Legislative Bulletin: SFY 2021-22 Budget Negotiations Extend Past April 1st Due Date
April 2, 2021
SFY 2021-22 State Budget Update
At the writing of this bulletin on the morning of April 2, 2021, the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021-22 State Budget has yet to be finalized. The Legislature and the Governor have been in the thick of three-way negotiations for over a week and at this time, there are only three final budget bills in print: Debt Service, Legislature and Judiciary, and Transportation and Economic Development (TED). The Legislature has indicated that the passage of most final budget bills will likely take place next week with a new budget “deadline” of April 7th.
LeadingAge NY has been hard at work in these final days of negotiations, learning what we can about what may be included in the final budget bills, particularly the Health and Mental Health (HMH) and Revenue bills. At this point in time, we are hearing that all proposed cuts to Medicaid and long-term care providers will be restored in the final budget. We are also hearing that there may be some additional funding for select long-term care provider types, however, the specifics of this (how much money and to whom) remains to be seen.
Earlier this week, we sent several action alerts to LeadingAge members in key Democratic Assembly and Senate districts, urging members to contact legislators on the nursing home direct care staff spending (the “70/40”) proposal. We believe this is one of the potential budget actions that has been heavily debated in three-way negotiations and a final agreement is likely to be included in one of the budget bills. We do not know the final details of how they plan to calculate revenue for this staffing measure, which is critical to understanding how it will impact our members. However, based on our conversations this week, we believe that continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) and specialty facilities will be excluded from the pending staffing requirement. We also believe our advocacy was successful in eliminating the proposed $250,000 cap on nursing home executive compensation. Unfortunately, the final budget agreement may still include a 5% profit cap on nursing homes.
While we hope members find this update valuable and informative, nothing is final until budget bills are in print. We expect that most bills will be in print by Saturday so that they can “age” before final passage early next week. Once budget bills are in print, LeadingAge NY will begin our thorough analysis of the final budget as it relates to senior housing and long-term/post-acute care providers. We will issue an initial, high-level budget analysis shortly after we see the health budget bill language, and will issue a more comprehensive budget memo in the days following the final budget’s passage.
We thank all LeadingAge NY members for your diligent and consistent advocacy throughout this unprecedented budget cycle! Any success we may see in the final budget would not have been possible without your advocacy. Thank you! And stay tuned.
Compassionate Care Bill Signed into Law
On Monday, the Governor signed into law A.1052B (Bronson)/S.614B (May), a bill which allows nursing home and adult care facility residents to receive “personal caregiving” and “compassionate caregiving” visitors. While LeadingAge NY has been consistently advocating for greater flexibility of visitation since the summer months of 2020, we did have some concerns about the implementation of this particular legislation and its potential of further complicating the inconsistencies between state and federal visitation guidance.
Before the Governor’s action on the bill, we sent the Executive a letter explaining our concerns and recommendations. We also shared with the Executive suggested amendments to make the legislation more effective in its goal and eliminate any unintended implications for providers. Fortunately, in the Governor’s approval message, he indicated that he “secured an agreement with the Legislature to include several amendments ensuring visitation is not inadvertently overly restricted by the bill’s provisions”.
LeadingAge NY has not yet seen the agreed-upon amendments to the bill, however, it is possible that they may be included in one of the several outstanding final budget bills. Importantly, the law is not immediately effective and requires the Department of Health (DOH) to develop regulations to allow personal caregiving visitation. Therefore, there are still several unresolved details regarding the implementation of this new law. We will continue to keep members apprised of any changes they may need to make to compassionate care visitation policies.
Governor Signs Legislation Legalizing Recreational Marijuana
This week, the Legislature announced that after three years of attempts, a deal had been reached on the legalization of recreational marijuana. The agreed upon Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) A.1248-A (Peoples-Stokes)/S.854-A (Krueger) was passed in the Senate and the Assembly on Tuesday night and was signed by the Governor early Wednesday morning.
The MRTA creates a new framework to regulate the production and sale of cannabis, creating the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), within the Division of Alcohol Beverage Control. Key provisions of the law include the decriminalization of the possession of up to three ounces of marijuana, strengthening the state's already existing medicinal marijuana program, allowing for the co-location of adult-use and medicinal marijuana dispensary sites, and automatically expunging the records of prior marijuana-related convictions that are no longer illegal. The bill also includes provisions for studying the impact of traffic safety once it fully takes effect.
Importantly, the state expects to raise $350 million in tax revenue, with 40% diverted to education, 40% to community grants, and 20% to drug treatment. A key component of the law’s intent is to reinvest millions of dollars of tax revenues from cannabis in minority communities ravaged by the decades-long war on drugs.
New York is now the 15th state in the U.S. to legalize recreational adult-use cannabis.
Register Now for LeadingAge National Virtual Lobby Day!
We are just weeks away from the 2021 LeadingAge National Lobby Day! Every year, LeadingAge connects members with their lawmakers on Capitol Hill to advocate for policies that remove barriers to care, advocate for more affordable senior housing, develop new services, improve reimbursement, and make America a better place for older adults. This year, as aging services providers begin the process of rebuilding in a post-crisis world - it is more critical than ever to make our voices heard.
LeadingAge’s Congressional Lobby Day is scheduled for April 21, 2021 and registration is now open! Congressional lobby days serve as great opportunities to meet with elected officials and advocate for issues that are important to aging services. Importantly, with new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer leading the Senate and House Democrats maintaining their majority, New York is well positioned to be particularly influential on the national level. We strongly encourage LeadingAge NY members to take advantage of our strategic advantage and join us in engaging with Federal lawmakers!
Additionally, if you are new to national advocacy, registrants will receive a confirmation email with dates and times for a lobby day training and open “office hours” with opportunities to ask LeadingAge National any questions. Click here to learn more and register today!
President Biden Introduces American Jobs Plan
President Biden’s $2 trillion “American Jobs Plan” would substantially increase funding for affordable housing and home and community-based services (HCBS). The infrastructure plan calls attention to the severe shortage of affordable housing options in America, and calls for $213 billion to “build, preserve, and retrofit more than two million homes and commercial buildings” through the following approaches:
- Produce, preserve, and retrofit more than a million affordable, resilient, accessible, energy efficient, and electrified housing units
- Build and rehabilitate more than 500,000 homes for low- and middle-income homebuyers
- Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies
- Address longstanding public housing capital needs
- Put workers back to work upgrading homes and businesses
The plan also calls for $400 billion in funding to “solidify the infrastructure of our care economy by creating jobs and raising wages and benefits for essential home care workers” through the following approaches:
- Expand access to HCBS and extend the longstanding Money Follows the Person program that supports innovations in the delivery of long-term care.
- Put in place an infrastructure to create good middle-class jobs and a free and fair choice to join a union. HCBS expansion under Medicaid can support well-paying caregiving jobs through better wages and benefits, building state infrastructure to improve the quality of services and support workers.
It's difficult to say how this proposal will pan out, but LeadingAge New York is encouraged to see HCBS and affordable housing considered critical components of this plan and we hope bipartisan support will lead to an agreement for significant investment in these areas.
LeadingAge & LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources
LeadingAge NY continues to closely follow all COVID-19 news and we are doing our best to keep members informed of updates, recommendations and guidelines from the Department of Health (DOH).
LeadingAge NY and LeadingAge National Member resources are linked below.
LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources
LeadingAge NY COVID-19 Weekly Update calls – Mondays at 11 a.m. Click here to join the call from your computer, android or apple device. Or you can join the call by dialing in: 877 853 5257 (Toll Free); Webinar ID: 852 964 255.
LeadingAge National Coronavirus Resources Page
LeadingAge National Pandemic Playbook
COVID-19 Group in the MyLeadingAge Member Community
Coronavirus Daily Member Update calls – Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.
Contact: Ami Schnauber; 518.867.8854; aschnauber@leadingageny.org
Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org