Legislative Bulletin: Guess Who’s Back…
January 6, 2023
The State Legislature Returns with Announcements of New Committee Chairs
The New York State Legislature returned to Albany on Wednesday, Jan. 4th for their first day of the 2023 Legislative Session. The first day of the 2023 session was accompanied by the re-filing of hundreds of bills and the announcement of 2023 legislative leadership and committee chair appointments. With the dust settling from last year’s election results and redistricting activities, there are several key committee leadership changes that are relevant for our LeadingAge NY membership.
Perhaps most notably, with the retirement of long-time Assembly Health Chair Dick Gottfried, the Assembly Health Committee at long-last received a new appointed Chair – Assembly Member Amy Paulin. Paulin is a Democrat and has served on the Assembly Health Committee for several years. She represents Assembly District 88, covering parts of Westchester County. The Assembly Health Committee also received a new Minority Health Ranker – Assembly Member Josh Jensen. Jensen represents Assembly District 134 in Rochester, NY.
Other noteworthy committee changes include the appointment of Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal as the new Assembly Housing Committee Chair, Assembly Member Patricia Fahy as the new Assembly Higher Education Chair and Senator Cleare as the new Senate Aging Chair. Senator Gustavo Rivera who has presided over the Senate Health Committee for the last several years retained his position as Chair of Health, Senator Brian Kavanagh remains as the Senate Housing Committee Chair, and Assembly Member Ron Kim remains as the Assembly Aging Chair.
LeadingAge New York has already fostered strong relationships with all of these legislative leaders and is looking forward to building upon these connections and collaborations throughout the 2023 session and beyond. LeadingAge NY members that reside in the legislative districts of the lawmakers that have received new committee appointments, as referenced above, are encouraged to reach out to those offices with a message of congratulations and request for partnership in the legislative session ahead.
A full list of Senate Committee Chair appointments is available here, and a list of Assembly leadership appointments is available here.
Lastly, with the 2022 general election behind us, the State Legislature now includes 34 brand new state lawmakers! This along with the redistricting activities that took place last year could mean your state representation has changed. LeadingAge New York members are strongly encouraged to use our Find My Legislator tool to identify your lawmakers and foster strong relationships with State Senators and Assembly Members.
SAVE THE DATE: 2023 Virtual Advocacy Week Set for Feb. 13-17
Due to the still-present COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented challenges our membership is contending with in the areas of workforce, this year’s LeadingAge New York Advocacy Week will once again be virtual, focused on virtual Zoom meetings, phone calls, letter writing and social media. Please SAVE THE DATE for our 2023 Virtual Advocacy Week scheduled for February 13-17.
Virtual advocacy poses many unique benefits, including a reduced time commitment in order to participate in meetings and the potential for inclusion of residents, staff, or board members in meetings. During Advocacy Week, LeadingAge NY will be making it as easy as possible for members to send digital advocacy letters, make phone calls, and use social media to get the attention of the Legislature.
Member participation in virtual advocacy may only take an hour or two of your time but will be the most impactful tool in drawing the Legislature’s attention to our 2023 budget priorities. During last year’s advocacy week, LeadingAge NY and our members connected with nearly 80 legislators and legislative staff. While we were thrilled with last year’s participation, this year, we are setting the goal of connecting with over 100 legislators and staff! We will need the participation of all LeadingAge NY membership in order to reach this goal and make our unified voice heard!
To ensure we connect with as many lawmakers as possible during this critical time of the state budget process, members are strongly encouraged to begin setting up their own virtual meetings with your State Senator and Assembly Member as soon as possible. Please note that LeadingAge NY policy staff will be available to join you for any of the meetings that you schedule during advocacy week.
You can confirm who your lawmakers are by entering your information here. Once your meetings are scheduled, please send meeting details to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org so that we can track our advocacy impact and/or assign a LeadingAge NY staff member to your meeting. Additionally, if you need assistance in scheduling your meetings, would like to use a LeadingAge NY Zoom account for the meeting, or would like to discuss any advocacy strategy, please do not hesitate to reach out to Sarah directly. We are happy to support and assist you in all advocacy efforts.
Advocacy days are an incredibly impactful way to bring many voices together at a specific time to enhance the relevance and weight of our message. We hope that you will join us in urging the Legislature to #SupportOurSeniors in the 2023-24 Budget cycle!
Need to Know: The New York State Budget Process
As we celebrate the welcoming of a new year, fresh starts, and the beginning of a new legislative session, it is important that we also note that next week we will find ourselves at the very beginning of the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2023-24 Budget cycle. Since we may have some new readers of our LeadingAge New York Legislative Bulletin, we wanted to share some reminders about the state budget process and some important timeframes to be aware of.
The State budget cycle will officially kick off next week, with the Governor’s State of the State address set for Jan. 10th at 1 p.m. During this address, the Governor will highlight some of the key priorities we can expect to be included in the SFY 2023-24 Executive Budget Proposal. While this address will give us a sense of what may be in the Executive Budget, much will remain uncertain until we see the proposed Executive Budget legislation, which is due to be released no later than Feb. 1st.
From the time that we see budget bills, through February and early March, stakeholders and members of the Legislature will review the Executive’s proposal and begin to recommend changes and amendments to the Governor and legislative leaders. In mid-March, both the Senate and Assembly will put forth their one-house budget proposals, amending the Executive’s proposal to reflect what each house of the Legislature believes should be included in the 2023-24 Final Budget.
Following the completion of the one-house budget process, “three-way negotiations” will begin between the Executive, the Senate, and the Assembly. These negotiations typically take place in the final weeks of March, with the goal of coming to a final budget agreement before April 1, 2023. It is not unheard of for budget negotiations to extend beyond the due date of April 1st. In fact, last year the 2022-23 final budget was not completely approved and passed until April 9, 2022.
While this may be a lot of information for members to consider all at once, please be assured that LeadingAge NY will be guiding members through our advocacy strategies and priority areas every step of the way. Often, our advocacy focus and strategies will evolve throughout the process. We thank you in advance for staying engaged with us in all 2023 advocacy activities! Your voice is integral to any success we will have during this year’s state budget cycle.
ACTION ALERT: Tag the Governor in a Budget Social Media Message TODAY!
As we await the Governor’s State of the State address scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 10th, it is critical that our LeadingAge New York membership is working in unison to grasp the Governor’s attention, urging her to provide meaningful investments for nursing homes and the long-term care continuum in the 2023 Executive Budget Proposal.
With this in mind, ALL LeadingAge New York members are strongly encouraged to post the following social media messages on professional and personal social media platforms! Simply copy and paste the below messages into your Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram:
- Since 2007, the costs of providing medical care have risen by 42%. Meanwhile, nursing home Medicaid rates have remained stagnant. @GovKathyHochul, it’s time for NY to step up and provide a 20% Medicaid rate increase for NY’s nursing homes to #SupportOurSeniors and our workforce.
- Between 2015 & 2040, the number of adults age 65+ will increase by 50% & the number of adults over 85 will double. Research shows that nearly 3/4 of these people will need some form of long-term care. @GovKathyHochul, please #SupportOurSeniors and invest in LTC!
- Resident Assistants in Affordable Senior Housing is proven to help older adults remain independent for longer AND provide State Medicaid savings. Yet, there is still no state program for senior resident assistance. @GovKathyHochul please #SupportOurSeniors in this year's budget!
On a related note, this fall LeadingAge New York launched a Public Affairs Council with the goal and intention of facilitating 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. The council is a group of public relations, communications, and government affairs professionals from LeadingAge NY member organizations, and it is our goal to have at least one staff member from every member organization be a part of the council. If you or a colleague has not already joined the council, you can sign up to receive all updates and correspondence here. Additionally, LeadingAge New York has a whole suite of public relations materials for members to use, available here.
Governor Acts on Mandatory Nurse Overtime and PACE Expansion Bills
In the final days of 2022, Governor Hochul finally acted upon several bills that LeadingAge NY had been advocating on and tracking since the close of session in early June. On December 28th, the Governor approved PACE Expansion legislation, A.9542 (Gottfried)/S.8903 (May). LeadingAge NY wrote in support of this legislation, which will promote the expansion and more efficient oversight of the Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). Although PACE has operated in New York for over 30 years and was the home to the largest program in the country, the regulatory framework remains unnecessarily cumbersome, duplicative, and not always appropriate for the model of care. LeadingAge NY is optimistic that this legislation will establish a state PACE regulatory framework separate from other types of managed care, streamline the state approval process and help ensure transparency in the rate-setting process.
Then, on December 30th, the Governor acted upon three pieces of legislation related to the use of mandatory nurse overtime in home care, nursing homes and hospitals. A review of all three bills, their similarities and differences, and their outcome is available here. In summary, LeadingAge NY strongly opposed all three bills and weighed in with the Executive Chamber multiple times over the summer and fall in advance of the bills being delivered to the Governor for action. In addition to LeadingAge NY's advocacy, our members took matters into their own hands, writing over 200 emails to the Governor in opposition to the legislation.
Thanks to LeadingAge NY member advocacy, two of the three mandatory nurse overtime bills were vetoed by the Governor and only one was signed into law. The bill that was signed, A.286-A/S.1997-A (Gunther/Jackson), was approved only with the caveat of chapter amendments that were agreed upon by the Executive and the Legislature. Early indications suggest that those chapter amendments will include key changes for which LeadingAge NY has advocated to mitigate negative impacts and costs to our members.
LeadingAge NY will continue to keep members apprised of legislation signed, laws coming into effect, and any new requirements these laws may entail. In the meantime, please feel free to contact Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org with any questions pertaining to legislative activity.
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