Legislative Bulletin: One-House Budget Discussions Underway

March 6, 2020

Although an official Budget consideration schedule has yet to be released, LeadingAge NY has heard that we can expect to see one-house budgets finalized by March 16^th. Once we have the one-house budgets, three-way negotiations between the legislature and the Governor will begin in earnest. This is our last chance to try to get our budget proposals in the Senate or Assembly one-house!

One-House Budget Discussions are Underway

The legislature and the Governor reached consensus on Sunday night, issuing the Joint Revenue Consensus Report. In the report, the parties agreed on a two-year revenue forecast total that is $700 million above the Executive Budget estimate. Now that revenue estimates for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2020-2021 have been finalized, the legislature has begun working in earnest on their one-house budget proposals. Having the additional $700 million in revenue allows for the legislature to make additional investments or buy back any proposed cuts such as the hefty $2.5 billion in cuts aimed at the Medicaid program.

As of this morning, we have still not received a budget consideration schedule from the legislature, which would indicate when we can expect one-houses to be finalized and final budget negotiations to commence. Although an official budget schedule has not been released, LeadingAge NY has heard that the one-house budgets will be finalized by March 16^th.

With that, we are once again asking that LeadingAge members engage with their lawmakers as frequently as possible throughout the coming weeks. All legislators, especially democrats, need to hear from you!

Since the beginning of 2020, LeadingAge members have sent 276 letters to legislators using our Phone 2 Action tools on our website. However, only 136 letters have gone to Democratic Majority members. During budget negotiations, it is crucial that the majority members understand our budget issues and our requests for amendments and appropriations.

Members are encouraged to visit our Advocacy Action Page to send letters to lawmakers with just a few clicks. Additionally, key budget letters are linked directly for you at the bottom of this newsletter.

Anything you can do in these final weeks of budget negotiations will help “move the needle” in the favor of long-term care providers. Thank you for your advocacy!

Coronavirus Steals the Attention of Lawmakers in the Final Weeks of Budget

The first cases of Coronavirus revealed themselves in New York this week and has led to enhanced focus on the State's plan to combat the virus. As of yesterday, there are 22 confirmed cases of the virus in New York, and some lawmakers are introducing legislation to ensure that people have what they need in the event they must be quarantined. Assembly Member Felix Ortiz, for example, has introduced a bill that would require health insurance companies to cover an extra month of prescriptions during a declared emergency stemming from coronavirus.

Funding to appropriately address a potential outbreak of the virus has also been front of mind for lawmakers. Late Monday night, legislators approved a $40 million bill to grant Governor Andrew Cuomo expanded authority to respond to the coronavirus and a potential outbreak in New York. The measure was signed into law early Tuesday morning. An $8.3 billion federal appropriation approved by Congress will also provide New York $35 million to combat the virus. However, on Thursday the Governor called the allocation insufficient.

All of this begs the question, “will coronavirus impact the legislative session?” When asked this very question, Governor Cuomo replied, "We have too many things to do.” So, for now the State’s Budget process and legislative calendar will continue as scheduled.

LeadingAge NY is watching New York’s coronavirus situation very closely and is sharing updates and resources for members on our website. We will let you know of any urgent updates directly via email.

March Advocacy Day Recap

Thank you to all those who took part in LeadingAge New York’s second 2020 Advocacy Day on Tuesday! We had 30 members attend over 30 meetings with members of the Assembly and Senate. It was another great day of grassroots advocacy with discussion on a variety of issues related to housing, adult care facilities (ACFs), assisted living, and aging services programs. Tuesday's advocates had a particular focus on a $10 million, five-year investment in an Affordable Independent Senior Housing Assistance Program and an increase in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rate for ACF residents.

All of the handouts used during our Advocacy Days can be found here and we encourage you to use them in your ongoing advocacy this budget season. Additionally, if you have any feedback on how your meetings went (i.e. what topics seemed to interest lawmakers) or general feedback on the day, please feel free to share that information with Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org.

Call Lawmakers Today and Urge them to Include LeadingAge Proposals in this Year’s Budget!

During the busy month of March, legislators will be spending a great deal of their time in Albany, leaving little time to connect with them in the district. We strongly encourage members to call your legislators today! As is mentioned above, the legislature will likely be finalizing their one-house budget proposals next week and it is critical that the lawmakers in your district and neighboring districts understand why they should include our budget requests in their one-houses.

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.

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)
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)
Reject the Certificate of Need Surcharge (Nursing Homes)

MRT II Schedules Second Public Meeting

The Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT II) announced this week that their second public meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 10^th at 12 p.m in New York City. The meeting will be held in the same location as the previously held NYC public forums, at the John E. Reeves Great Hall at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), 218 W 28th St New York City, NY 10001. A live webcast of the meeting will be available on the MRT II website.

LeadingAge NY continues to watch for any updates and announcements from the MRT II and will share updates directly with members as they become available.

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!

Join Us in D.C. for the 2020 LeadingAge Lobby Day!

The LeadingAge Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. is set for April 20 – 22 and it is quickly approaching! The Leadership Summit is an event designed for forward-thinking leaders to connect, engage in dialogue, and deepen their knowledge about the future—how we can shape it, and the paths to get there together.

Importantly, the Leadership Summit is also designed to go hand-in-hand with the LeadingAge Lobby Day in D.C. on April 22^nd. The National LeadingAge lobby day offers an opportunity for New York providers to speak about the federal issues that are impacting providers and New York’s Seniors. The lobby day will largely focus on CNA Lockout legislation, Affordable Senior Housing, and various pieces of workforce investment legislation that are being advanced by LeadingAge.

So far, there are very few New York attendees registered to attend the Summit and Lobby Day. We hope that you will consider joining us! Click here to register today!

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

Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org