Legislative Bulletin: Gearing Up for Final Few Weeks of State Budget Work
March 17, 2023
LeadingAge NY One-House Budget Summary & Budget Update
On Tuesday afternoon, both the Assembly and the Senate advanced their one-house budget proposals and continuing resolutions for expedited passage. The Senate budget bills and Budget Resolution (SR 555), and the Assembly bills and Budget Resolution (HR 190), were passed and approved by their respective houses during yesterday’s session proceedings. Along with their budget bills and resolution, the Assembly also published a summary of their house’s budget proposal. On Wednesday morning, LeadingAge New York issued a high-level summary of the one-house budgets, highlighting the proposals that relate to senior housing and long-term/post-acute care.
LeadingAge New York is pleased to see that many of our top budget priorities are still “alive” due to their inclusion in the Executive Budget and/or either of the one-houses. However, we are also disappointed that some of our priorities were not included in the Legislature’s proposals or were only addressed in part. A key positive takeaway from the one-houses is that each house proposes a 10% Medicaid rate increase for nursing homes, assisted living programs, and adult day health care programs. This is the largest Medicaid increase to long-term care we have seen proposed in well over a decade! However, there are different nuances between the two budget proposals as they relate to nursing home staffing funds and language to require a more frequent “rebasing” of nursing home Medicaid rates. Further, the Executive Budget proposal only recommends a Medicaid increase of 5% and no additional nursing home staffing funds. As the Executive, Senate and Assembly participate in three-way budget negotiations over the next two weeks, these differences in proposals – and many others – will need to be reconciled.
With only two weeks left of this year’s state budget work, we will need to redouble our advocacy efforts to ensure that long-term care and the people we serve are supported and represented in the Final State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2023-24 Budget, due April 1, 2023.
As of this writing, there has been no announcement from the Legislature about the General Budget Conference Committee (the “Mothership”) or other joint budget subcommittees convening meetings. Typically, by now these announcements of budget committee appointments and public meetings would have been made available. LeadingAge New York is continuing to monitor all state budget activity and developments and will keep members apprised accordingly. Please keep an eye out for budget updates in Intelligence and Legislative Bulletin, as well as email action alerts! Thank you for staying engaged with us during these final weeks of state budget work!
New Social Media Toolkit Now Available!
As we enter the final two weeks of New York State Budget work, LeadingAge New York has created a new set of social media messages and graphics! These messages have been crafted for a general public, family member, resident, consumer audience, and are aimed at raising awareness of long-term care underfunding. If members choose, the messages can easily be tailored to capture the attention of the Governor & State Legislators OR they can be used to enlist your social media following in budget advocacy.
The NEW social media messages, graphics, and instructions for how we recommend members use these tools are available here. The messages themselves are crafted so you can simply copy & paste into your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. To add an image to your message, simply download & save the graphic and add it to your post.
Please reach out to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org with any questions.
Join Us for Next Week’s Public Affairs Council Meeting!
As we find ourselves in the thick of state budget activity, it is an important time to ensure that LeadingAge New York and its members are collaborating well on all advocacy and press strategies. The Public Affairs Council’s goal and intention is to allow for better communication and collaboration among LeadingAge NY and our membership as we work together to educate the public and lawmakers about the importance and value of quality, mission-driven long-term care and aging services. This time of year, the key focus is communicating a unified message that will result in the accomplishment of our top budget priorities.
The next Public Affairs Council meeting is set for Thursday, March 23rd at 3 p.m. During this meeting, we will be discussing important advocacy tools and strategies that are being implemented for the final days of state budget work. We also will want to hear from members about the implementation of recent social media tools and what you are hearing from the legislators you are connecting with.
If you have not already signed up to be a part of our public affairs council, or would like to make sure someone in your organization is a part of the council, you can sign up for emails and Zoom meeting invitations here!
Send Legislators & the Governor Budget Advocacy Letters TODAY!
Now that we have seen the one-house budget proposals, the Governor, the Senate and the Assembly will begin their three-way budget negotiations – reconciling the difference between the three proposals to come to a Final SFY 2023-24 State Budget.
LeadingAge New York has crafted the below service-line specific digital advocacy letters to help us keep the pressure on legislators for the remainder of 2023-24 budget discussions. Each letter takes only a minute or two to send. Simply enter your information to automatically send an email to the Governor and your State Senator and Assembly Member!
Please use the below links to send messages to your legislators and the Governor TODAY!
- Nursing Home Budget Letters – several letters available for family members, staff, residents, etc.
- Affordable Senior Housing Budget Letter
- ACF/ALP & Low-Income Seniors Budget Letter
- ALR Budget Letter
- Home & Community-Based Services Budget Letter
- Managed Long-Term Care Budget Letter
- Adult Day Health Care Budget Letter
- CCRC Budget Letter
After you send your letters, we strongly encourage members to share these links with residents, families, staff, board members and volunteers. This is a simple and easy way to amplify our message!
REGISTER NOW: LeadingAge National Leadership Summit & Lobby Day
LeadingAge National’s spring conference and lobby day is scheduled for April 17-19 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. During the 2023 LeadingAge Leadership Summit, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about forward-looking solutions to solve the problems of today and the future, explore ideas to help bolster and empower our workforce, and influence the nation’s decision-makers via a coordinated lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.
This year, the Leadership Summit is structured in a way that allows attendees to participate in lobby efforts without missing any educational sessions or opportunities. All education sessions will conclude by 12 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19th, at which point an afternoon of lobby day meetings will begin for those that would like to participate.
Sarah Daly of LeadingAge New York will be attending the summit and lobby day, and will be there to join meetings with any New York membership that chooses to attend. All meetings will be organized and set up by LeadingAge National, so, all you need to do is register and book your flight! We hope to see you there!
Click here to register for the 2023 Leadership Summit and Lobby Day, today!
LeadingAge & LeadingAge New York 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 Policy Updates – Mondays and Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.
Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org