Proposed Budget Cuts: Office of Mental Health (OMH) The state Office of Mental Health stands to lose 662 positions from last year’s projections, with 411 of these in fiscal 2002-03 and almost entirely from adult services. The Adult Services Program would get a boost of $9.5 million, but not for staffing. All but $2.3 million of that is earmarked for supplies and materials. Unlike last year’s proposal, the new budget would not close or consolidate any state psychiatric facilities, but it does propose to close 395 beds at unspecified locations. And this budget makes no mention of eliminating the shared staffing program with county mental health programs. Funding is up $5.1 million for staffing of the Forensic Program. It appears OMH used $817,000 of the money budgeted last year for staffing its Children and Youth program to cover nonpersonal services. The proposal for 2002-03 would restore that and add to it, for a total gain of $2.6 million, with most of that for annual, salaried staff. The Enhanced Community Services Program would get a $26 million funding boost, with $19.6 million of that apparently going to support transitional residences and mobile crisis teams. Funding for personal services in the administration and finance program is down by $3.5 million, but that is offset by an extra $1.4 million of overtime pay and $600,000 for temporary services, for a net loss of $1.5 million. Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) The proposed budget for OMRDD shows the agency starting the new fiscal year on April 1 with 76 more positions than it was supposed to have by the end of the current fiscal year. The proposal would add 236 positions for community services and 17 for central coordination and support, while eliminating 158 from institutional services over the next 12 months, for a net gain of 95 FTEs in fiscal 2002-03. Although the budget anticipates cutting staff from institutional services, it increases money for staff there by nearly $22.4 million, including $17.1 million in current-year deficiencies. The apparent contradiction has yet to be explained. PEF’s fiscal analysts think most of the increase in positions for community services reflects expansion of state-operated services under the NYSCARES program, and the state takeover of the Geneva B. Scruggs and Consolidated Industries programs. The new budget does not include last year’s proposal to consolidate the Taconic Developmental Disabilities Services Office (DDSO) with the Capital District DDSO — a plan opposed by PEF and others. What it does include is an extra $3.1 million for staffing the central coordination program which PEF believes reflects the movement of 17 information technology positions from contractors to state staff. Dept. of Correctional Services (DOCS) DOCS is projected to lose 648 positions, including 584 in 2002-03. This includes a reduction of 160 positions in program services, 61 of which will occur in SFY 2002-03. The Health Services Program has increased by 162 positions, but three would be eliminated in 2002-03 by the proposed reduction of work-release beds in New York City and closing of the Tappan medium-security facility on the grounds of Sing-Sing. The budget shows less federal funding for housing illegal aliens and for substance-abuse treatment services to inmates. But at the same time it shows 135 more positions for these services. PEF is studying how this might work. However, the budget does call for shifting substance-abuse and general counseling services for state inmates in New York City from outside contractors to state employees and this would add 28 positions. Meanwhile, DOCS is having trouble finding enough inmates eligible for Comprehensive Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment (CASAT) — an intensive six-month program for non-violent offenders. But DOCS has thousands of inmates waiting to take the regular three-month Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Treatment (ASAT) program. As part of an overall realignment of its staff and services, DOCS intends to convert CASAT programs at Chateaugay and Butler Correctional Facilities to ASAT programs, and to convert its Mt. McGregor, Livingston and Cape Vincent prisons to general-confinement facilities. Staffing shifts are supposed to take place by attrition, voluntary transfers and reassignments. PEF is advocating for broader CASAT eligibility requirements and enactment of legislation requiring substance-abuse treatment for all inmates with substance-abuse problems. And PEF may file an improper practice charge against DOCS for failing to negotiate its plan to hike the workload for counselors. Children & Family Services (OCFS) The Office of Children and Family Services is ending the current fiscal year with 93 fewer positions than were budgeted last year and would cut an additional 52 positions under the proposed 2002-03 budget. All of these reductions would come through attrition and elimination of funded vacancies. Most of those reductions would be in Youth Facilities and in Systems Support. Another 54 funded, but vacant, positions, mostly in Child Care, would not be filled. Although the proposed budget does not project staffing increases at OCFS, funding would be boosted for staffing in Child Care, Family and Children Services (for expanded institutional abuse investigations) and for Systems Support. And the proposal includes $72.8 million for the development of a new secure youth facility to replace the Harlem Valley Secure Facility. Dept. of Health (DOH) The Health Department is winding up the current fiscal year with 98 fewer positions than anticipated in last year’s Executive Budget proposal. The 2002-03 budget proposal for the coming fiscal year calls for an additional net loss of 50 positions. Specifically, 174 FTEs would be cut, and 124 others added, but some of these changes just reflect a shift in funding for the positions away from the state’s general fund to special revenues. Among these changes are 11 positions to be cut from the ranks of inspectors and auditors for hospitals and nursing homes. However, state Assembly leaders have said they will try to restore these positions. The budget also includes $90 million for Roswell Park Cancer Institute, which includes funding from the state’s Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) enacted at the beginning of January. Education Dept. (SED) The proposed budget for 2002-03 calls for cutting 29 positions at the state Education Department and shifting 446 of those positions to a new public-benefit corporation that would be called the NY Institute for Cultural Education (NYICE) and would absorb the state library, archives and museum. The proposed change would take effect July 1, and NYICE would be funded by increasing state filing fees at county clerks’ offices. PEF vigorously opposes the NYICE proposal, which calls for the institute to create its own civil-service system and “merit board” as was done at Roswell Park Cancer Institute when it was separated from the state Health Department several years ago. That arrangement has produced serious classification, merit-and-fitness and fairness issues for union members there. The new budget proposal for SED would also consolidate its Office of the Professions with the Office of Higher Education — a plan that would lead to the loss of 11 positions. Funds would no longer be provided for SED’s academic reviews and accreditation of college and university programs. They would have to rely on national or regional accreditation services, or on SED’s self-supporting Teacher Education Accreditation program. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) The Department of Motor Vehicles is ending the 2001-02 fiscal year down 99 positions from the staffing level anticipated in the 2001-02 budget. Nearly half of these cuts were in the area of operations. All of the cuts were achieved through attrition and the elimination of vacant funded positions. The proposed budget for the coming fiscal year calls for additional staff reductions of 14 in administration and 15 in the Transportation Safety Program. However these new reductions would be partially offset by a projected increase of 12 positions in the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee which will be funded through a $4.8 million increase in federal funds. And the proposed budget appears to call for shifting 39 positions from the Operations Program to the Compulsory Insurance Program, but the budget may not provide enough additional money to the insurance program to cover that. Department of Labor (DOL) The Labor Department is starting the new fiscal year with 223 fewer positions than anticipated in the 2001-02 state budget. Most of these positions were lost in federally funded positions in the administration program. It is unclear how the loss of these positions would affect agency operations, but it might signal a decreased reliance on hourly employees. No further changes in staffing levels are called for in the proposed budget for 2002-03. Division of Parole (DOP) Although Gov. George Pataki is calling for an end to parole for all convicted felons, his proposed 2002-03 budget for the state Division of Parole would cut 16 positions there. Another 41 positions are being eliminated during the fiscal year ending March 31, all from the division’s operations program. The elimination of federal funding for the Violent Offender and Truth-in-Sentencing programs and reduced federal funds for the Anti-Drug-Abuse program accounted for the loss of most of these positions. The governor did not submit legislation with his budget to change the sentencing laws that provide for parole. However, PEF expects him to submit legislation similar to a bill he submitted last year that would maintain supervision by parole officers of felons following their release from prison.

By SHERRY HALBROOK The governor announced last fall that he needs to trim the state work force by 5,000 positions. And his Executive Budget proposal for 2002-03 assumes the state already will have cut 1,450 positions before the end of fiscal 2001-02 on March 31. The new budget proposal aims to cut approximately 2,300 more positions through attrition, plus 1,500 through an early retirement incentive by the end of March 2003. Those cuts would be partially offset, however, by 400 new positions for a net loss of about 3,400 positions. Disabled clients gain staff According to PEF’s chief fiscal analyst, Tom Cetrino, approximately 240 of the 403 new positions will be in the Community Services Program in the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD). Cetrino said he and his staff faced “a major problem in accurately analyzing the effect of the proposed budget on the state workforce. The state has not allocated among its agencies the 1,500 positions to be eliminated through the early retirement incentive.” Cetrino added, “The personal services sections of budgets for many state agencies don’t include enough money to cover contractual pay increases for their employees, yet no reduction in positions is shown. It’s unclear how these agencies could accomplish this feat, but it appears most are trying to fund these pay raises with money budgeted for non-personal services and/or shifting positions to lines funded by special revenues such as fees or federal money.” Where the cuts are In spite of those obstacles, Cetrino said he and his staff were able to identify some of the expected job cuts. “Our analysis does indicate the state will lose an estimated 1,214 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions by March 31, 2002 and an additional 1,667 FTEs between March 31, 2002 and March 31, 2003,” he said. “SUNY will lose 450 FTEs in fiscal 2002-03, according to the state Division of Budget (DOB), and none of these reductions is likely to occur at the SUNY Hospitals, where most PEF members at SUNY work.””