Legislative Bulletin: LeadingAge NY Members in the Press – Help Us Keep Up the Pressure

April 4, 2025

NYS Budget Work Continues: Lawmakers Extend Negotiations to April 7

The deadline for passage of the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025-26 New York State Budget has passed. Negotiations are ongoing and are expected to continue throughout the weekend. On Tuesday, the Legislature passed a budget extender to carry budget work through April 3, then on Thursday, having seen little development toward a final budget agreement, the Legislature passed another extender to continue state funding and fulfill state payroll through Monday, April 7. Meanwhile, the Governor has indicated that she is not in a hurry, saying “I’m not in any rush. I’m truly not in any rush. You won’t have to wait forever but summers are nice here, too.”

Budget negotiations are stalled as the Governor continues her pattern of prioritizing the resolution of policy differences before negotiating other elements of the budget that include the dollars and cents of the state spending plan. Discovery reform is perhaps the biggest hurdle in the legislature, followed by issues such as a cell phone ban in schools, and a mask ban.

With the State Budget not expected to be final by Monday, legislators will likely need to approve a third extension to fund the State government. It’s possible that the third extender could allow budget work to continue until April 11. If a final state spending plan is not formulated by that point, the State will be looking at significant delays in the budget process, as the Legislature is scheduled to return to districts in observation of spring holidays.

LeadingAge New York will continue to keep members apprised of state budget developments and advocacy action needed. With the hope that the pace of budget work may pick up with more urgency next week, we will need member advocacy to help us keep the pressure on legislators and the Governor! Stay tuned for more next week.

 

LeadingAge NY Members in the Press

LeadingAge New York and our members have been using all avenues possible to keep the pressure on elected officials, urging them to address the underfunding of nursing homes in this year’s State Budget. Last week, Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight aired a 7-minute interview with CEO of the Weinberg Campus, Bob Mayer. Unfortunately, the campus’ nursing home near Buffalo, Rosa Coplon, was forced to close its doors in late 2024 due to inadequate Medicaid funding that didn’t meet the costs of care, worker wages, and resident needs. In the interview, Mayer described the challenges and traumas imposed on residents, families, and staff when a home is forced to close due to poor funding. The interview also discusses the thousands of nursing home beds across the state that are currently in financial distress, and the impacts this has on the larger healthcare system.

If you have not already watched the interview, we encourage you to do so, and share it with your legislators and network of advocates.

Then last night, CBS 6 Albany aired a news segment highlighting the urgent plea from nursing home providers for the State to provide a Medicaid reimbursement rate that matches the current costs of care. In the segment, CEO of Fort Hudson Health System, Andrew Cruikshank, explains that mounting financial pressures are driving nursing homes to take beds offline, causing back-ups and operational pressures on hospitals and emergency services.

“I think it’s important to note that the Medicaid system in New York State is understandably broken, and it is only because New York State has opted to not prioritize seniors,” said Cruikshank.

Members are encouraged to share this most recent news story, using the action alert below.

 

NEW ACTION ALERT: Please Share Social Media Post & Nursing Home News Coverage

LeadingAge NY urges all members to take your advocacy to social media! 

TAKE ACTION NOW! Please take a moment to share the below social media content to help us amplify our message to elected officials!

Please SHARE the below video and make sure to TAG the Governor, Legislative Leadership AND your state legislators on Facebook so we can be sure that they see our message.

1. Share this video on Facebook!
   • If you are sharing on your personal profiles, we encourage you to make the post “public”.
2. When you click “Share”, add the below caption, and include the tags (@) of state legislators. When you post the video, please be sure that the names of the legislators turn blue. This indicates that the individual has been tagged in the post and will see it. Please also be sure to include the tags (@) of your state legislators!

New Caption:

Have you wondered why families across NY sometimes struggle to find high-quality nursing home care close to home? Or, have you sometimes wondered why nursing homes struggle to find staff to cover weekend shifts, nights or holidays?

Here’s why: over 70% of nursing home residents depend on Medicaid to pay for their care, but Medicaid rates are based on the costs of operating in 2007. Inadequate funding makes it a challenge to retain staff and serve older adults seeking care.

Thank you @Andrea Stewart-Cousins, @NYSAssemblyMajority Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera & @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin for proposing Medicaid investments that prioritize nursing home residents and staff. It is critical that the #NYBudget includes every dollar possible to substantially increase Medicaid funding and restores recent cuts to capital. #NursingHomeSOS #PrioritizeOlderAdults

3. Share this message with your board members, staff, and family members, and ask them to share it on their socials, tagging legislators! This could help expand our advocacy reach and allow legislators to hear from new advocates.

And of course, be sure to check out our social media toolkit to help amplify our unified social media messages, graphics, and other member videos! We are encouraging members to post on social media at least twice every week until the state budget is made final.

Thank you for your budget advocacy and for staying engaged with us throughout this process!  

 

Keep Up the Pressure! Send Budget Advocacy Letters Today!

With New York State budget work extending into next week, we must keep advocating for LeadingAge NY’s top budget priorities to be included in the final budget for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025-26. It is crucial that we maintain the urgency and frequency of our message to ensure that our priorities do not fall off the negotiating table.

Please continue to push for the investments and restorations that long-term care providers need, and the funding that the people you serve deserve; use the tools below to continue to advocate with your state legislators and the governor now!

Please take a moment to click one or more of the below links to send an email to elected officials today! It only takes a few clicks!  

• Nursing Home Budget Letter – additional letters for board members, staff teams, family members, etc. are here.
• Adult Care Facilities/Assisted Living Budget Letter
• Home & Community-Based Services Budget Letter
• Managed Long-Term Care Budget Letter
•  Adult Day Health Care Budget Letter

Engage others in advocacy! Print and share advocacy flyers to increase our digital advocacy reach. Flyers can be printed and left in lobby areas or shared digitally with families and volunteers:

• Family Advocacy Flyer
• Constituent/Volunteer Advocacy Flyer
• Workforce Advocacy Flyer

Finally, social media advocacy is a great way to capture the attention of lawmakers and urge them to prioritize the care and service needs of older adults! LeadingAge NY has a state budget social media toolkit, which provides pre-written social media posts, along with graphics and videos created by members, residents and staff; and we are adding new graphics and messages to this toolkit throughout the remainder of state budget work. Using imagery and videos on social media to tell our story has proven effective in recent years, but we need our members to help us get our message out there in front of elected officials and the public!

The social media toolkit makes social media advocacy easy: simply download the image that you wish to use, copy the caption from the toolkit, and create a new post on your personal or professional social media accounts. Just be sure that your post “tags” the elected officials we are trying to focus our advocacy on. You will know the legislator has been tagged when their name lights up in blue.

Thank you to all our members who have advocated with us so far this year! We appreciate any energies you can dedicate toward advocacy during these final days of state budget negotiations. Your advocacy now will make all the difference!

Please reach out to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org with any questions.

 

Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org