Gov.’s budget: What else is in
store for some key human services?Cuts planned for ENCON
The Executive Budget recommends a net decrease of 35 full-time-equivalent positions at the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
This involves:
• Eliminating 55 positions in the Clean Water/Clean Air Administration program, six positions in the Fish, Wildlife and Marine program, 13 in the Forest and Land Resources program, and seven in the Environmental Enforcement program; and
• Adding 24 FTEs in the Air and Water Quality Management program, 19 in the Environment and Recreation program, and five in the Solid and Hazardous Waste Management program.
Legislation will be introduced to authorize an estimated $138 million annually for the State’s Superfund Program. This would be financed by:
• Decreasing spending for the Clean Water/Clean Air bond Act by $5.8 million;
• Shifting funding for 43 Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act positions to the state General Fund and transferring 43 General Fund positions to other funds; and
• Adding $1.9 million for the operation and maintenance of the new ENCON headquarters..
Wanted:
Engineers
The Executive Budget recommends a net increase
of 144 full-time-equivalent positions, most likely
engineers, in the state Transportation Department’s
design and construction program.
However, this only represents a net gain of 24 positions,
because DOT didn’t fill 120 design and construction
positions authorized last year.
DOT has 253 vacant engineering positions.
The budget would also cut $18.9 million from engineering
services. However, last year’s appropriation assumed
the Transportation Bond Act would pass. Instead, voters
rejected it.
Therefore, according to the Executive Budget proposal,
the $647.5 million recommended this year for engineering
services actually represents an increase of $50 million
over the amount that was actually budgeted for fiscal
2000-01.
Budget cuts youth centers
Under the Executive Budget proposal, the state Office of
Children and Family Services would cut 47
full-time-equivalent positions in its youth facilities
program.
This would involve:
• Closing two secure units for juveniles at Harlem
Valley;
• Closing all 12 state-operated group homes and
converting them to “evening reporting centers;”
and
• Transferring the most serious juvenile offenders
to state prisons at age 16.
In addition, 15 funded staff vacancies would be
eliminated and the average class size per teacher would
increase.
Overall, the budget calls for an increase of 57 full-time
equivalent positions at the agency, because the 47
positions being cut in youth facilities is offset by 80
more FTEs in child care, 18 more in systems support, and
six more in family and children services.
Although the budget indicates 18 more positions for
systems support, funding for positions in that unit is
down by $2.37 million.
Corrections cuts slated
The Executive Budget would cut 614 full-time-equivalent
positions at the state Department of Correctional
Services (DOCS).
Positions on the chopping block include 126
PEF-represented positions in program services and 31 in
health services. The budget also would:
• Reduce medium-security capacity to reflect a
projected decrease in population of 3,800 inmates in
fiscal 2001-02;
• Commit resources to coordinate
sex-offender-treatment programs, aggression-management
programs and transitional services; and
• Transfer the most serious 16-year-old offenders
from facilities operated by the state Office of Children
and Family Services to state prisons.
Budget ax aimed at Taconic DDSO
The Executive Budget calls for the state Office of Mental
Retardation and Developmental Disabilities to close
Taconic Developmental Disabilities Services Office and to
shift staff to accommodate the change.
It appears that all counties currently served by the
Taconic DDSO (363 PEF members) would become the
responsibility of the Capital District DDSO which, in
turn, would hand off its northern counties to Sunmount
DDSO.
Employees would also be reassigned and, in some cases, to
distant offices.
The budget proposes a net increase of 245
full-time-equivalent positions, including 232 more FTEs
for community services and 38 more for institutional
services.
These staff hikes would be offset by a reduction of 25
FTEs in central coordination and support. In addition,
the budget would:
• Discharge 179 clients from institutional care,
with new admissions restricted to emergency situations
and special treatment units;
• Add 60 intensive-treatment-unit beds at
undisclosed locations;
• Open 60 new secure beds at the Valley Ridge Center
for Intensive Treatment (Norwich) in January 2002;
• Open 24 state-operated community beds in New York
City for referrals of severely disabled children from the
Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Administration
for Children’s Services;
• Continue funding the development of 100
state-operated NYS-CARES beds;
• Provide education and training services for
public-and private-sector employees through partnerships
with voluntary not-for-profit and other agencies; and
• Fund 17 new labs at the state Institute for Basic
Research.
Parole budget sheds scant light on changes
In his State of the State Address in January, the
governor said he wants to end parole for all felons.
However, he does not appear to be ready to end
post-release supervision of felons. And his Executive
Budget does not address how his proposed change would
affect the state Division of Parole.
The Executive Budget also gives no explanation for
cutting 27 positions at the state Division of Parole,
including 22 dependent on federal funding, when the
budget anticipates federal funding to go up by $4.2
million.
More than 100 parole-officer positions are currently
vacant at the division.
The additional federal funding represents nearly a 254
percent increase over the past year. Of the $4.2 million,
$2.3 million would go into the Violent Offender
Incarceration and Truth-in Sentencing account. And
another $2 million is earmarked for the Science and
Technology account. The Anti-Drug Abuse account would
lose $139,000.