Wednesday, April 22, 2015
UJA-Federation of New York Leads Charge for Creation of a Nonprofit Infrastructure Fund in Repsonse to State Budget Allocations
The nonprofit sector had reasons to be hopeful that this might be a good year when it came to negotiations over the state budget for fiscal year 2015-16. The state was sitting on more than $5 billion in unallocated surpluses that had accrued from various court settlements with financial institutions and other major corporations—and additional settlement income seemed to be on the way. Moreover, the human services sector could clearly demonstrate that it had taken it on the chin during the lean years following the fiscal crisis, going six years without any across-the- board cost of living adjustment (COLA) to cover the rising costs of delivering services. In the first five of those years—fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2014— nonprofits had seen inflation reduce the purchasing power of their budgets by approximately 12 percent....