Deadline Passes But Home Day-Care Pay Deal Isn't Finalized
By DAVID SIMS

JOHN B. MATTINGLY: Tough choices for ACS.

The deadline for the Administration for Children's Services to pay home day-care providers their statedeemed "market rate" passed on Dec. 31, with no concrete solution reached between the city and state on how to fund the pay raise.

"City Hall is negotiating with the Governor's office," said Office of Children and Family Services spokesman Ed Borges in a phone interview that day. "We sent [ACS] a letter at the beginning of December saying, if they don't come into full compliance retroactive to October 2007, we're going to freeze all child-care funding. The city isn't due to get another [funding] payment until March, but at this point it stands."

'Serious Talks' But No Cigar

Official negotiations on the pay raise began last month, with an announcement on Dec. 19 that a tentative agreement had been reached between ACS and OCFS, giving the city some time to hammer out the specifics. But no details have followed since then, with the two sides remaining in "serious negotiations," according to Mr. Borges. "We don't have to press them today, but basically they've been working through this whole week," he said. "We're looking forward to a resolution that does not adversely impact children."

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement that she was "cautiously optimistic" about a deal being reached, "but at the same time I remain very concerned that the city not try and pit one group of poor people against another." The UFT represents more than 28,000 home day-care providers and has been lobbying for their raises since October 2007, when the new "market rate" was set by the state.

New York City is the only state municipality that does not pay its providers this increased wage, with ACS noting that other municipalities have a budget surplus while it fights huge deficits. In a December City Council hearing, ACS Commissioner John Mattingly said that "the only way to pay for the increase right now is to cut 6,300 child-care slots," although he admitted that he had to find a way to pay the day-care providers somehow, as the state's annual funding is crucial to ACS's survival.

State Money Not Enough?

The state has provided ACS with $27 million to help fund the pay raises, but the city estimates that to pay all of the day-care providers the correct amount retroactively would cost $53.4 million, and is asking for more funds to be redistributed from areas of the state with surpluses. A New York Times report on the negotiations said that the city had also asked not to have to pay the providers retroactively, but that this proviso had been met with resistance by the UFT and OCFS.

"It's a Hobbesian choice—these poor providers making very little money are providing a very valuable service," ACS spokeswoman Sharman Stein said in a phone interview. "On the other side, poor working families desperately need subsidized service... it's just a horrible situation." The home day-care providers represented by the UFT make between $10,000 and $19,000 per year, placing them at or below the poverty line.