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Nonprofit leaders urge indexed funding to stop workforce crisis; alliance asks for inflation‑based approach
Summary
A day of testimony before the Appropriations Committee focused on chronic underfunding of nonprofit human‑service providers, with multiple agencies urging Senate Bill 15‑47 to guarantee annual increases. Witnesses described high turnover, program closures and vacancies tied to wages that trail state salaries and inflation.
We have submitted testimony on several bills on your agenda. We're in support of Senate Bill 15 51, funding for the arts. We've submitted, will submit comments on your special education bills. I wanna spend my time today talking about 2 bills. 1 is House Bill 72 54, the Medicaid rate bill that others have been speaking about so far.
Why it matters: leaders of group‑home operators, developmental‑disability providers, mental‑health agencies, early‑childhood and youth organizations and home‑care agencies told lawmakers that chronic underfunding has produced a workforce emergency. Common reports across testimony: frequent staff vacancies, program closures, use of high‑cost pool staffing, and staff who hold two or three jobs — sometimes while receiving public benefits — because nonprofit pay has not kept pace with inflation or with state‑employee wages.
Top asks and examples
- Index nonprofit contract funding: the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance and many providers urged passage of SB 15 47, which would index funding for designated nonprofits to raises given to state employees. Several witnesses asked to replace that linkage with an inflation measure (the implicit price deflator for state and local government) or otherwise to broaden the bill so increases cover total contract costs, not wages only.
- Staffing and service impacts: Oak Hill, Horizons, CCARC, Reliance Health, The Children's Center of Hamden and others described double‑digit vacancy rates (examples reported: Oak Hill ~300 vacancies across programs; Oak Hill day‑program closures; Horizons ~1,600 people served but 250+ vacancies cited by witnesses). Board chairs and parents described the human impact: people with severe disabilities left at home, group‑home beds empty because of unfillable shifts, and staff reporting that some workers were living in cars.
- Program examples and numbers: Witnesses provided concrete figures. The Connecticut Association for Health Care at Home said medication administration and other home‑health lines were omitted from the DSS comparison states; Oak Hill said vehicle and utilities costs for group homes had risen dramatically (examples: minivan from $28k to $48k; wheelchair van from $48k to $80k) and cited $25,000 monthly increases in energy across sites.
- Recommended fixes: many witnesses supported an indexing mechanism so nonprofit contracts rise predictably with costs. The nonprofit alliance asked the legislature to use an inflationary index rather than tie increases only to collective bargaining settlements, because CBAC settlements often include non‑wage tradeoffs and would not reflect total nonprofit cost exposure (health insurance, fuel, vehicles, food, facilities).
Ending
The testimony made two things clear: nonprofit human‑service providers deliver essential public services and are largely funded by state contracts, and without predictable, indexed funding and immediate relief many providers will continue to shutter services and reduce access. The Appropriations Committee heard repeated appeals to change the funding architecture this year rather than rely on ad‑hoc year‑to‑year increases.
