State Reaches Final Budget Agreement: Advocacy, Outcomes, and Next Steps
(May 13, 2025) After five weeks of negotiations that extended beyond the April 1st deadline, the State has officially reached a final budget agreement for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025-26 and approved all corresponding budget legislation. Last Wednesday, May 7th, within hours of the release of the Health and Mental Hygiene (HMH) budget bill, LeadingAge NY issued a high-level health budget summary related to long-term care and our membership. At that time, the Education, Labor, Housing, and Family Assistance (ELFA) budget bill and other critical appropriations bills had not yet been published. Thus, last Thursday, May 8th, LeadingAge NY published a supplemental high-level summary of the final budget’s housing measures and additional takeaways revealed by the remaining budget bills. We welcome all members to join advocacy discussions during our May 15th Public Affairs Council meeting.
It is important to note that we are still analyzing the entirety of the final State budget and how it might apply to our membership. A comprehensive final budget memo, covering all service lines, will be available by Fri., May 16th.
We deeply appreciate all the powerful advocacy our members have done this year to advocate and fight for the State funding that providers need and older adults deserve. In total, our network of advocates sent over 8,000 digital budget letters to legislators and the Governor, not counting individual member efforts. In addition, many members created advocacy videos, participated in press events, amplified social media messages, attended multiple Advocacy Day efforts in Albany, wrote formal letters, and more. Your advocacy was robust, creative, and impressive all around. While it will be important for us to build upon our advocacy work going forward, we first want to thank you for all your advocacy so far this year – thank you!
Next Steps
As we plan our next steps, it will be crucial to channel our frustration into meaningful action, to oppose harmful legislation still being considered, and to amplify a unified message to NY policymakers and to the public. The 2025 Legislative Session is scheduled to conclude on June 12th, but there is a great deal of legislation that will be considered and potentially passed by the Legislature between now and then. We will need members to stay engaged in advocacy over the final weeks of session to help us oppose harmful bills and support the ones that would be helpful to members and older adults.
Lastly, LeadingAge NY has already begun to publicly respond to the final State budget agreement, issuing this press statement on Thurs., May 8th. Part of the statement reads: “Year after year, we sound the alarm about nursing home closures and staffing shortages, but these warnings were not heeded in the final budget. The only conclusion we can reach is that the state deems it acceptable for more non-profit nursing homes to close, for families to face difficulty finding a safe place for their loved one to receive care close to home, and for hospitals to continue to battle back-ups.”
Please reach out to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org with any questions.