Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, and Orange counties experienced a collective 25 percent decline in State funding from 2011 to 2017 (the latest year for county-level, calendar-year detail), compared to an overall seven percent decrease in funding for upstate counties, and a 10 percent falloff in New York City. These localities are forced to meet increased need with less funding help from the State.ĭownstate suburban counties have been hit the hardest by decreases in local aid. The number of food stamp recipients in the suburbs and upstate is 57 percent higher than before the recession, and child poverty in several upstate cities ranges from 30 to 50 percent.
Recovery from the recession has been uneven and many areas contend with continued economic hardship and child poverty. Since the end of the 2008-09 Great Recession, New York’s economy has grown steadily but State funding for human services aid to local governments has been slashed by 26 percent (FY2011 to FY2018.) As the State Legislature makes decisions about the Fiscal Year 2020 budget in the coming weeks, we call on them to consider how cuts to human services funding impede localities’ ability to provide the supports that children and families need to thrive. This human services disinvestment is evidence of State policymakers’ failure to use the state budget to respond to the very real daily struggles of many New Yorkers. In contrast, State funding for City human services was nine percent less in FY2018 than at the end of the Great Recession. Federal funds for New York City human services were actually slightly higher (four percent) in 2018 than at the end of the 2008-09 Great Recession. This human services budget austerity, at a time of increasing state revenue collections, has also had a profound adverse impact on nonprofit human services providers funded under local and state contracts.Ī companion Center report to this one, Why Washington Matters: Federal Spending is Crucial to New York Children and Families, explored the vulnerability of human services funding to proposed budget-cutting by Congress in 20. This is true throughout the state, particularly in the downstate suburbs.
Since FY2011, most areas of state human services funding have suffered as a result of the Governor’s stringent budget policy. Human services aid from New York State helps localities pay for direct services, including public assistance and services provided through nonprofits. In this report we examine New York State, New York City and county budget data to understand how State funding trends affect localities across the state and New York City in particular.