More than 800 New York nonprofits, businesses and funders ask Gov. Hochul in a letter to sign two contracting bills
The Coalition to Fix Government Contracting delivered the letter on Nov. 3. The bills, passed in June, would set payment schedules and require a 25 percent advance on new contracts. The Legislature's records show neither has yet been sent to the governor.
Albany. A coalition of New York nonprofits delivered a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul on Nov. 3 asking her to sign two bills that would change how state agencies contract with and pay them. More than 800 nonprofits, businesses and funders joined the Coalition to Fix Government Contracting in the request, the coalition said; the letter itself counts 875 signers, nonprofit organizations and individuals.
Senate Bill 9761 and Senate Bill 9855A, both sponsored by Sen. Shelley B. Mayer and Assemblymember Amy Paulin, passed the Senate on June 1 and the Assembly on June 5. As of Nov. 4, the Legislature's records showed neither had been delivered to the governor, signed or vetoed.
What the letter asks for
The first bill would require clear payment schedules in agencies' written directives to nonprofits, let a nonprofit borrow up to a contract's full value from the state's short-term revolving loan fund, and allow subcontractors' invoices as proof for payment. The second would require an advance of 25 percent of a new contract's total value, paid within 30 days of the contract's execution. The letter says both were written in response to the concerns in Ms. Hochul's veto of last year's version, Veto Memo No. 94 of 2025.
The signers cite a survey in which 33 percent of nonprofits with state contracts were owed money for services already delivered, at least $58 million in all. Applied to every contract the state holds with nonprofits, the letter says, the state may owe more than $650 million. The coalition attributes the survey to Nonprofits in Peril, a May 2025 report by its members.
A promise of a new state position
Megan Allen, chief executive of the New York Council of Nonprofits, said the governor promised administrative changes in her veto message and that nonprofits had yet to see them. She said the governor's staff said in September that the state plans to hire for a full-time position focused only on nonprofit contracting, and that the step does not remove the need for the bills.
Jacqueline Ebanks, president and chief executive of Nonprofit New York, said New York City already guarantees nonprofits a 50 percent advance on their contracts, and that the bills ask the state for half that.
“Governor Hochul has one more chance to get this right. New York’s nonprofits cannot afford any more delays.”
The coalition's steering members are the Human Services Council, the New York Council of Nonprofits, the New York Legal Services Coalition, Nonprofit New York, Nonprofit Westchester and Partnership for the Public Good.
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