Fund nonprofits properly, for once
Connecticut has a rare opportunity to fix a problem a long time in the making.
Late last month, the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee approved a proposed budget that would increase spending for community nonprofits by $470 million by 2027, a historic investment in vital services that have been underfunded for more than a decade.
Connecticut’s nonprofits have been reeling since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which changed every life and business across the state. The nonprofits began 2020 with hundreds of millions less in funding than they needed for employees, equipment, facilities and repairs. When the pandemic shut down the country last March, they faced an even greater crisis.
Providers of a wide range of services for some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens found themselves on the front lines of the pandemic. They included residential and support services for people with developmental disabilities, mental health and substance abuse treatment; homeless and domestic violence shelters; programs that help people re-enter the community from incarceration; and arts organizations that help the state become culturally richer.
For arts and cultural institutions, the impact was immediate: They closed. A year later, many have reopened by taking important precautions, but patrons need convincing to come back. Some, especially performance venues, have stayed closed.
Health and human service agencies, which could not close the doors to lifesustaining programs, were hit with COVID’s attendant costs, including hazardous-duty pay for essential workers with a higher risk of exposure, as well as expensive and hard-to-find personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies. Providers needed to create telehealth service systems overnight, including the cost of hardware, software and secure online meeting platforms, to allow staff to meet with clients safely. They also had to make physical changes to facilities to protect staff and clients in need of in-person services.
At the same time that community nonprofits were scrambling to provide services and keep staff and clients safe, the need skyrocketed. People and families across the state faced unemployment, food insecurity and stresses on mental and physical health.
For the people who rely on nonprofit services, the investment proposed by the Appropriations Committee is a desperately needed lifeline. The erosion of nonprofit services, exacerbated by COVID, is an emergency. People need help now.
The good news is the state has the means to do it. Connecticut’s surplus account is around a billion dollars, on top of $3.5 billion in its rainy-day fund.
Budgets reflect the beliefs and the priorities of an organization. What, then, would it say if Connecticut chose to put surplus dollars into an already overflowing rainy-day fund or pay bondholders rather than using a portion to fund vital services that community nonprofits are stretching their dwindling dollars to provide?
Moreover, it is high time the state pays nonprofits for their actual costs of providing services.
We urge the governor to join the co-chairs of the Appropriations Committee and support this multiyear plan to restore lost funding to nonprofits and preserve the safety net that provides services for the state’s neediest residents.
If proper funding for the state’s safety net isn’t a priority now, in the midst of a pandemic, when will it be?
Gian Carl Casa is president and CEO of the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance.