Budget Update!
This week we witnessed a lot of movement toward a final budget agreement, which is still expected by next Thurs., March 21. The Senate and Assembly voted on their one-house budget proposals on Monday afternoon and immediately convened the Joint Budget Conference Committees. If you missed our summary of the issues of concern to aging services providers that were included in the Senate and Assembly one-house bills – click here to check it out.
The joint budget conference committees met throughout the week to discuss their budget priorities and begin negotiations. Table targets, totaling $550 million in additional spending were released yesterday by the General Conference Committee (the leaders). The Health Subcommittee was provided $60 million, the Mental Hygiene Subcommittee was provided $40 million; and the Environment, Agriculture and Housing Subcommittee was allocated $35 million. These allocations are not sufficient to cover all the priorities that the Legislature outlined in their one-house proposals. In this regard, our advocacy will be important today to ensure that priority funding for EQUAL and Enriched Housing as well as supportive senior housing are protected.
Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders are expected to meet again today in New York City to discuss outstanding issues, such as education funding, casino placement, increasing minimum wage and a potential tax cut for businesses. Senators are meeting today in Albany to discuss a wage hike-tax cut package. The Legislative leaders are hopeful that budget bills could be printed as early as this weekend. The bills will need three days for lawmakers to review before they are live for a vote because legislators would like to pass the budget without the governor issuing a message of necessity to waive the three day aging process.
LeadingAge New York remains part of budget discussions and has been meeting extensively with lawmakers and central staff on key priorities. Key outstanding issues include:
Quality funding: The Assembly and Senate restoration of the governor’s cut to the EQUAL program and restore funding to 2012-1013 level ($6.9 million).
SSI enriched housing subsidy: The Assembly and Senate restoration of the Enriched Housing Subsidy to 2012-2013 level ($502,900).
CHHA & LTHHCP streamlining: The Assembly provisions in their one-house budget bill related to CHHA and Lombardi programs, including: Prompt payment of clean claims by managed care plans, elimination of cap related to number of enrollees, adequate payment by MLTC for wage parity provisions, waiving federal conditions of participation for purposes of contracting with managed long term care plans, andadequacy of rates to MLTCs to cover costs of providers. The Senate also includes similar language related to: prompt payment of clean claims by managed care plans, and adequacy of rates to cover costs of providers.
Supportive Senior Housing: The Assembly accepted the governor’s allocation for supportive housing, the Senate reduced the allocation by $25 million, but included language requiring no less than $3 million be allocated to supportive senior housing. It will be critical to keep the Senate language related to our housing proposal in the final budget, especially if total supportive housing funding is reduced.
We ask that you remain engaged with your lawmakers until the budget is finalized -- please call your legislators today to express your budget priorities. All the resources you need are available here, including contact information and letters to legislators. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.