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

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While service providers don’t yet know whether they’lll receive IOUs — or what the amountzs will be — Sparky Harlan, CEO of the in Santza Clara, is prepared for the “We receive about $400,000 in stats funding,” Harlan said. “We’re already accustomed to getting money from the statselate — last year, for it took until December before we finallgy got paid.” For this year and last year the center has relied on a $150,000 line of creditt through to cover the gap, alongt with $500,000 out of its reserve The center’s operating budget is $10 million for fiscao 2009-10.
The money that may be on hold from thestatw covers, in part, the center’s shelter and drop-in program, streeyt outreach, and parenting classes. “Thew problem right now is thatwe don’t know for certainj how much they’re going to hold back,” said who has been with the center for 26 years. “Butf this is by far the worsf I’ve ever seen.” In anticipation of the state’s budget problems, 10 percent cuts have already been plannedfor foster-carse payments. Locally there are 300 to 400 kids infosted care.
Foster care rates are the same acrosssthe state, so families in high-cost areas such as the Bay Area get the same amountt of compensation as people in more affordable “We’re fronting half a million dollarsx already,” she said. It’s a layered problem for the center, since in addition to state money some comee from the federal Housing and Urban Development And Harlan said HUD is so slow it can take up to six monthsz for payments tobe received. “We’re hoping to get paid by she said. “Nonprofits are just getting slammed.
” Harlanm said the Bill Wilson Center has closed down two programe already and cut about 15 percent of its leaving about110 employees. These are real she pointed out — not attritionm or open jobs — and “heartbreaking” to do. “We had to give one staff person a layoff notice and a week later his wife was laid off fromanotheer nonprofit,” she said. in Campbellp gets about $500,000 a year from the state for its AIDS CFO Ira Holtzman said the agency is large enough and financially stable enough that he woule just book an IOU as accounts receivable and hope the monety camethrough eventually.
The Health Trust’s budgert for fiscal year 2010 is morethan $16 million, Holtzmabn said. Pam Brandin, executive directotr of and Visually Impaired, which has offices in Palo Alto and Santa Cruz, said that even though her agency provides the kind of servicess that are especially at risk in Stat e Controller John Chiang’s plan, the Vistza Center is relatively safe. “Wwe receive money through Title 7 Chapter 2 Brandin explained. “Since much of our fundinfg is federalmoney we’re hopingv that it has to be releaserd and passed on; the state won’t be allowex to hold on to The Vista Center also has schoolp contracts through special education funding.
“Last year when the statew had similar budget issueswe didn’r receive any IOUs,” she said, “buft that situation was resolved sooner than this appeard to be. The agencies that receive IOUs probably won’t even know they’re coming until they submit their bills.” She’s also banking on Vistaq Center’s status as a preferred vendor with the “so we’ll be paid in advanc e of other vendors — if in fact the state is even writinfg checks.” Lisa Hendrickson, presidentf & CEO of Avenidas Rose Kleiner Senio r Day Health Center in Palo is also cautiously optimistic.
“The only fundws we receive from the state are MediCalp payments for services provided at our adultydaycare center,” she “Our understanding is that thos e services are protected by the state constitutio as well as federal law. We do receivwe funding indirectly through the butwe don’t expect that to be Tom Kinoshita, public policy director of the , said peoples are on pins and “Everyone’s sitting around waiting, not knowing what’s going to happen. But even with the most optimistivcoutcome it’s still going to be very ugly.
” He pointed out that the deficig last year for Santa Clara County was more than $270 and many of the cuts were made in programs aroune health, mental health, drugs and alcohol and social And there’s no relief on the horizon: For 2011 the county is looking at a deficit of about $250 million, he