Alliance Note: New York’s nonprofit human services sector continues to struggle with workforce retention while attempting to address the ongoing mental health and substance use crisis. We must improve pay for our critical workforce and offer more incentives to grow the number of workers available and keep them in this field. We are appreciative of Governor Hochul and the NYS Legislature’s efforts to improve workforce pay through multiple Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs), but this is a drop in the bucket when compared with the massive funding shortfall created by decades of not receiving any significant increases.
We must actively explore other incentives to attract and retain workers, including offering access to state pension plans for employees of non-profit organizations which contract with the state. If passed, a recent bill sponsored by Assembly Mental Health Chair Aileen Gunther and Senate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Chair Natalia Fernandez would create a multi-agency group to study the impact of a retirement system for non-profit human service agencies.
The Alliance joins the Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS) in calling for passage of this bill (S.8660, A.6839-A) so the state can adequately take care of the workers who dedicate their days and nights to supporting New Yorkers in need.
Should Nonprofits Have Access to the State Pension System?
By Dan Clark | Albany Times Union | May 29, 2024
Legislation is planned that would allow workers whose employers contract with the state to enter the same retirement system as public workers.
New York, like other states, relies on community providers for a plethora of services, including health care, mental health services and home care.
Those providers, in turn, receive funding from the state to help support that work.
Remember the cost of living adjustment I wrote about during state budget negotiations? Those are the providers I’m talking about. But those workers aren’t able to receive benefits from the state — including access to its well-funded pension system.
Because they work for nonprofit organizations, and those employers are part of the private sector, they’re not eligible.
That could change under a bill sponsored by Assembly Mental Health Chair Aileen Gunther and Senate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Chair Natalia Fernandez, both Democrats.
Advocates have been working behind the scenes in recent weeks to wrangle votes from lawmakers for the bill, which would be a first step to bringing those workers into the pension system.
One of those advocates is Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State. “We do the work of state government,” Liebman said. “And yet, at the end of the day, we still don’t have any mechanism for a retirement system for nonprofit members across the state.”
The bill would require a handful of state agencies to conduct a study on pension and retirement options for nonprofit human services organizations.
A report with recommendations would be due to the Legislature by November if it’s passed.
One question is whether those nonprofit workers would join the state’s existing state pension system, or have a separate fund.
Liebman told me they’re “agnostic” between those two options in hopes that the study, if conducted, would help sort that out.
The current version of the bill hasn’t moved during the ongoing legislative session, which doesn’t inspire confidence for its passage this year.
But starting the conversation now could make their chances better next year.
Gunther is also retiring at the end of this year, so a new chair of mental health in the Assembly could breathe new life into the bill.