Not only is New York state not spending enough on workforce development, the state Association of Training and Employment Professionals feels the state is releasing that money far too slowly.

Melinda Mack, New York State Association of Training and Employment Professionals executive director, testified recently before a joint legislative committee on the state’s economic development budget.

Mack said not only are there too many open jobs, nine out of the top 10 occupations in the state often pay less than $32,000 a year. Among the top 10 occupations statewide, Mack said, only one surpasses $50,000 a year at the height of a worker’s career. The association is asking legislators to remove requirements that occupational license holders be either U.S. citizens or have green cards, that the state create the Excelsior Banking Network across the state, train workers for the “green economy” in areas like auto technology, clean energy workforce programs, offshore wind and solar energy corps to solarize state parks; and allow IDAs to use their money for education, job training and employment programs.

Her testimony also asked for state officials to generally include workforce development in state economic development programs rather than treating it separately or as an education initiative. Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City and chair of the state Senate’s Finance Committee, asked Mack if the $175 million Gov. Andrew Cuomo included in his Workforce Development Initiative in 2019, slated to increase to $220 million this year, was really new money or, “did we just move deck chairs on the Titanic?”

“So we moved mostly deck chairs,” Mack said. “For the vast majority of the resources one bucket of dollars was money that was already going to SUNY and CUNY that were reallocated and brought back in to be put back out in a new process. The second bucket was tax credits as well as some resources going out for wind energy through NYSERDA. And that last bucket was the $69 million for Pay for Success. Those were unspent dollars that were intended to be flexible to meet the needs that we’ve been articulating from the field. So if we have training dollars and the problem is child care, we should be able to pay for child care to get someone out of the training and into employment as fast as possible. We have not had that outcome.

What we’ve had is a strict designation of you have to get employment only. So for example an apprenticeship wouldn’t be eligible under these resources because an apprenticeship program takes multiple years until you get to employment and this program has been designated as a one-year program.”

Mack testified that there are roughly 50,000 good-paying jobs in New York state open waiting to be filled, yet employers often say they can’t find skilled workers. Mack said that the state invests billions in economic development and only a fraction of that in workforce development. State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, said he heard similar concerns from companies during his 100 businesses in 100 days drive when Borrello was Chautauqua County’s executive.

“One of the biggest concerns is when it comes to economic development incentives, these business that would be hypothetically coming to town to create more jobs puts more stress on the skilled workforce that’s already lacking,” Borrello said. “So I agree with you that we need to have a better focus on how we’re addressing that workforce issue, but from your standpoint when it comes to economic development incentives that are truly judged just on how many new jobs you create, isn’t that a bit myopic? Shouldn’t we be more focused on ensuring that, number one, we have the proper workforce development resources, but number two that we’re actually ensuring that these businesses can remain here and be resilient? One of the biggest stressors they have is workforce development.”

Mack said, in her view, the state tends to use tax credits to make investments both in economic development and in workforce development. Very little is spent on actual job training and on administration of existing programs. Spending more on programs can help retrain older workers or workers who need opioid addiction treatment so that they can be productive members of the workforce. Borrello also asked Mack about some of the issues with funding provided by the governor’s office.

Mack said not only is the funding not enough in most cases, it is painfully slow to be released.

“As I shared at the Human Services Committee, those dollars have been very slow to flow,” Mack said. “There’s only about $3.4 million (out of $175 million) that have been released to date. I was just with an industrial development agency in Broome County yesterday and they described their significant challenges to even filling out the application and some of the rigor that has been attached unnecessarily in terms of being able to fill out or apply for the funding. The other big challenge we have is flexible funding in Pay For Success dollars. Those dollars, as we’ve heard throughout the last couple of weeks of testimony, seem to be given to everyone. And so the $69 million that was meant to be for workforce development is popping up in the child care discussion and the health care discussion and, in reality, they’re not flexible. DOB has designated them as pure Pay For Success dollars.”