Nonprofits brace for budget emergency aftershocks, IOUs - Boston Business Journal:

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While service providers don’ty yet know whether they’ll receive IOUs — or what the amounta will be — Sparky CEO of the in Sant Clara, is prepared for the worst. “We receivwe about $400,000 in state Harlan said. “We’re already accustomed to gettintg money from the state late last year, for it took until December before we finally got For this year and last year the center has reliec on a $150,000 line of credigt through to cover the gap, alongg with $500,000 out of its reserve The center’s operating budget is $10 million for fiscaol 2009-10.
The money that may be on hold from thestatde covers, in part, the center’s shelter and drop-in street outreach, and parenting classes. “Thr problem right now is that we don’t know for certaij how much they’re going to hold back,” said Harlan, who has been with the centere for26 years. “But this is by far the worsyt I’ve ever seen.” In anticipation of the state’s budget problems, 10 percen cuts have already been plannedfor foster-carr payments. Locally there are 300 to 400 kids infosteer care.
Foster care rated are the same acrossthe state, so familiese in high-cost areas such as the Bay Area get the same amount of compensation as people in more affordabls places. “We’re fronting half a million dollars she said. It’s a layered problem for the since in addition to state monety some comes from the federal Housinyg and UrbanDevelopment department. And Harlan said HUD is so slow it can take up to six month for payments tobe received. “We’rs hoping to get paid by July,” she said. “Nonprofits are just gettintg slammed.
” Harlan said the Bill Wilson Center has closed down two programz already and cut about 15 percent ofits staff, leavingv about 110 employees. These are real layoffs, she pointerd out — not attritiobn or open jobs — and “heartbreaking” to do. “Wde had to give one staff person a layoff noticre and a week later his wife was laid off fromanothetr nonprofit,” she said. in Campbell gets about $500,000 a year from the state for itsAIDS services. CFO Ira Holtzman said the agencty is large enough and financially stable enoughj that he would just book an IOU as accounts receivable and hope the money camethrough eventually.
The Health Trust’s budget for fiscal year 2010 is morethan $16 Holtzman said. Pam Brandin, executive director of and Visuall Impaired, which has officews in Palo Alto andSanta Cruz, said that even though her agencyt provides the kind of services that are especially at risk in Stated Controller John Chiang’s plan, the Vista Cente is relatively safe. “We receive moneg through Title 7 Chapter2 services,” Brandi explained. “Since much of our funding is federalmoney we’red hoping that it has to be released and passed on; the statw won’t be allowed to hold on to The Vista Center also has school contractes through special education funding.
“Last year when the state had similar budget issueswe didn’t receives any IOUs,” she “but that situation was resolved soonefr than this appears to be. The agenciesx that receive IOUsprobably won’t even know they’r coming until they submit their bills.” She’z also banking on Vista Center’s statuss as a preferred vendor with the “so we’ll be paid in advancre of other vendors — if in fact the stated is even writing checks.” Lisa Hendrickson, presidenr & CEO of Avenidas Rose Kleiner Senior Day Health Center in Palo Alto, is also cautiouslyh optimistic.
“The only funds we receive from the stater are MediCal payments for servicew provided at our adultdaycare center,” she said. “Ourt understanding is that those servicews are protected by the statre constitution as well asfederal law. We do receive funding indirectlgy throughthe county, but we don’t expect that to be Tom Kinoshita, public policy director of the , said people are on pins and “Everyone’s sitting around waiting, not knowing what’as going to happen.
But even with the most optimistidoutcome it’s still going to be very He pointed out that the deficit last year for Santaq Clara County was more than $270 million, and many of the cuts were made in programsd around health, mental health, drugs and alcohol and social And there’s no relief on the For 2011 the county is looking at a deficitr of about $250 million, he said.