Corporation
Committee on Health (Enoch Williams, Chair)
Monday, March 10, 1997
Key Witness: Dr. Luis R. Marcos, President
IBO Analyst: Jonathan Cortell - 442-8617
Monday’s hearing focused on changes that the Mayor’s budget would make to the City’s payment to the Health and Hospitals Corporation (the Corporation or HHC) and the uncertain financing for new responsibilities assigned to the Corporation.
- · Controversy centered on the new methods of City payment to HHC contained in the Mayor’s budget. It budget proposes that the City should no longer cover the Corporation’s deficits. Instead, this budget has the City purchasing an array of services at a price of $55.2 million. One ingredient in this figure is the transfer of $49 million from the City’s labor reserves to HHC in 1998. These funds are to pay for the latest round of collective bargaining increases. However, because the City payment is already designated for prisoner care, uniformed personnel care, and operation of the county morgue, some committee members questioned how the Corporation could finance at least $49 million in labor increases. The president explained that, while OMB had included $9 million for 1997, he was uncertain about financing for the following fiscal year. Committee members also voiced concern that the City payment did not include reimbursement for indigent care. The president and the chief financial officer, Rick Langfelder both testified that indigent care pools would cover 85 percent of this care; the remaining 15 percent would be financed by reductions in Corporation-wide expenditures.
- The committee questioned how HHC would address the elimination of a $10.5 million Department of Health subsidy for clinic programs transferred from DOH to HHC. The Corporation plans to fund these programs by eliminating inefficiencies and improving revenue collection, although the President conceded that some clinics might have to be closed. This January, HHC applied to the State Department of Health to decertify over two thousand beds unused during the last few years. The committee asked how decertified beds could be re-certified if necessary. The president testified that the State would permit re-certification of beds in case of emergency, although this claim was contentious.
- The Corporation’s president testified that the State Department of Health is evaluating proposals to link Kings County Hospital with SUNY Downstate and two other Brooklyn health care facilities, Interfaith and Brookdale.
The IBO will evaluate changes made in the Mayor’s budget in its forthcoming March report.
DOT Cites Responsiveness as Top Goal
Department of Transportation
Committee on Transportation (Noach Dear, Chair)
Monday, March 10, 1997
Key Witness: Commissioner Christopher Lynn
IBO Analyst: Martha Prinz - 442-8616
This hearing focused on the commissioner’s description of DOT efforts to streamline the agency and increase accountability. Specific examples cited included sweeping arterials at night to reduce traffic congestion and expenditures (saving $105,000 in 1997 and $210,000 in 1998) and increasing parking meter productivity with additional monitoring to reduce vandalism and other problems (saving $376,000 in 1997 and $816,000 in 1998).
The commissioner noted the importance of Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act (ISTEA) reauthorization at the federal level, citing as an example the City’s recent request for $820 million in ISTEA funds for maintenance of East River bridges. Mr. Lynn also said that the state’s proposal to cut $13.4 million in Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPs) funding would significantly affect DOT’s budget. There was no discussion of the agency’s budget other than in the context of these federal and state issues despite cuts in City funding.
For further analysis of ISTEA, see IBO’s February report, Fiscal Outlook.
Changes and Challenges at ACS
Administration for Children’s Services
Committee on General Welfare
(Stephen DiBrenza, Chair)
Tuesday, March 11, 1997
Key Witness: Deputy Commissioner Maria Vandor
IBO Analyst: Ritta McLaughlin - 442-0340
The Committee on General Welfare hurled questions at officials from the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for nearly two hours on Tuesday, questioning how ACS plans to address welfare reform and its own well-publicized organizational difficulties.
- Breaking from the Mayor’s budget’s silence on welfare reform, ACS has begun to examine the implications of providing day care under new federal laws. ACS is concerned about reform provisions to consider foster care grants as income and the termination of family grants when a child is absent from home for 45 days or more, since 44 percent of foster parents receive public assistance and many children are not returned to parents for substantial periods of time.
- Administration officials could not explain why ACD and HRA’s Office of Employment Services both perform day care services or the process for public assistance recipients to continue receiving day care once the OES day care program expires. Councilmember Clarke argued that the continued segregation of day care services promotes the stigmatization of children on welfare or public assistance.
- The assistant commissioner’s testimony detailed implementation of ACS’ reform plan, touting a $3.6 million increase in funding for improving staff training. Councilmember DiBrienza questioned ACS’ efforts to implement case conferencing, neighborhood based services, and other required reforms. According to the assistant commissioner, the agency is still formulating its implementation of case conferencing.
The Shell Game: Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Department of Juvenile Justice
Committees on Youth Services
(Victor Robles, Chair)
Tuesday, March 11, 1997
Key Witness: Commissioner Marta Moczo-Santiago
IBO Analyst: Jenell Horton - 442-8655
The capacity of juvenile facilities to house current populations dominated Tuesday’s hearing:
- The Mayor’s budget heralded the fourth delay to date in the opening of two new detention facilities. While legal difficulties and contracting problems have contributed to the delay, the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) commissioner, Luis M. Tormenta, testified that the postponement is also intended to generate savings to help reduce the Mayor’s budget gap. During each delay, the Council has been told that facilities are near completion. The DDC commissioner testified that the facilities are currently 97 percent ready. Noting that students have been moved into schools which are only 90 percent ready, Councilmember Robles questioned this latest postponement.
- Robles was angered that his months-old request for the DDC to walk through and survey the maintenance needs of the Spofford Juvenile Detention Facility was not heeded. He also pointed out that despite that juveniles will need to be housed in Spofford for another year because of the delay in opening the new facilities, there is no new money in the Mayor’s budget for Spofford for major repairs. While Spofford has a 300-bed capacity, maintenance problems mean many of its rooms are not usable.
IBO will be assessing the relationship between the capacity of juvenile facilities and their ability to serve juvenile populations during the coming months.
We’re All In This Together
Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services
Subcommittee on Mental Health (Una Clarke, Chair)
Monday, March 10, 1997
Key Witness: Commissioner Neal Cohen
IBO Analyst: Deborah Ahrens - 442-8619
The specter of pending state funding cuts dominated Monday’s generally genial DMHMRAS hearing. The Department and Council agreed to collaborate in the coming months in order to prevent the following Governor’s proposals from becoming reality for City mental health services:
- The Governor wants to shift costs for several state-funded Medicaid-related programs to the local level, reducing Medicaid hospital reimbursement and limiting inpatient hospital stays to sixty days.
- The Governor has also proposed funding the Community Mental Health Reinvestment Act at only 50 percent of its formula amount for 1998 and 25 percent in 1999. The impact on DMHMRAS would be $5 million in 1998 and between $7 million and $8 million in 1999.
IBO will monitor the progress of these state proposals and their effects on the City budget during the coming months.