MEDIA RELEASE

JANUARY 5, 2009

CONTACT: JOSHUA SLAUGHTER
    Office:  (631) 852-1300
Cell:  (631) 456-1718
 Email: Joshua.Slaughter@suffolkcountyny.gov

BROWNING DELIVERS FOR COLONIAL YOUTH

 Living Wage Hardship Funds Appropriated for Local Non-Profit; Guidelines Solidified for Future Funding

Hauppauge, NY- Legislator Kate Browning (WF-Shirley) garnered the support of the Suffolk County Legislature to override a veto by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and appropriate $57,000 to Colonial Youth and Family Services, Inc., a non-profit organization in Mastic. The money is being transferred from the Living Wage Hardship Fund, which was created to assist organizations contracting with Suffolk County to pay employees living wage rates mandated by the county.

“This cut in funding would have been a crippling financial blow to this essential human service agency that provides critical services for residents of the tri-hamlet area,” said Legislator Browning. “Colonial gave a handful of its valued long-term employees a 25-cent raise, and got tangled up in the county’s byzantine living wage rules. That is simply wrong, and I thank my colleagues in the Legislature for supporting this essential non-profit agency.”

In 2002, Suffolk County passed the Living Wage Law, which set guidelines for non-profits contracting with Suffolk County. Since 2002, any organization that contracts with Suffolk County must pay its workers the living wage rate, currently set at $10.50 per hour. From 2002-2006, child care agencies were exempt from the law, but this exemption was removed in 2006, and Colonial Youth was forced to either end its contract with the county, or raise the hourly rates paid to its employees. At the time of the change, child care workers were only receiving about $8 per hour.

In order to help organizations pay for the mandated wage increase, Suffolk County created the living wage hardship fund, which was intended to help offset the increased costs to agencies. The intent of the fund was to provide a transitional financial assistance program until agencies were able to pay the wages on their own. Unfortunately, the effect of the living wage law has forced non-profit agencies to freeze salaries paid to their employees at unrealistically low levels.

Colonial Youth and Family Services is a comprehensive human service organization in the tri-hamlet area that provides counseling for youth and their families, linkage with community agencies, information and referral services, teen parent services, child care, summer day camps, and family assistance for those in need of emergency services. Colonial Youth applied for and received hardship funds in 2006 and 2007.

In 2008, the agency applied for living wage hardship funds in the amount of $60,000, but Suffolk County’s Living Wage Unit told Colonial Youth it would receive only $2,800. Without the full $60,000, Colonial Youth was going to be forced to raise child care prices, which would pass the cost onto families already struggling to get by. 

Linda Rakvin, Executive Director of Colonial Youth, reached out to Legislator Browning in September of 2008 when she learned that the county was not approving the full amount of money the agency sought. Legislator Browning requested that the County Executive amend the budget and reverse the living wage unit’s decision, but he did not. Legislator Browning then introduced her own amendment, I.R. 2108-08, to provide Colonial Youth with the $60,000 they originally requested.

She secured passage of that resolution on December 16, 2008, with the support of her colleagues, but County Executive Levy vetoed the funding. On Monday, the Suffolk County Legislature overrode the veto, and avoided a major financial crisis for the agency.

In another problem Legislator Browning is trying to address, criteria for eligibility for hardship funds are vague at best. Legislator Browning discovered that there are no written guidelines for agencies to follow. Without any specific guidelines, the living wage unit has unlimited discretion to decide who does or does not receive funding.

Legislator Browning felt there was a need to codify how funding is approved, and how agencies are notified of the policy in the future. Legislator Browning introduced Introductory Resolution 2027-08, which sets guidelines for the hardship fund. This will guarantee that in the future organizations will know the eligibility criteria.  

“Colonial Youth wasn’t informed that they would be ineligible for the hardship money if certain guidelines weren’t met,” said Browning. “I am happy I was able to provide the agency with the funding they deserve, but the legislature needed to do more. This second piece of legislation codifies the criteria for eligibility, so that non-profits in the future don’t face the same problem.” 

Introductory Resolution 2027-08 also passed the legislature on December 16, 2008, but was vetoed by the County Executive. Both vetoes were overridden at Monday’s legislative meeting.