Note: This commentary originally appeared in the Times Union on October 20, 2023.
Some populations are affected more deeply by current economic conditions, and state spending should reflect that.
By Dede Hill, Director of Policy
Last week, state agencies were required to submit their proposed budgets to the governor. The Division of the Budget sent out its annual “call letter” to agencies last month, setting spending parameters on agency budgets. Every agency received the same letter, with the same parameters.
This year, the instruction to agencies was to present budgets at the same level as last year. (In recent years, call letters have allowed agencies to increase their budgets by 2%.) The reasons cited include the end of historic levels of federal pandemic-era funding along with “softening economic activity, a reduction in State tax receipts, and a humanitarian crisis.”
While the tone of this call letter wasn’t surprising, it is disappointing to see Gov. Kathy Hochul persist in the longstanding and deeply inequitable practice of setting the same spending limits on all agencies. This practice ignores the fact that tough economic conditions have disproportionate impacts on different sectors and communities, requiring differing responses from the state.
This blanket approach stands to disproportionately harm agencies that have been chronically underfunded, among them the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and the Office of Children and Family Services, both of which serve the very New Yorkers hit hardest by the state’s current challenges.
Households that have had to tighten their family budgets understand that the process begins with looking at areas where cuts will be the least painful: Maybe that’s going out to dinner less often, spending less on entertaining, or cutting back on extra purchases. It wouldn’t make sense to start with cutting back on essentials like mortgage payments and child care. Budgeting requires careful consideration, not a one-size-fits-all approach to every type of spending. The same goes for New York’s budget: Some spending areas can be limited less painfully than others, and the impact is not the same across the board.
As policy director of a nonprofit that advocates for initiatives that prioritize children and families affected by poverty, I have watched this budget dance for many years. And each year, the agencies charged with supporting the state’s least powerful, most marginalized residents are left to shoulder the challenges of tight budgets. This includes agencies serving low-income New Yorkers, children and families involved in the child welfare system, immigrants and those living with disabilities or experiencing homelessness. These are the agencies and populations most in need of state investment.
One result of this model: For more than a decade, New York has ranked in the bottom third of states for our rate of child poverty: New York children are more likely to live in poverty than in 32 other states.
If New York is truly committed to becoming a more affordable state for young families and seniors; to turning the tide on child poverty; and to ensuring that all residents are safely housed and well nourished, we must create a new budget playbook, starting now.
There is still time to get it right. As the next Executive Budget is crafted, Gov. Hochul and the Division of the Budget must return to these agencies – the ones charged with ensuring the health and well-being of the state’s children and communities marginalized by systemic racism, ill-health, disability and poverty – and ask for updated budgets that adequately and equitably meet the most pressing needs of the populations they serve.
At the same time, all agencies should be asked to include budget policies that will reduce or mitigate child poverty and improve racial equity. Finally, if the governor determines cuts are needed, agencies that are better able to tolerate cuts in the current environment should be the ones asked to scale back.
With realistic agency budgets in hand, budgets that center low-income and marginalized New Yorkers, the governor will be able to create an equitable Executive Budget that brings relief to the New Yorkers hit hardest by the sky-high food prices, runaway housing costs, and child care shortages roiling the state. And that will be a budget that truly reflects who we are as New Yorkers.
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