Legislative Bulletin: One-house Budget Bills Passed

Budget Update: One-house Budget Bills Passed
This week marked many budget developments as the Assembly and Senate majorities released and passed their amendments to the Governor’s proposed 2014-15 State Budget. We are pleased to see a number of our concerns addressed by both the Assembly and the Senate, but at the same time, we are very concerned that neither house rejected the Governor’s proposal on nursing home standard wage and the Assembly has added patient handling mandates to the budget discussion.

While we support measures to ensure safe patient handling, the mandates in the bill are costly, redundant and do not provide adequate patient protections. LeadingAge New York feels strongly that patient handling legislation should be considered outside of the state budget and will continue our advocacy in that regard.

With the passage of the one-house budget priorities, the Legislature will convene the Joint Budget Conference Committees on Monday, beginning with the General Conference Committee at noon followed by the Subcommittees. We will keep you updated as the budget negotiations unfold. In the meantime, click here for a list of the Assembly’s budget priorities and here for the Senate budget priorities of concern to LeadingAge NY members.

We encourage you to continue your advocacy on these issues as the Legislature begins intense negotiations over the next two weeks. All the resources you need are available on our Legislative Action Center. If you have any questions or concerns about the Assembly and Senate’s one-house budget bills or the budget process, please contact Ami Schnauber or Alyssa Lovelace at 518-867-8383.

Budget Conference Committee Appointments
The Senate and Assembly have announced their appointees to the Joint Budget Conference Committees. If you see your legislators name on this list, please contact them today and ensure they understand our budget priorities. LeadingAge NY is strongly advocating with these legislators regularly but nothing is more effective than legislators hearing from their constituents. Please help us send a strong message to them!
General Conference Committee: consists of the leaders of the Senate and Assembly. This group will address global budget issues as well as contentious issues unaddressed by the Subcommittees. * denotes alternates
Senate: Dean Skelos (Co-Chair); Jeff Klein (Co-Chair); Tom Libous; John DeFrancisco; *David Valesky; Andrea Stewart-Cousins; * Elizabeth Krueger
Assembly: Speaker Sheldon Silver (Co-Chair); Herman D. Farrell; Joseph Morelle; Earlene Hooper; Brian Kolb
Health Subcommittee: Chaired by the Assembly and Senate Health Committee Chairs and includes the Aging Committee Chairs, as well. This subcommittee will address the health and Medicaid components of the budget.
Senate: Kemp Hannon (Co-Chair); David Valesky; William Larkin Cathy Young; *Martin Golden; Gustavo Rivera; *Kevin Parker;
Assembly: Richard Gottfried (Co-Chair); Kevin Cahill; Joan Millman; Charles Lavine; *Crystal Peoples-Stokes; Andrew Raia; *Ray Walter
Environment/Agriculture/Housing Subcommittee: This subcommittee will address housing issues, in this regard the Chairs of the Assembly and Senate Housing Committees are appointed to this committee.
Senate: George Maziarz (Co-Chair); Cathy Young; Mark Grisanti; Patty Ritchie; *John Bonacic; Adriano Espaillat; *Ted O’Brien
Assembly: Robert Sweeney (Co-Chair); Keith Wright; William Magee; Michael Cusick; *Alec Brook-Krasny; Cliff Crouch; *Peter Lopez

Host a Virtual Lobby Day to Get Your Message to Legislators!
The best way to ensure legislators hear our concerns is through a strong grassroots advocacy campaign. Help us get out the message by hosting a Virtual Lobby Day at your organization. Ask consumers, residents, family members, staff, board members and business partners to call their legislators. We need strong support to ensure nursing home standard wage is rejected, home care worker wage parity is funded, EQUAL funding is restored and safe patient handling mandates are kept out of the budget.

For your convenience, we have developed a number of materials to assist you plan a Virtual Lobby Day at your organization. And once again, LeadingAge NY will hold a drawing for two $100 awards for participants in our Virtual Lobby Day. All the materials to make your Virtual Lobby Day a success are available on our Legislative Action Center, including:

To access your legislator's contact information, click here, enter your zip code and select "elected officials." Legislators' contact information is also available on the Senate and Assembly websites. Once you've contacted your legislators, please fill out the response form, and return it to Alyssa Lovelace via email at alovelace@leadingageny.org or fax to 518-867-8384. Don't forget to indicate on your response form if you want to be included in the drawing to win $100! The two winners will be announced in April!

Asm. Rodriguez to Host Town Hall Meeting
Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez of the 68th Assembly District will host a town hall meeting this Sat., March 15th from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the impacts of the State budget. The event will be held at SCAN La Isla Del Barrio Beacon, located at 410 East 100th Street, First Avenue in New York City. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

Governor’s New Appointments
Gov. Cuomo announced a number of appointments yesterday, including: Kevin Kelly, COO of NYS Homes and Community Renewal; Peter F. Vallone, Jr., special assistant to commissioner of Dept. of Corrections and Community Supervision; Jamal Othman, deputy director, Divsion of Veterans' Affairs and Nora Yates, deputy director, Community, Opportunity & Reinvestment Initiative. Click here to learn more about the appointees.

Register Now for ACF/AL Advocacy Day
LeadingAge New York will host its annual Adult Care Facility/Assisted Living Advocacy Day on Mon., April 28. All materials will be posted to the ACF/AL Advocacy Day website. Click here to register.

Have Your Name Seen on the Green
We will once again be offering a tee-sign sponsorship for $200 at this year’s PAC golf tournament on Mon., June 16th. Those who sponsor a tee-sign will receive their name and their organization/company’s name on a tee-sign located on the green. This sponsorship is available to provider-members, as well as associate members, vendors and non-members. Click here to have your name seen on the green. Click here to register and view all sponsorship opportunities.