Legislative Bulletin: One-House Budget Priorities Being Developed Now

Using the revenue projections established by the State Comptroller, the Legislature is set to have their one-house budget bills finalized by Wednesday, March 13^th. This is your last chance to contact legislators and advocate for our key budget initiatives.

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli Sets Revenues for 2019-2020 State Budget Negotiations

The Legislature and the Executive were unable to reach a consensus on available revenue last week. The failure to reach consensus meant that State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, as is required by law, would be responsible for establishing the final revenues for state budget negotiations.

On Tuesday, DiNapoli set revenues at a conservative $190 million more than Governor Cuomo had proposed, but far less than the legislature projected. The Governor had initially projected revenue at $168.2 billion over the next two years. The Senate majority had projected there would be $900 million more to spend than under Cuomo’s proposal and the Assembly Democrats had projected $926 million more. The comptroller’s decision means less money is available for the legislature’s priorities and budget cut “buy-backs”. The reduction in revenue from the legislature’s initial projections underscores that this is a critical time for you to engage with your lawmakers.

“Some Cuts Never Heal”: A Powerful, Unified Message from New York Healthcare Providers

On Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of New Yorkers marched through the capital concourse, up state street and onto the empire state plaza carrying signs that read “Some Cuts Never Heal”. The Rally for New York Healthcare began at the capitol convention center with several speakers including Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, Senate Health Chair Gustavo Rivera, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, HANYS VP of State Policy Jim Clancy and LeadingAge New York President Jim Clyne.

The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and partner associations organized the rally to urge state legislators to reject the $550 million cut to Medicaid proposed in the SFY 2019-20 Executive Budget. Several LeadingAge New York members joined the rally and demonstrated a unified opposition to the largest state budget healthcare reductions proposed in years.

Governor Cuomo Issues Proclamation for Careers in Aging Week

This week, LeadingAge partnered with the Gerontological Society of America, AHCA/NCAL and Argentum on a nation-wide Careers in Aging Week. The purpose of the week was to help member organizations raise awareness of the rich variety of jobs in the field of aging services and get students engaged early.

Governor Cuomo demonstrated his support and issued a proclamation on Thursday declaring March 3-9, 2019 to be Careers in Aging Week. For ideas on how to engage with students in your community on career opportunities throughout the year, visit the LeadingAge Careers in Aging page.

Prevailing Wage Bill Advances in Assembly

Bill A.1261(Bronson)/S.1947(Ramos) saw some movement this week when it was reported out of Assembly Codes Committee on Tuesday and was placed on the Assembly Floor Calendar. The bill would impose public works “prevailing wage” requirements on most types of private sector projects receiving any level of financial support from state or local entities. LeadingAge New York opposes this legislation, as prevailing wage requirements could increase labor costs by 25 percent or more, thereby increasing overall construction project costs by 15-20 percent for many projects.

In the Senate, the bill still sits in the Labor Committee. LeadingAge New York’s official memo of opposition can be found here.

Advocacy Day Recap

Thank you to all those who took part in LeadingAge New York’s second 2019 Advocacy Day on Tuesday! We had 25 members attend over 30 meetings with Assembly and Senate leadership. It was another great day of grassroots advocacy with discussion on a variety of issues related to housing, adult care facilities (ACFs), assisted living, aging services programs, with a particular focus on a $10 million, five-year investment in an Affordable Independent Senior Housing Assistance Program and an increase in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rate for ACF residents.

Notable highlights included LeadingAge New York’s meetings with the new Assembly Aging Committee Chair Harry Bronson, who was very engaged on the workforce crisis, and new Senate Housing Committee Chair Brian Kavanagh’s staff who informed us that an introduction of the Senate’s Affordable Independent Senior Housing Assistance bill was on its way. There were also productive leadership meetings with Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera’s staff and western New York legislators Senator Tim Kennedy and Assemblywoman Monica Wallace.

All of the handouts used during our Advocacy Days can be found here and we encourage you to use them in your ongoing advocacy this budget season. With a new majority in the Senate and dozens of new legislators, we need your help to educate lawmakers during the final month of State budget negotiations. Please share these issue briefs with your lawmakers in their districts.

During the busy month of March, legislators will be in Albany Monday through Thursday and in their district offices on Fridays. We strongly encourage you to call your legislators at this time. It is critical that the lawmakers in your district and neighboring districts understand how the budget will impact your organization and why they should support our policy agenda.

Last Chance to Engage with Your Lawmakers Before One-House Budgets Are Passed!

Time is running out to contact your lawmakers before one-house budgets are finalized! The Assembly and Senate are expected to sign off on resolutions outlining their priorities early next week, with budget committees convening on Wednesday to begin negotiating a final budget. As discussions start to pick up, it is imperative that your legislators hear from you. Remember: if our issues are not addressed in at least one of the one-house bills, it is highly unlikely that they will be part of the final enacted budget.

Now is the time to call your lawmakers and ask that they reject the nursing home case-mix cut and the .8% reduction. You can click here to find your legislators and start dialing, or you can click here to send them an email opposing the cut to case-mix.

Other initiatives that we would like to see addressed in the one-house bills include:

An investment in LTPAC Workforce Recruitment and Retention – Contact your legislators now!
An increase to SSI for ACFs– Contact your legislators now!
Funding for the Affordable Independent Senior Housing Assistance Program – Contact you legislators now!
Reject the Deep Cuts to MLTC – Contact your legislators now!
Reject the ADHC Transportation Carve-Out – Contact your legislators now!

We also ask that you encourage your colleagues, staff, families, consumers and board members, asking them to share the messages that are most impacting your community. The more people bringing these issues to the attention of the legislature, the better. And don’t forgot the importance of sharing these messages on social media - Facebook and Twitter offer an opportunity to vastly expand our influence.

For more ideas and updates on LeadingAge New York Advocacy efforts, please visit our Advocacy Page.

Ami Schnauber, aschnauber@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8854

Sarah Daly, sdaly@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8845