Coronavirus Resources
powered by LeadingAge New York
  1. Home
  2. » Advocacy
  3. » Main
  4. » Legislative Bulletin
  5. » 2026 Legislative Bulletins
  6. » Legislative Bulletin: Two Weeks Remain of State Budget Work – Help Us Advocate on Social Media!

Legislative Bulletin: Two Weeks Remain of State Budget Work – Help Us Advocate on Social Media!

March 13, 2026

 

Senate and Assembly Release One-House Budget Proposals

Late Monday night, each house of the Legislature released their “one-house” budget bills. These bills represent the Senate and Assembly’s respective opening positions in budget negotiations with the Executive. On Tuesday, each house also released a summary of their budget proposals - the “Assembly Recommended Changes to the Executive Budget”, and the “Senate One-House Financial Plan Overview”.

LeadingAge NY is pleased to share that many of our top budget priorities are still “alive” due to their inclusion in the Executive Budget and/or one or both of the one-house budget proposals. Overall, the one-houses represent a marked improvement over the Executive Budget proposal, seeming to enhance overall attention and spending on critical long-term care and senior housing services. However, there are many specifics of proposals that remain unclear or inconsistent in the bills and budget summaries that have been posted.  A high-level summary of each house’s positions on issues of interest to LeadingAge NY members and the people you serve is available for members here.

Over the next few weeks, the Governor and the Legislature will negotiate to reconcile the differences in their respective budget proposals, aiming to reach a final agreement for the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2026-27 budget by April 1, 2026. With a little over two weeks remaining of this year’s State budget work, LeadingAge NY urges all members to continue your advocacy for our shared budget priorities. It is critical that LeadingAge NY, our members, and our network of advocates continue to push for the investments and restorations you need, and the funding that the people you serve deserve.

Below, members will find several methods and opportunities to engage in budget advocacy in these final weeks of state budget work. Importantly, we are launching a simple social media campaign which we strongly encourage members to take part in. Instructions on how to participate in that campaign are toward the end of this newsletter.

Please feel free to contact the Policy Team if you have any questions about the one-house proposals or any of the advocacy opportunities found below. Thank you in advance for your continued advocacy at this critical time!

 

Send Updated Digital Advocacy Letters to the Governor & State Legislators Today!

LeadingAge New York has updated many of our service-line specific digital advocacy letters to reflect the one-house budget proposals and what we want to be included in the final budget agreement. These letters are easy to send  - simply enter your information to quickly send a template letter to the governor and your state legislators.

Your advocacy will help ensure that the funding needs of long-term care and aging services providers remain top-of-mind as policymakers move through these final weeks of the budget process. After you send your letters, we strongly encourage you to share the links with your network of advocates.

Please use the links below to send emails to legislators and Governor Hochul TODAY!

Again, after you send your letters, please share these links with colleagues, board members and volunteers. This is a simple and easy way to strengthen our unified message at this critical time.

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

 

Join us in D.C. for LeadingAge National Lobby Effort

LeadingAge NY members are strongly encouraged to join us in Washington D.C. from April 20 – 22 for LeadingAge National’s 2026 Leadership Summit and Lobby Day!

The Summit convenes thought leaders from across the aging services sector for mission-critical conversations. The event provides valuable networking and educational opportunities, but most importantly, the final day of the summit (April 22) will offer attendees the chance to join a coordinated lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.

During the National Lobby Day, LeadingAge members will meet face-to-face with members of Congress to advocate for federal funding and policies that support long-term care and aging services for older adults. Members of LeadingAge New York’s policy staff will be attending the summit and lobby day, joining NY member advocates in their congressional meetings and helping to navigate your way around Capitol Hill. This is an important opportunity to bring member advocacy directly to the halls of power in the Nation’s capital. Click here to register for the Leadership Summit and/or Lobby Day!

 

LeadingAge New York in the News

LeadingAge New York continued its strong press and media presence this week, keeping the nursing home funding crisis front and center as the state budget process moves into its critical final phase.

CBS 6 News Interview: LeadingAge New York CEO Sebrina Barrett and St. Peter's Health Partners Continuing Care Executive Vice President Michelle Mazzacco spoke to a reporter from CBS 6 News about the growing financial crisis facing New York nursing homes. They highlighted that costs for Medicaid reimbursement rates haven’t been evaluated since 2007, and stressed the need for additional state funding to address persistent staffing shortages. The full article and new clip are available here.

Loretto Letter to the Editor: President & CEO of Loretto, Kim Townsend, submitted a letter to the editor which ran on Syracuse.com this week. The letter points out that, “In Central New York, nursing homes serve more than 35,000 individuals each year, with 93% of admissions coming from hospitals. Yet Medicaid reimbursement falls far short of the actual cost of care — for public and nonprofit homes, the funding gap is about $150 per Medicaid resident each day. As a result, more than 80% of nursing home beds in the region are operated by facilities losing money.”

Loretto later shared the publication on their social media. Nursing home members are strongly encouraged to share the letter to the editor on their own social media pages, citing how Medicaid underfunding impacts your nursing home and community. Point out what the Medicaid funding shortfall is for your organization, how many Medicaid residents you serve a year, and why this funding is so important to your ability to recruit and retain staff.

ICYMI: Binghamton Press Conference: Last Friday, Good Shepherd Communities, LeadingAge New York, Assemblywoman Lupardo and Senator Webb held a press conference to call for the State Budget to prioritize funding for New York’s nursing homes. This press conference has been covered widely in the region’s news outlets, as seen below:  

 

ACTION ALERT: Bring Your Advocacy to Social Media for Final Weeks of Budget Fight!

There are approximately two weeks remaining of the NYS budget negotiation process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-27. At this stage of the process, much of the decision-making is with Governor Hochul and the leadership of the Senate and Assembly.

A key method to capture legislative leadership’s attention over the next two weeks will be through social media. Please join us in a social media campaign, urging the State to “Stop the Crisis and Fully Fund Long-Term Care!”

To participate in this social media campaign, please take the following simple steps:

  1. Print off a color copy of this nursing home sign, or this long-term care sign.
  2. Ask a resident or patient who wants to help us advocate to hold the sign for a photo, or take a video of them holding the sign and urgently saying the slogan.
    1. Be sure to get written permission from the resident, patient or family member to use their photo in media.
  3. Draft the post for the photo or video on your organization’s social media platforms, along with one of the captions in the table below.
  4. Be sure to tag the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Heastie, Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger, and the Senate and Assembly Health Chairs Paulin and Rivera.
    1. The Facebook tags for each of these individuals are available in the drafted captions below.
    2. When you copy and paste captions into social media platforms, be sure that the “tags” (@) highlight in blue to ensure the legislators were effectively tagged.
    3. Feel free to also tag your area’s state legislators in the post!
  5. Post your photo/video and caption of choice and use our hashtags so we can see your posts!
    1. Post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, etc.
    2. Additional Graphic Option: Underfunding LTC

Draft Captions:

Service Line

Captions

Please note that these legislator tags (@) are for Facebook. You may need to search for the appropriate tags for other platforms.

Nursing Homes

It is time to stop the nursing home closure crisis and fully fund nursing home care in NYS. Eleven homes have announced closure since 2024, and three of these closures have been announced since Oct., 2025 alone.

Nursing homes are closing, and older adults are paying the price. While modest investments made since 2023 have been helpful, they have not been enough to reverse current trends or correct over 15 years of stagnant Medicaid funding. Now, the closure crisis is snowballing into a catastrophe.

We urge the State to prioritize quality care for older adults by restoring the full 15% in capital cuts and allocating $750 million in NEW Medicaid funding for nursing homes. Helping nursing homes helps hospitals – and aging New Yorkers deserve a long-term care sector and workforce they can depend on.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, @Andrea Stewart-Cousins,  @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

ACF/AL

Every New Yorker deserves access to quality care that meets their needs, including older adults!  However, years of underfunding and rising costs have made it difficult for desirable models such as the assisted living program (ALP) and adult care facilities (ACFs) to remain open.  It’s time for Medicaid rates to reflect the current costs of operating the ALP, and updates to funding for ACFs are also long over-due.

Thank you @Andrea Stewart-Cousins,  @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger, for proposing new investments in the ALP and restoring cuts to EQUAL and the Enriched Housing Subsidy (EHS).

@Governor Kathy Hochul, please provide new Medicaid funding for the ALP in the final NYS budget and ensure that no cuts are made to NY ACF residents. Proposed cuts to EQUAL and EHS reduce the quality of life and services available for older adults.

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

HCBS

 

Underfunding long-term care (LTC) is a problem for all New Yorkers! As home care providers struggle to find staff, families struggle to find services for their loved ones in their communities. The lack of home care options contributes to challenges throughout the entire healthcare system, including delayed hospital discharges, and unnecessary hospital visits.

Thank you @Andrea Stewart-Cousins,  @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger, for proposing new investments in Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs) and other critical aging services in your one-house budgets.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, please support the Senate’s proposed $50 million investment in CHHAs and the Assembly’s COLA increases for human services providers and staff.

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

ADHC

 

Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) programs were forced to shut down during the pandemic. Six years later, over half of the 120 programs are still closed and those that have reopened are struggling to stay viable due to lack of resources and staff.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, @Andrea Stewart-Cousins,  @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger, please continue to support this essential community program for older adults, which allows people to remain living at home with loved ones while receiving care and socialization during the day.

Please increase funding to help ADHCs rebuild, reopen, and serve older adults in their communities.

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

Housing

Thank You, @Senator Brian Kavanagh, @Senator Cordell Cleare and @Andrea Stewart-Cousins for proposing to fund and establish the NY Resident Assistance Program for older adults living in affordable senior housing! This modest $2M/year investment would pay for itself, generating $4M in annual NET Medicaid savings. More importantly, it would help older adults continue to age healthily and independently in their homes with light-touch community support, helping them navigate the aging process while reducing strains on higher levels of care.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @Linda B. Rosenthal – please fight for this common-sense proposal to be included in the Final Budget for SFY 2027!

#SupportOlderAdults #NYResidentAssistance

 

SFY 2026-27 State Budget Advocacy Resources from LeadingAge New York

 

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

Share

13 British American Blvd Suite 2
Latham, NY 12110
518.867.8383
518.867.8384 fax