Barry Wilansky, the agency's executive director, who lives in North Bellmore, said the group will absorb the cut, but it will hurt. In recent years, Wilansky said, the agency has been hit by a series of government funding reductions and has received fewer donations from the community.
At the same time, school districts such as Hewlett-Woodmere and Lawrence have cut their contracts with the agency to provide social workers for students, though it maintains its contract with the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District.
"We're an institution," Wilansky said. "We're here 40 years. The community is observing the dissolution of Tempo Group piece by piece."
--Scott Brinton
Pull quote:
'We are still operating with significantly less money than last year, which wasn't enough to begin with.'
Linda Leonard
Executive director,
Long Island Crisis Center
Sidebar: Set in an unshaded box:
Terms of the Walmart agreement
To avoid prosecution in the trampling death of Jdimytai Damour at the company's Green Acres store last year, Walmart agreed to the following terms with the Nassau County district attorney's office:
¥ Implement an improved statewide crowd-management plan for post-Thanksgiving events at each of its 92 New York stores.
¥ Set up a $400,000 victims' compensation and remuneration fund.
¥ Donate $1.5 million to Nassau County for social services.
Pt hed: L.I. Crisis Center lives
Drophead: Walmart settlement gives youth-service provider a break
By Scott Brinton
Only last month, the Bellmore-based Long Island Crisis Center was facing the distinct possibility that it could close for good because of county budget cuts. Enter Walmart, which gave the Crisis Center and 32 other social-service agencies an unexpected reprieve.
Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old Walmart employee, was trampled to death by a mob of shoppers when the Green Acres Walmart opened its doors the day after Thanksgiving 2008. It was a truly black Friday.
In a settlement reached with the Nassau County district attorney's office, Walmart agreed to donate $1.5 million to the county, with the stipulation that the money go to social services, in particular the Nassau County Youth Board, which will receive $1.2 million.
The money was to be spread out over three years -- $500,000 this year, $500,000 next year and $200,000 in 2011. The nonprofit youth-service providers with which the county contracts -- agencies like the Crisis Center, a 24/7 suicide-prevention hotline -- called on Walmart and the county to release all of the settlement money this year.
With the recession causing a dramatic drop in sales-tax receipts, the county was forced to cut $4.5 million from the Youth Board's budget from April to December this year, according to County Executive Thomas Suozzi. That left roughly 40 youth-service providers with no choice but to cut services. A number were in danger of closing.
The county was able to extend funding through June 30 after instituting a fuel tax. But with no other new revenue streams, the county would have had to reduce funding for youth services after that date -- in many cases, by as much as two-thirds or more, Suozzi said.
County officials and youth-service providers negotiated to have all of the Walmart settlement applied this year. District Attorney Kathleen Rice called the agreement, reached last week, a triumph. "The Youth Board is a critical piece of the support we give young adults in our community," Rice said. "During tough budget times, their funding and their ability to fund the nonprofit organizations are placed in jeopardy. The Walmart settlement will go a long way towards providing young adults in our community with the employment, education and social services they need to lead productive lives."
County Legislator David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, said, the county needed $2.9 million to fully fund youth services between June and December. The county came up with $1 million from its budget to help restore youth funding, in addition to the Walmart settlement. That left a $700,000 gap, meaning that youth-service providers' budgets had to be cut, and eight agencies were "defunded." County officials said the defunded groups were inefficient or duplicative, and in most cases were expected to close anyway.
Linda Leonard, executive director of the Long Island Crisis Center, said the center is receiving 70 percent of the funding it did in 2008, when it got $257,000. The cut hurts, she said, but with most of the agency's funding restored, it will survive for now.
The Crisis Center is a member of the Coalition of Youth Service Agencies, an ad hoc group formed to fight for greater funding for nonprofit youth-service providers. The coalition, Leonard said, "is grateful to Suozzi for listening to us and negotiating with us."
Leonard noted, however, that "we are still operating with significantly less money than last year, which wasn't enough to begin with." And, she said, the county continues to view youth services as "discretionary" rather than mandatory. As such, she said, they are "vulnerable to the budget ax."
Youth-service providers could face budget cuts again in 2010. "Anything's possible," said Mary Curtis, the deputy county executive for health and human services. "We're still in the same budget position we've been in the past" -- meaning the county is still in the throes of a recession.
Curtis said the county needs two "revenue enhancers" -- a cigarette tax and a surcharge on traffic tickets -- to help balance its budget and continue its contracts with youth providers. Both require state approval, and each had been under consideration in the state Legislature for five months as of June 30. At press time, neither measure had passed.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
