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Legislative Bulletin: Four Weeks Remaining of State Legislative Session

May 8, 2026

Final State Budget in View, but Still Delayed

Yesterday morning, Governor Hochul announced a “general agreement” on the final spending plan for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2027. In her 45-minute address, there was no direct reference to the healthcare budget, nor the $1.5 billion that had been proposed for hospitals and nursing homes and how those dollars would be divided. Similarly, there was no specific mention of the state master plan on aging, senior housing, or how the state is planning to serve older adults or people with disabilities.

The lack of specificity in the Governor’s announcement about several major areas of the budget were later explained by a short statement from state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who called the announcement “premature,” saying there is no final deal in place.

Both the Governor and Speaker acknowledged that there are many details related to specific dollar allocations, education, healthcare and certain other policies that are still being worked out. While the Governor signaled that we may see budget bills in print “within a week”, the Speaker’s reality check may call that timeline into question.

As of this writing, the State Budget is 38 days late. The most recent budget extension, which was introduced and approved yesterday, extends negotiations through Monday, May 11th. A Spectrum News 1 podcast covering yesterday’s activity and key policies being debated in the budget is available for easy listening here.

We know that this has been another drawn out state budget process, and we thank our membership for advocating fiercely with us throughout the last several months! This continues to be a critical moment to ensure we don’t let up the pressure!

Below, members will find a phone call action alert, along with service-line specific talking points. Please take the time to advocate with us over the coming days!

 

ACTION NEEDED: Please Continue to Call State Legislators Today & Monday!

With details still open on the state’s health care spending plan for SFY 2027, we need members to help us advocate and keep pressure on state legislators. Constituent voices matter most, so if you have not called your legislators this week, please be sure to call them on Monday morning to help ensure our budget priorities are included in the final state budget for SFY 2027.

  • Members can find state legislators’ contact information here. Please call the Albany office of both your State Senator and Assembly Member. Please also call any other state legislators whom you have spoken to this year.
  • Point out that “protecting New Yorkers” as the Governor has said, also means protecting older adults, ensuring they can age safely and with dignity.
  • Phone call talking points for each service line are available here.​​​​​​​
    • Try to keep your top budget requests for phone calls to 3-4 items.
  • Calls will only take a few minutes and can make all the difference! 

Thank you for advocating with us throughout the state budget process. We will continue to keep members apprised of any updates.  

 

ACTION ALERT: Help us Advocate on Social Media

At this stage of the state budget process, much of the decision-making is with Governor Hochul and the leadership of the Senate and Assembly. A key strategy to capture the attention of policymakers during this final stretch of state budget advocacy is to leverage the power of social media. Please join us in a social media campaign, urging the State to “Stop the Crisis and Fully Fund LTC!”

LeadingAge NY members are strongly encouraged to like and share the recent news articles posted by LeadingAge NY. Links to LeadingAge NY social media posts are available below.

Please help amplify these stories – like and share on social media!

  1. NEW: Aging-in-place advocates call for funding $2M resident assistance pilot in older adult housing:
  2. Newsday, Nursing Homes Fight for Adequate State Funding, featuring Gurwin Healthcare System:
  3. Rochester Business Journal, Support Certified Medication Aides in Nursing Homes, featuring St. Ann’s Community:

We encourage members to tag the Governor and legislative leaders in the reposting of an article, their Facebook handles are available here: @Governor Kathy Hochul, @Andrea Stewart-Cousins, @NYSAssemblyMajority Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin, @State Senator Liz Krueger

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

Thank you for continuing to advocate with us!

 

ACTION ALERT: Help Advocate in Support of ALP Legislation

As anticipated, the pace of bill movement and legislative activity is accelerating quickly now with only 5 weeks remaining of the scheduled 2026 State Legislative Session.

This week, we would like to draw member attention to the following bills which either moved through committees this week, or are already posted on agendas for next week.

Please help us advocate on these assisted living program (ALP) bills which LeadingAge NY supports:

Unfortunately, there are also some bills that advanced this week that LeadingAge New York Strongly opposes. The below two bills advanced out of the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday and now are on the Senate Calendar. Please help us advocate against these two bills which would increase provide penalties!

Oppose:

With many LTC issues remaining front-of-mind for legislators, and with many new pieces of legislation emerging this year, we ask members to please continue to advocate with us throughout the remainder of this Legislative Session!

 

SFY 2026-27 State Budget Advocacy Resources from LeadingAge NY

 

Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org

 

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