powered by LeadingAge New York
  1. Home
  2. » Advocacy
  3. » Main
  4. » Legislative Bulletin
  5. » 2020 Legislative Bulletins
  6. » Legislative Bulletin: Coronavirus Reshapes the FY 2020-21 Budget

Legislative Bulletin: Coronavirus Reshapes the FY 2020-21 Budget

March 20, 2020

The State is dealing with the reapid spread of coronavirus and attempting to pass a balanced budget for the 2020-21 Fiscal Year. Meanwhile, the second Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT II) has approved final recommendations for State Budget negotiations. 

 

The State Grapples with Big Budget Decisions in Face of Coronavirus

With the Final Budget due on April 1st and the mounting spread of COVID-19 throughout the state, the Legislature and Governor have been continually evaluating their plans for legislative and budget work. As of this week, it is clear that the traditional budget process will not be pursued during these final days of the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2020-21 Budget cycle.  

Although there have been rumors of the Assembly still putting their one-house budget proposals forward with recommendations, legislative leaders have largely decided to forego the typical one-house budget process in order to provide more time and attention to the state’s mitigation of COVID-19.  There are no rumors of the Senate putting their official proposals forward, however, we have heard that there are already some three-way (Executive, Senate & Assembly) budget discussions taking place via conference call.

The State Legislature was in Albany briefly on Wednesday for a vote on a high-priority paid sick leave bill. Since then, Assembly and Senate central staff have all been sent home. As of now, the Legislature is not expected to return to Albany until there are final budget bills to be put to a vote. There are also rumors that the Legislature may suspend the remainder of the scheduled session period, which was initially scheduled to conclude on June 2nd.

Meanwhile, the State is dealing with an increasingly grim economic outlook, largely due to the coronavirus’ impact on global and local economies. In January, the State was facing a $6 billion budget deficit. Earlier this week, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli issued a letter to the Governor with a renewed revenue analysis predicting that tax revenues for SFY 2020-21 will be $4-7 billion below the Executive Budget forecast. There is no doubt that these new state revenue projections will significantly impact difficult state budget decisions.

Even under these unprecedented circumstances, both the Legislature and Governor seem to be committed to passing a final SFY 2020-21 budget before the April 1st deadline. The outstanding question remains to be whether the budget will be a “bare-bones” budget, or if it will still attempt to deal with big policy items such as recreational marijuana. The Governor has suggested as recently as this week that he still has his eyes on big progressive policy goals.

 

Governor Signs Amended Paid Sick Leave Bill into Law

Early this week, Senate and Assembly leadership announced that they would be cancelling sessions that had been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in an effort to limit any potential spread of coronavirus. Both houses then reconvened on Wednesday afternoon, specifically to take up a paid sick leave program bill, which was negotiated between the Legislature and Governor. The Legislature passed an amended version of the bill, which was then immediately signed into law by the governor.

The amended bill removed a permanent sick leave portion of the original program bill that had been delivered to the Legislature on Tuesday. The law will be effective immediately and requires employers to provide sick leave to each employee who is subject to a mandatory or precautionary order of quarantine due to COVID-19. The type of sick leave provided will be based upon the number of employees an employer had as of January 1, 2020. In instances where the paid leave does not cover the full quarantine period, employees will be eligible for paid family leave benefits and disability benefits.

 It is anticipated that the permanent paid sick leave provisions that were removed will be included in the final budget. A more detailed analysis of this legislation, provided by Hinman Straub, can be found here.

 

LeadingAge NY in the Press – Don’t Cut Long Term Care!

This afternoon, LeadingAge NY issued a press release calling on the Governor and lawmakers to reject any cuts to long-term care providers that are on the front lines battling COVID-19.

 "The cost of fighting this public health emergency needs to be recognized and reimbursed by the state and federal government,” said James W. Clyne, Jr., President of LeadingAge New York. “You can not fight a public health war, against an invisible enemy, and simultaneously take an action that sacrifices the most vulnerable population because you are trying to balance a budget,” Clyne continued.

Additionally, LeadingAge New York is imploring for state and federal leaders to provide sufficient operational funding to ensure adequate staff is available for the duration of the crisis; and make immediate investment in personal protective equipment to help those who are fighting to protect the frail and vulnerable from becoming casualties in the most significant public health challenge in our lifetime.

Now, LeadingAge NY encourages members to reach out to local media and lawmakers to amplify this crucial message. Please Call Elected Officials Today! Your lawmakers’ phone numbers and contact information are readily available by using our Find my Legislator tool.

If you are not able to call your legislators due to the significant time constraints being imposed by the coronavirus outbreak, please consider taking a few moments to send them the pre-written budget letters at the bottom of this bulletin, one of which focuses on anticipated Medicaid cuts.

 

MRT II Approves Final Recommendations

Members of the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT II) met for the third and final time on Thursday to vote on a final list of recommendations intended to achieve the estimated $2.5 billion in state Medicaid savings. The meeting was held via conference call and the Team shared an Executive Summary of Proposals just before the start of the meeting.

During the meeting’s roll call vote, three members of the Team elected to abstain. All other members voted in favor of the recommendations. Now that the MRT II has concluded its work, the State Legislature and the Governor will review the proposals for any potential modification or inclusion in the final budget.

The summary of proposals and scorecard shared on Thursday reflected several proposals that would impact long-term care providers, including a reduction in nursing home capital funding, an across the board cut to all Medicaid providers, administrative reforms to the CDPAS program and more. A comprehensive memo and summary of the recommendations has been provided by Hinman Straub and is linked here.

Fortunately, in these exceedingly challenging times we have some good news to share! Some of our LeadingAge NY recommendations appear to have made it through the fog of thousands of proposals. More specifically, the Medication Technicians in the Nursing Home proposal was included in the final list of recommendations.  As noted above, the Legislature and the Governor will now use these recommendations to inform decisions for the Final SFY 2020-21 Budget. If we can garner some support for our medication technician proposal in these final days of negotiations, we may actually see it included in the final budget.

Please click here to urge your lawmakers to include the Medication Technician MRT II Recommendation in the Final Budget!

 

National Action Alert: Coronavirus Stimulus Legislation

Congress is working quickly to draft and pass a new coronavirus stimulus bill. This legislation must include strong support for aging services providers who are struggling with the growing pandemic. Please help us urge Congress to include LeadingAge priority provisions in this bill!

Click Here To Email Your Elected Officials Today! Congress will take emergency action soon and your voice needs to be heard!

Ask your senators and representative to support aging services by:

  1. Giving priority access to personal protective equipment for home health workers, hospice workers, adult day and PACE employees, and HUD-assisted housing staff as well as nursing homes, assisted living, and hospitals.
  2. Addressing the need for child care for aging services (housing, healthcare providers, etc.) employees who must go to work.
  3. Ensuring that our entire continuum, including home health, hospice, and nursing homes, have the ability to provide virtual visits via telehealth (including the telephone) during the crisis and that hospice and home health face-to-face recertifications can be done via telehealth.
  4. Including emergency supplemental funding for HUD-assisted housing communities to meet COVID-19 costs. This includes emergency response, staffing, and making up for reduced rents from residents, while continuing to provide quality affordable housing.

The above asks are a partial list of LeadingAge’s advocacy. View the complete list of emergency resources and relief.

 

LeadingAge & LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources

LeadingAge NY is following all COVID-19 news very closely and doing our best to keep members informed of updates, recommendations and guidelines from the Department of Health (DOH). We encourage members to keep an eye out for email updates as well as visit our Coronavirus Resources page for the latest news and guidance.

Members are also encouraged to join us four our COVID-19 Weekly Update calls, which are being held on Mondays from 11 am – 12 pm. You can 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 NY is working with LeadingAge National as well to monitor the fast-changing situation. In collaboration with peer organizations and federal agencies, we will ensure that the health of the older adult population is a top priority during this challenging time.

National is also offering the following resources:

 

Call to Action: Send Budget Letters to Lawmakers Today!

This is the last chance to contact lawmakers and push for our key budget issues! LeadingAge NY has reached out to the Legislature and the Department of Health (MRT II) on all of our key budget issues. Now, lawmakers need to hear from you and your colleagues.  

We are in the final days of the FY 2020-21 budget cycle. Please use each of the links below to send your lawmakers letters now!

Once you have sent your letters, please share these links with your colleagues and board members and ask that they do the same. If enough letters are sent, we may see our proposals and amendments included in the final budget.

 

Contact: Ami Schnauber; 518.867.8854; aschnauber@leadingageny.org

               Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org