Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc.
(Publication Archives)

Friday Fax from Albany

BUDGET PASSAGE: While headlines across the state this morning read, “Albany Passes Budget on Time, a Feat Unequaled Since 1984” (The New York Times) and “State passes timely budget” (Albany Times Union), we are still very concerned that several major issues have been left unaddressed. While it’s true that the Senate and Assembly agreed to and passed variations of Governor Pataki’s budget submission, there is approximately $1.7M in spending left out due to the fact that no agreement was reached, and the details of additional issues (like Family Health Plus) remain open. Furthermore, while the Legislature deserves credit for passing budget bills before the April 1st deadline, the budget won’t really take effect until Governor Pataki either signs the budget into law, or vetoes some or all of the bills and the Legislature overrides those vetoes. The Governor has 10 days to act upon these budget bills and it remains unclear as to what, if anything, will happen should the Governor take the next 10 days to review these bills.

While the Governor has indicated his overall conceptual agreement with the budget, he is still voicing concerns about the level of spending. Due to the uncertainty over the Governor’s official stance on the Legislature’s agreements and given the new environment in which this is happening, due to the December Court of Appeals decision which gave the Governor even greater budget making authority, we are unclear as to what will be happening over the next few weeks.

The Legislature has restored $4.3M to the Aid to Localities portion of the budget that was cut last year, totally $7.7M. This will likely be a proportional restoration and after the budget is approved, we will continue to advocate with OMH to secure restoration of MHA programs that have been cut.

In addition, the Legislature has postponed any decision on the Governor’s proposal to close Middletown Psychiatric Center until the Office of Mental Health provides additional details as to how the closure will take place and the impact it will have on the catchment area in Orange and Sullivan Counties. Also, the Legislature has agreed to the Governor’s proposal to merge the Commission on Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled with the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities.

As alluded to above, among the issues left outstanding is Family Health Plus. We are concerned that the Governor may be seeking additional cuts to the program, which causes MHANYS and other mental health advocates great concern for the prospects of the Legislature’s restoration of the elimination of mental health benefits proposed by the Governor. We encourage everyone to call the Governor and you legislators to tell them, “No Further Cuts to Family Health Plus.”

As part of this budget process, it appears that MHANYS has lost one of our long-standing battles to prevent the implementation of a Preferred Drug Program (PDP) from taking place. We have maintained for years that a PDP will negatively impact individuals with mental health needs. Despite our objections, the state is moving forward with a PDP. Last week, MHANYS, NYAPRS and NAMI undertook a last minute effort to completely exempt individuals with mental health needs from the PDP, which appears to have been somewhat successful. The Legislature’s budget language goes beyond the initial proposal to exempt atypical anti-psychotics and anti-depressants and also carves out “any other therapeutic class for the treatment of mental illness or HIV/AIDS, recommended by the (pharmacy and therapeutics (P & T)) committee and approved by the commissioner.” In addition, our joint efforts were also successful in getting 3 consumer representatives on the P & T Committee, which will be responsible for making recommendations to the Commissioner of the Department of Health as to what medications will be on a list of ‘preferred’ (available) drugs. Perhaps of greatest significance is the ‘physician prevailing’ language that would give the doctor the final say as to whether or not a Medicaid patient could get a drug off of the ‘preferred’ list. While we continue to believe that the best PDP is no PDP, we do appreciate the effort of those who have worked to make the PDP less harmful that it would have been otherwise. We also appreciate both the Governor’s and the Legislature’s maintenance the language carves out atypical anti-psychotics and anti-depressants.

TOM O’CLAIR TO BE PANELIST AT CARTER CENTER FORUM: MHANYS and all of he members of the Timothy’s Law Campaign are proud to announce that Tom O’Clair will be a panelist at the Carter Center’s forum, Children's Mental Health: Navigating the System, coming up on April 14th. The Carter Center, founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. Among this issues they list on their website is the Center’s effort to diminish the stigma against mental illness.

The Forum’s description states – “Children are often the first to suffer when public health systems cut budgets. The Center's Mental Health Program leads a discussion about the well-being of children in light of recommendations from the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. A panel representing children, families, and policy-makers will offer personal experiences on navigating the children's mental health system and provide insight into systems of care that emphasize treatment of and recovery from mental illnesses.”

MHANYS is very proud of Tom and this accomplishment of being recognized as a national leader in mental health advocacy.

KENDRA’S LAW: According to NYAPRS, the Assembly has scheduled a second hearing on Kendra’s Law to take place in Buffalo on April 21st. As the hearing notice becomes available, we will disseminate that information.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Second Annual Walk for Mental Health

Week of May 14 – May 20, 2005

In November of 2004, several advocates from across the state walked 122 miles in support of Timothy's Law. The walk went from Warwick, NY to Albany, NY and culminated in a rally of more than than 600 individuals gathered for Mental Health Parity.

This year, two advocates involved in the Walk for Timothy’s Law in Memory of Robin Jane Desrats, Ann Berardinelli of Families with Bi-Polar Children, and Ali Zimmerman, an employee of Independent Living, Inc., are planning an annual Walk for Mental Heath during May is Mental Health Month.

During the week of May 1st through the 20th, they will be getting walkers from each county to participate in a relay-type walk from the four corners of the state, converging on Albany on the 20th.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Ann or Alexandra - e-mail the Walk Committee at mentalhealth_walkers@yahoo.com, or call Ann at (845) 566-0810 or Ali at (845) 703-1042 and they will connect you with the agency coordinating the walk in your region.

IN THE NEWS:

Albany Passes Budget on Time, a First Since 1984. By Al Baker
The New York Times, April 1, 2005

Members of the Assembly, led by Paul A. Tokasz, applauded on Thursday after Speaker Sheldon Silver announced an agreement on the budget. The $105 billion measure could still face a veto, however.

ALBANY, March 31 - For the first time in 21 years, New York State lawmakers passed an on-time budget on Thursday. The $105 billion spending plan limits the costs of Medicaid for local governments, raises taxes and fees on motor vehicles and mortgages, and increases spending in areas like education and transportation.

The budget, which may still face challenges from Gov. George E. Pataki, could end two decades of governmental dysfunction that had paralyzed local governments year after year and had made state legislators a national laughingstock.

Mr. Pataki, who applauded the Legislature's action, said that the budget package still needed work but that he was confident that the final details would be worked out soon. He has until April 12 to issue any vetoes.

"Quite simply, the budget is done and that is a very positive step," Mr. Pataki told reporters after lawmakers finished their work. "But this is not as good a budget as it should be."

Unfinished or not, the budget represents a startling political and cultural change in how business gets done in Albany. This year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle felt compelled to complete an official document on time, fearing the wrath of voters, who in one poll after another have made clear their disgust with how Albany decided to spend taxpayer money: in secret, among only a handful of officials, and late each year since 1984, when Mario M. Cuomo was governor.

"The public was so fed up with the state budget process that there was an outcry to get the damn thing done by the deadline," said Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris, a Queens Democrat who has been trying to democratize government workings.

Legislative officials said the $105.1 billion plan left out $1.5 billion they had wanted to spend on items like welfare, construction projects for public and private colleges, protections for the environment and an overhaul of the state's dilapidated election system. With those items added, they said, the budget would be about $106.6 billion. Typical for Albany, though, there was disagreement over the numbers. Aides to the governor, who presented a $105.6 billion plan, said the legislative plan was worth $105.4 billion without the extra items and $106.9 billion with them.

The Legislature rejected many of Mr. Pataki's proposed increases in taxes and fees, including some that would have raised taxes on wine sales and an assessment on nursing homes. But it raised taxes and fees by about $1.1 billion.

It extended for another year a sales tax on clothing under $110 for all state residents, to raise $450 million. A separate sales tax surcharge in 2003 that was supposed to expire in the coming year will be phased out everywhere except in New York City and its suburbs, to pay for Metropolitan Transportation Authority projects. That tax surcharge will be reduced by half in that region. Mortgage recording taxes and motor vehicle and campground fees will all increase under the plan.

The bills were approved by midday. Lawmakers praised one another for passing a plan before sundown more than four months earlier than they did just last year, when it came in on Aug. 11.

"I am grateful and I am proud," Sheldon Silver, the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, told his packed chamber at 2:50 p.m. Applause followed. "A promise was made, a promise of reform."

Later, Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican leader of the Senate, said at a news conference that it was "a season to govern, and we're governing." The lawmakers filed out of the Capitol, but said they were aware that with the $1.5 billion held out of the budget, another phase of debates on spending and taxing was coming.

Still, State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi said he would certify the budget, and congratulated state officials for finally meeting the deadline. "Some issues were raised: 'If there are pieces not in the budget does that mean it's not done?' and the answer is no," Mr. Hevesi said. "In the days when the budget was always on time, there was always a supplemental budget, traditionally at least one and sometimes more later on in the session."

From New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also offered praise. But he reminded Albany of its work ahead, particularly in overhauling Medicaid, the $44.5 billion health insurance program for the poor, and addressing a court decision that said New York's 1.1 million public school students had been shortchanged for years.

This year's budget includes $848 million more in education spending than last year's, with most of the additional money going to districts outside New York City. A state judge ruled last month that an additional $1.4 billion must be spent in the coming school year on the city's ailing schools alone, but it was clear that that mandate would not be heeded.

Assemblyman Steven Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat who heads the Assembly's Education Committee, said Mr. Pataki's promise to appeal the ruling, and the Legislature's desire to pass a timely budget this year, meant that there were few opportunities to come up with the kind of money the court required.

But the plaintiff in the case, a group called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which brought the suit more than a decade ago, was disappointed. "It's a flagrant contempt of the judicial branch," said Michael A. Rebell, the group's executive director.

The Legislature rejected the governor's plan to raise annual tuition by $500 at state and city universities. It rejected proposed cuts in the Tuition Assistance Program and regular annual increases in tuition for incoming students. It approved a $38.5 billion transportation plan and will ask voters to approve $2.9 billion in borrowing to pay for transportation projects, with the money evenly split between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and roads and bridges upstate and on Long Island.

Of all the topics on the table, health care proved the stickiest. The governor wanted the state to cap the rate of growth in localities' rising Medicaid costs. But his plan was tied to $1 billion in spending cuts, and he wanted an independent panel to make suggestions on which ailing hospitals and nursing homes should be closed.

Mr. Silver opposed the cuts, particularly in a program that provides health insurance to low-income workers. Lawmakers restored many of the cuts and agreed in principle on forming a hospital-closing panel.

In the final hours, a sense of giddiness took hold among lawmakers. Even the governor seemed ebullient. Officials in the executive and legislative branches gave credit to one another. But many said that in meeting its deadline, state officials simply did their job and met their constitutional obligations.

"It was simply an act of will," said Edmund J. McMahon, the director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy of the Manhattan Institute. "Rather than swelling with pride in their accomplishments, they might feel embarrassment in showing they were able to do it all along."

Gerald Benjamin, a political scientist and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the State University College of New York in New Paltz, said, "It showed that they heard that people care about competence in government and they set out to demonstrate that competence: meeting a deadline."

Greg Winter contributed reporting for this article.

State passes timely budget - First deadline met in 21 years, although meaty issues remain. By James Odato
Albany Times Union, April 1, 2005

ALBANY -- The Legislature hit its fiscal deadline for the first time in 21 years Thursday and passed a new state budget by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year, although some big issues were left for another day.

The package excludes $1.7 billion in spending that may or may not become law, depending on negotiations with Gov. George Pataki. The Assembly pegs the budget, including unresolved items, at $106.6 billion. The Senate puts it at $106.5 billion without new MTA sales taxes. Pataki places it at $106.9 billion, or $1.7 billion above his $105.2 billion proposal.

Comptroller Alan Hevesi declared the budget complete, which means legislative paychecks won't be withheld.

Although Pataki and several budget watchdogs said the spending is excessive, the governor said he is comfortable with most of the budget's provisions.

Pataki, who said changes are likely, has 10 days after receiving the bills to wield his veto pen.

The budget includes more than $1 billion in new taxes and fees, including a fivefold increase in automobile titles, continued sales tax on clothing of less than $110 at least through next year, and a sales tax surcharge and increased mortgage recording taxes on people living in the MTA region. Also, it relies on voters to authorize a $2.9 billion transportation bond act this November.

Passage of the plan, which started Tuesday, was finished by early afternoon -- a drastic contrast from the usual hectic conclusion to budgets that have passed in the dark of night. This budget also came about with an uncommon amount of open discussions.

Several legislators and lobbyists credited the timeliness at least partly to public pressure on lawmakers to achieve their biggest annual task on time or face trouble in election season.

"As a member of this house for 11 years, I am more proud than ever," said Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, D-Bronx, one of several lawmakers in both chambers who joined in applause of each other.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said much better working relationships developed and suggested the good will should carry forward.

The leaders referred to the call by good government groups for the Legislature to address reforms, but they did not seem to mean the more comprehensive, institutional changes that would address power and perks.

"We have a budget done March 31," Bruno said. "This has been the most open, public process in the history of this state."

Silver called the budget "good and fair and on-time for the first time in 20 years" and spoke of "the shouts of reform still echoing from the cities and towns throughout New York."

Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, said the self-congratulation for doing their jobs is somewhat embarrassing. "We have a long way to go before we complete the necessary reforms of this place," he said.

unfinished business, Bruno and Silver said, focuses on disputes with Pataki over $1.1 billion in funds for needy families, $150 million for the Environmental Protection Fund, $300 million for grants to public and private college construction projects and $227 million to help localities improve voting systems.

said the problem with Pataki over the money for needy families seems to be resolved.

Pataki called the on-time budget "a good thing," but added the package includes some spending and policy problems and is "not as good a budget as it should be."

He called for more Medicaid cuts and said talks are continuing on health care.

Several sources say the governor is close to extracting a few more concessions, including a 1 point increase in the gross receipts tax on nursing homes and some cutbacks, such as slightly higher co-payments, to the Family Health Plus program for the poor.

Pataki is also trying to establish a hospital closing commission to deal with excess capacity and is nearing an agreement on the panel's makeup.

The package commits $221 million to hospitals and nursing homes over the next three years to please lobbyists from Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union.

Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, said the money will come out of Medicaid funds but local governments should be spared any expenses. Stephen Acquario, director of the New York Association for Counties, said the legislation needs to be corrected to make sure counties, which pay a share of Medicaid, don't have to pick up any of the costs.

Also in the budget is $848.2 million more for school aid, including $325 million for needy districts, and more aid to municipalities, including about $1.1 million for Albany; $904,756 for Schenectady; about $1 million for Troy; and $264,123 for Saratoga Springs.

Missing is $6 million Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings and Pataki negotiated for advance state payments for tax exempt property. Senate Republicans wouldn't approve the expense, said Assemblyman John McEneny.

The budget includes a cap on Medicaid costs to save counties hundreds of millions of dollars. Other local projects getting funded included Mount McGregor in Saratoga County. The budget also includes $200 million in discretionary funds for the governor and Legislature, meaning plenty of other regional groups and projects will get public backing.

Diana Fortuna, executive director of the Citizens Budget Commission, said the budget is disappointing on several levels, including its failure to deal with a court order that the state give billions more to New York City schools, and because it spends too much.

"The fact that they did it on time is very meaningful," she said.

Elizabeth Benjamin contributed to this article

In Albany's Budget Race, Nonprofits' Progress Is Slow. By Al Baker
The New York Times, March 30, 2005

Even if Albany meets its budget deadline this year for the first time in 21 years, as state officials expect, the nonprofit organizations that have scrambled because of the state's annual tardiness are at risk of faring no better this time around.

That is because in their rush to meet the April 1 budget deadline, and to meet constitutional muster, the Senate and the Assembly put off spending $1.7 billion on welfare, the environment, colleges and the state's voting system.

As a result, the plan the Legislature began to pass on Tuesday lacks aid for some of the same nonprofits whose budgets were thrown into disarray by 20 years of late state budgets, although lawmakers say they hope to restore the money.

On aid for the poor, for example, lawmakers were barred by a court ruling from rewriting Gov. George E. Pataki's appropriations bill to redirect how $1.1 billion in federal surplus aid is allocated for welfare recipients and other needy New Yorkers. So they left the money - bonus federal aid - out of their budget.

"It's extraordinary, but the Legislature has no choice," said Shelly Nortz, the deputy executive director for policy at the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit group that serves 3,500 homeless people a day in New York City.

Ms. Nortz said she hoped that the issue would be renegotiated by Thursday so the money could be put back into the budget, as lawmakers and Mr. Pataki said they prefer. There was a flurry of last-minute negotiating between the Pataki administration and the legislative staffs on Tuesday, and both sides agreed that deals could fall into place within minutes.

Short of that, Ms. Nortz said, a separate Assembly bill to allocate the welfare money, which the Senate supports, could be taken up after a budget is passed.

But that prospect raised a question: Would a budget that left such big issues to be sewn up later - particularly one being touted as the first budget to be passed on time in more than two decades - be a real budget at all?

Former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who oversaw the passage of the last on-time budget in 1984, said he thought not.

He said a budget was only a budget if the governor and the Legislature agreed to the same spending levels and if the plan had no huge holes.

"It's not a real budget if, when the Legislature adopts it, they know there are a billion and more dollars they have to add to it to meet their important needs," Mr. Cuomo said. "It sounds to me like a Potemkin Village of a budget - it has the facade of a budget, it looks like a budget, but it's not a budget."

But lawmakers disagreed, saying those who took issue with their plan had an ax to grind. An Assembly official said it was hoped that Mr. Pataki would resubmit language to allow the Legislature to move ahead easily. A Senate official said the legislative proposals would be passed later if Mr. Pataki did not comply. Legislative officials said that supplemental budgets were the norm in New York for many years.

"There is no difference between this and if a governor or the Legislature agreed to cut these programs and take these funds out," said John E. McArdle, a spokesman for Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican leader of the Senate. "It does not change the fact that the budget we adopt is complete, balanced and will be certified as such by the comptroller."

A spokesman for the state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, declined to weigh in on the debate, pointing to state law instead. It says a budget is in place when lawmakers act on the governor's appropriation bills and the comptroller deems them "sufficient for the ongoing operation and support of state government and local assistance."

Besides being good for public relations, an on-time budget would allow lawmakers to continue collecting their salaries, which, under current law, are held in escrow from the time the deadline expires until a budget is passed.

So a day after the state's two top legislative leaders vowed that taxpayers would see them fulfill their most fundamental mission, there was talk of a rejuvenated Legislature, capable of overhauling a dysfunctional budget-writing system.

But suspicions bubbled forth from those who felt cut out of the process.

In addition to the $1.1 billon in welfare aid, the legislators left out $150 million for environmental projects to acquire land, close landfills and spruce up parks among other plans, and $300 million for construction projects planned for New York's public and private colleges. They also deferred action on complying with a federal mandate to overhaul the state's dilapidated voting system.

Mr. Pataki, who has been driving the on-time budget effort, has been consistently optimistic that agreements on the open issues can be found by midnight Thursday.

Abraham M. Lackman, a former Senate budget official who is now the president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, a consortium of more than 100 private nonprofit colleges in New York State, declined to give a legal opinion on whether the Legislature's plan was or was not a budget.

He said this year's legislative budget allocates more money, and in more areas, than a so-called bare-bones budget passed in 2001 that the comptroller did certify. "I don't understand how he could not certify this budget," he said.

Jeff Jones, a spokesman for Environmental Advocates of New York, a nonprofit group that monitors state government, said, "We do not consider this a complete budget" without money for the Environmental Protection Fund. He recalled promises not kept in 2001, when lawmakers cut the same money from the budget but never restored it.

"We're still trying to recover," he said. "This is the state's most important source of money for key environmental projects."

Until next time, we remain,
Working to ensure available and accessible
mental health services for all New Yorkers