Legislative Bulletin: Days Away from the Release of One-House Budgets

March 13, 2020

Despite the spread of the Covid-19 virus and the shift in attention to mitigating the outbreak, we are still expecting one-house budgets to be finalized and voted on next week. Recognizing that members are under significant pressure to keep residents safe, we also must try to stay vigilant in our advocacy.

One-House Budget Bills Expected Next Week Amidst the Spread of Covid-19

For New York State politics, mid-March is typically a time that the legislature puts a pin in legislative work and focuses on finalizing the State Budget. Of course, this year is unique. In recent days the legislature has significantly shifted its focus to the Coronavirus and how it will manage the state’s growing outbreak.

Instead of dealing with big-ticket budget items such as the legalization of marijuana, state lawmakers are considering taking up a paid sick leave proposal next week. The bill would mandate five days of paid sick leave, alleviating some of the financial burden for individuals that have self-quarantined themselves to help mitigate the outbreak. A vote on the paid sick leave measure could come as early as next week.

As the spread of Covid-19 leaves us with many unanswered questions regarding public health guidelines and how to prevent the virus’ spread in our facilities, we are equally unaware of how all of this will impact the state budget process. Although nothing specific has been suggested, there is a potential that the Governor will call for emergency extenders to fund the state and government programs temporarily though April. There is also potential that the legislative session will be impacted in one way or another, as we have heard that some state lawmakers are closing their district offices and assisting constituents via email or phone.

As far as we know right now, we still expect that the one-house budgets will be finalized by March 18^th. While we understand that our member providers are under significant pressure to keep residents safe, we must ask that you help as much as you can during these last crucial weeks of budget discussions.

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.

Letter on the Certificate of Need (CON) Surcharge Executive Budget Proposal

The Fiscal Year 2020-21 Executive Budget would impose a 3% surcharge on construction projects for hospitals and nursing homes. The proposal does not repeal the existing Certificate of Need (CON) application fee for construction applications, thus resulting in the surcharge being in addition to the current fees. This CON surcharge serves as a massive tax hike on nursing homes looking to renovate, build new or expand their facilities. CON applicants must already pay an administrative fee of up to $2,000 plus 0.55% of total project costs. This 3% surcharge would be required in addition to the existing costs and could amount to millions of dollars for many projects.

Click here to send your lawmakers a letter, urging them to exempt non-profit nursing homes from the proposed CON Tax!

One-House Budget Advocacy Action Items

This is the last chance to contact lawmakers asking that they include our budget proposals and amendments in either the Senate or Assembly one-house. Central staff of both houses have received our proposed budget language on a list of issues. Now, they need to hear from you and your colleagues.

We strongly encourage members to call your legislators today and ask that they include the following proposals/amendments in their one-house budgets.

Key budget asks for FY 2020-2021 include:

No more cuts to long term care! (LANY General Issue Brief)
Invest $50 million of the available $175 million in Long-Term Care Workforce (WIN4Seniors)
Invest in Resident Assistants for Affordable Senior Housing (Senior Housing)
Exclude Non-Profit Aging Services Providers from Prevailing wage (Senior Housing)
Exclude Non-Profit Aging Services Providers from CON Surcharge (Nursing Homes)
Include an Increase to SSI in this Year’s Budget! (ACF/AL)
Modify the Governor’s EQUAL Funding Proposal (ACF/AL)
Protect Financially Distressed Nursing Homes from Additional Cuts (Nursing Homes)

Your lawmakers’ phone numbers and contact information are readily available by using our Find my Legislator tool. We also encourage you to use our budget issue briefs from this year’s advocacy days to inform your phone calls.

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.

MRT II Public Meeting Review

The Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT II) held its second public meeting on March 10^th in New York City. During the meeting, members discussed the proposals submitted by stakeholders to fill the $2.5 billion budget gap, focusing on strategies to curb Managed Long-Term Care (MLTC) enrollment and utilization of personal care and Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services (CDPAS). The meeting also covered a broad range of proposals related to the Medicaid Global Cap, hospitals, care management, managed care, pharmacy, health information technology (IT), transportation, workforce, program integrity, and other health care sectors.

MRT II members asked questions about the various proposals but did not reach any decisions in the meeting. Over the next several days, Department of Health (DOH) staff will develop a final set of recommendations to be presented to the MRT II for consideration and approval at the final meeting on March 19th. The meeting slides are available here; however, readers should understand that the proposals listed in the slides are merely under consideration and have not been approved by the MRT II.

A comprehensive review of the meeting can be found in this week’s intelligence article, linked here. A recording of the meeting can be viewed here.

Call to Action: Send Budget Letters to Lawmakers Today!

This is a crucial moment in budget advocacy, and we need LeadingAge NY members, board members and our allies to send letters to their state lawmakers on our key budget priorities! Unfortunately, while we have had some people send letters, not many letters have been sent to the Democratic Majority of either House. With the state of politics in NY as it is, we need all lawmakers, especially Democrats, to hear our budget concerns. We need to create a ground swell of support for the following budget requests.

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 one-house budgets!

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

Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org