The Legislature has always been a stalwart defender of the behavioral health workforce. We are very appreciative that they proposed adding an additional 1.7% to the budget in their one house bills that will help support the 3.2% COLA based on the CPI.
In the past several years the Legislature and Executive have been very clear that they support a COLA that has no contingencies.
Despite this history, in the Budget responses both the Senate and Assembly included language that restricts the COLA to non-supervisory staff.
That is problematic for several reasons.
The importance of the COLA is reflected by the flexibility that agencies have to implement not just to workforce but to defray costs related to their staff – like increased health insurance, liability insurance, energy and telecommunications, and other costs. This has allowed agencies to strategically utilize the COLA for other legitimate operating costs, while still providing increased funding for their staffs. This language would end that flexibility.
While limiting the COLA to non–executive staff, this fails to recognize that many small agency directors and supervisors have salaries that are just above minimum wage. There are numerous individuals deserving of a COLA that are in supervisory positions.
This has also proven very difficult for State agencies to implement. During the Cuomo administration, there were targeted COLAs to individual titles as opposed to giving agencies the same percentage across the board. This led to great confusion where some sectors received increased funding and others did not. It also delayed payments for up to a year.
We understand that these are one house bills and not the final budget. We urge the Legislature to work with the Administration to reflect a final budget that includes a full 3.2% COLA without any contingecy langauge.
