E-prescribing Mandate, Legislative Budget Proposals, Assembly Advances Senior Housing Proposal, Legislature to Pass One-House Budget Bills Next Week, PEAK Leadership Summit and Hill Visits, Paid Family Leave Update
E-prescribing Mandate Sixteen Days Away!
We are very pleased to report that the Senate has passed legislation that will allow the verbal order process in nursing homes to remain exempt from the e-prescribing mandate. The bill is now on the Assembly calendar for consideration. We need your help to get the bill passed in the Assembly. Please let your lawmakers know about the challenges of e-prescribing in the nursing home setting by visiting our campaign, to email, Tweet and Facebook your lawmakers on this issue.
Legislative Budget Proposals Take Shape
Throughout the week, legislative leaders began to preview their one-house budget proposals. The Assembly will advance: $30 million to combat heroin addiction; $1.7 billion for higher education investment; $83 million for child care support; $2 billion for education; and $2 million for senior communities (see article below). You can learn more about their proposals at the Assembly web page: http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/
The Senate Majority announced a broad-based tax cut plan to provide billions of dollars in tax relief to the middle class, seniors, and small businesses. The plan creates a new 25 percent rate reduction for middle class taxpayers, new tax savings to prevent seniors from leaving New York, and significant tax cuts for small businesses, farms, and other job creators. For seniors, the tax cut would provide the first increase to the exempt amount of private pensions and retirement income since 1981, saving approximately $275 million annually when fully phased in.
Breaking News: Assembly Advances Senior Housing Proposal
Moments ago, the Assembly announced that their proposed budget will appropriate $2.5 billion over five years to help revitalize and expand affordable housing in the state. While we are still awaiting the details, it appears that the Assembly will include a senior housing program proposal that we have advanced! The Assembly proposal will include “$150 million, $30 million per year, for a senior affordable housing program.” Read the full announcement here.
Assembly's Budget Proposal to Include $2 Million in Additional Funding for Senior Communities
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and chairman of the Committee on Aging, Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz made an announcement on Wed. that the Assembly is proposing to restore funding for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) and Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NNORCs).
In addition to renewing more than $950,000 to the NORCs and NNORCs, the Assembly one-house budget proposal will include an additional $2 million to expand these programs, which look to help aging community members maintain their independence and avoid hospital and nursing home stays.
The Assembly has also proposed modifications of the eligibility requirements for NORC and NNORC programs, including changing the minimum and maximum senior population requirements, changing the types of buildings that can participate, allowing the program to supplement services, lowering state match requirements to 25 percent of state grant funding, and requiring reports every five years.
The budget also includes $118,000 in funding not included in the Executive Budget, with $86,000 going to the Foundation for Senior Citizens Home Sharing and Respite and $32,000 to the Statewide Senior Action Council. The full press release can be viewed here.
PEAK Leadership Summit and Hill Visits
The LeadingAge PEAK Leadership Summit is being held next week, from March 14th to March 16th and will include a full day of visits with New York’s Congressional Delegation on Tues., March 15th. A series of meetings have been scheduled with lawmakers, beginning at 11:30 with Senator Schumer’s office and going through 4:00. We are still waiting to hear about additional meetings and a final meeting schedule will be shared with participants on Tues. morning. We shared the meeting schedule and Issue Brief with participants by email yesterday. Please let Dylan Wrixon know if you have any questions.
Legislature to Pass One-House Budget Bills Next Week.
This is your last opportunity to weigh-in with your elected officials in advance of them voting on their budget priorities. Please take a moment today to reach out to your legislative representatives – those that represent your workplace as well as where you live. Let them know what your priorities are in the upcoming budget. Below are links to all of our key issues. Please call, tweet, post to Facebook or email your lawmakers. Let your friends and family know you’ve advocated and ask them to do the same.
Invest in Senior Housing and Support Services: Ask your lawmakers to invest in affordable housing with support services to provide low-income seniors with access to safe places to live and basic supports in the community. Use this link to send a letter directly to your elected representatives. Also, you can Tweet, Facebook and email your lawmakers by texting HOUSING to 52886.
Ensure Medicaid and MLTC Rate Adequacy: Ask your asking lawmakers to reject the Governor’s proposed $23 million in cuts to Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) plan premiums and allocate an additional $90 million to support payment of MLTC premiums that are aligned with the costs of delivering care. Click here to support our efforts by sending a letter to your elected officials, tweeting them or posting a message on their Facebook page.
Reject Transportation Carve-Outs: Ask your lawmakers to reject the proposed carve-out of transportation services from the MLTC benefit package, from Adult Day Health Care Program rates, and from nursing home rates. Click here to support our efforts by sending a letter to your elected officials, tweeting them or posting a message on their Facebook page.
Invest in Adult Care & Assisted Living Services: Ask your lawmakers to increase the state’s SSI rate for low-income seniors living in ACFs and assisted living settings by at least $15 per day to bring the rate up to an adequate level. You can advocate on this issue by visiting our SSI Increase Advocacy page to send an email, Tweet or Facebook your lawmakers.
Fully Fund Minimum Wage Increase: Ask your lawmakers to fully fund any increase to the minimum wage. Find our campaign here and don’t forget, to Tweet, Facebook and email your lawmakers by texting MINIMUM WAGE to 52886.
Paid Family Leave Proposal Receives Numerous Endorsements
On Sunday, Governor Cuomo announced that more than 100 faith leaders from all across the state are joining his “Fight for Fairness” by endorsing his proposals for Paid Family Leave and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The press release and full list of faith leaders endorsing Cuomo’s proposals can be found here.
The Governor announced on Mon. that several of the state’s leading women's advocacy groups, have also endorsed the Governor’s proposal for Paid Family Leave. The advocacy groups included the National Organization for Women, the Campaign for a Pro-Choice New York and the League of Women Voters of New York State. The press release and full list of women’s groups endorsing Paid Family Leave can be viewed here.
On Tues., Governor Cuomo received an influential endorsement from U.S. Labor Secretary, Thomas Perez in Buffalo. Perez believes if New York passes the 12-week Paid Family Leave, it would be the most generous in the country and other states will follow.
Following a press conference unveiling the conference’s tax plan in their one-house budget resolution, Senate majority leader John Flanagan said his members still have many questions and concerns about paid family leave policy.
The Assembly, which has repeatedly passed its own proposal, which calls for up to 12 weeks off, to be funded by employee paycheck deductions through the state’s Temporary Disability Insurance.
Senator Jeff Klein, the head of the Senate Republican-allied IDC, introduced his own paid family leave proposal that goes beyond the Governor or the Assembly proposals. Last year, the Senate included a paid family leave plan from Klein in its budget proposal. Klein’s proposal last year, which Cuomo thought didn’t go far enough, offered six weeks of paid leave at a rate of up to $424 a week in the first year, increasing to 50 percent of the average weekly wage in subsequent years.
For Our Mets and Baseball Fans Out There
There was a break in all things budget and a little excitement in the halls of the Capitol this week with the presence of former Mets catcher and Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee Mike Piazza. Senator Jose Peralta, a Democrat from Queens, presented a resolution honoring Piazza for his first-ballot induction into the Hall of Fame.
Stay-tuned for advocacy alerts beginning next week as the Legislature moves into the negotiation cycle of the budget process and will begin the Joint Budget Committee and Subcommittee Process in an attempt to reach final agreement on the 2016-17 State Budget.