HOUSING WAITING LIST: In an exciting development, the NYS Senate passed the Mental Health Housing Waiting List legislation on Thursday night, providing for the legislation to be sent to the Governor in the near future for his consideration.

As has been reported in previous editions of the Mental Health Update, A.2895-a / S.3653-a, sponsored by Assembly Mental Health Committee Chair Peter Rivera and Senate Mental Hygiene Committee Chair Thomas Morahan, would establish a community housing waiting list for individuals receiving service through the NYS Office of Mental Health. This legislation is necessary because there are currently thousands of New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities in desperate need of residential placements, including: homeless individuals with psychiatric issues, youth with mental health needs aging out of the foster care system, individuals discharged from psychiatric centers, people with psychiatric disabilities who choose to move out of adult homes, people with forensics history, and people with psychiatric disabilities living with aging family members.

This bill will provide the tool necessary to provide better planning for meeting housing needs throughout the state, allowing housing providers, counties and state government to work together to meet that need.

The Office of Mental Health has done a very good job in recent years in responding to the need for additional housing capacity for individuals with psychiatric disabilities. Through the passage of this legislation, it will create an even greater opportunity to create more housing capacity through a planful process similar to the successful model that was mandated in the OMRDD system. After identifying the need in the OMRDD system though a waiting list, the state then embarked on the New York State Creating Alternatives in Residential Environments & Services (NYS-CARES) program in 1998. It is our hope that the OMH housing waiting list will help the state focus in on addressing the housing need for individuals with mental health needs in New York.

Through the leadership of Chairmen Rivera and Morahan, this legislation is now headed to the Governor’s desk for consideration, where, we understand, it will not be an easy task to get it passed. Therefore, we urge everyone to contact the Governor to urge him to sign the Mental Health Housing Waiting List Bill (A.2895-a / S.3653-a).

MHANYS would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of our partners at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy in helping secure passage of this bill. We would also like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of the Coalition for the Homeless, The members of the New York State Coalition for Adult Home Reform and the Campaign for Mental Health Housing.

IN THE NEWS:

Pataki and Lawmakers Near Agreement on State Budget and Tax Break. By Jennifer Medina
The New York Times, June 22, 2006

ALBANY, June 21 — State lawmakers and aides to Gov. George E. Pataki said they were close to an agreement Wednesday night on a plan to send nearly $1 billion back to homeowners and to add hundreds of millions of dollars in spending to the state's $112.3 billion budget.

Officials said they had neared agreement in a number of areas, although some of the details remained unresolved. But they pointed out that they had already reached agreements on some of the most contentious issues of the session, like Medicaid reform, expanding the state's DNA database of criminals and extending the statute of limitations in rape cases.

The property tax plan approved by the Legislature would give homeowners outside New York City an average of $250 by providing an annual income tax break based on local property taxes. There would also be a small break for city homeowners.

But the governor's budget office had raised concerns that the Legislature's plan, structured as an income tax credit, would be difficult to carry out, because it would allow homeowners to apply to receive a check as early as this fall. And the governor had wanted to limit the tax relief to homeowners in school districts that put a cap on the growth of education spending, but he appeared willing to drop that demand.

If the two sides do resolve their differences, the budget that officials boasted of approving on time at the end of March will finally be complete nearly three months later.

Then the governor in April vetoed millions of dollars in Medicaid spending and property tax rebates. He said the vetoes were based on constitutional grounds and therefore not subject to an override by the Legislature. The Legislature has been waiting for the governor to resubmit portions of the budget. And a number of important areas were left unsettled, including the fate of more than $1 billion in aid for needy families and $200 million for environmental projects.

State leaders remained deadlocked on Wednesday over other major issues, like the governor's demand that legislators approve raising the statewide limit on charter schools to 250 from 100.

It is unlikely the governor's plan to allow more charter schools will receive any support from Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the Democratic-controlled Assembly. Last week, he said the proposal was all but dead. And charter schools have only lukewarm support from the Republicans who control the Senate.

"The governor is taking what I would consider an absolutist position," said Senator Stephen Saland, a Republican from Poughkeepsie, who is chairman of the Senate's Education Committee. "This is a signature issue for him and he wants it resolved under his watch, but just because he wants it doesn't mean it will happen this week."

Still, the governor was poised to appropriate $225 million toward environmental programs, even more than the Legislature had initially proposed, as well as allocate the funds for needy families.

Legislative aides also said the governor would approve roughly $400 million in health care spending, restoring more than two-thirds of the money he vetoed in April.

At the time, Mr. Pataki said some of the changes the Legislature had made in his budget proposal were unconstitutional and that the Legislature's plan would lead to $12 billion in deficits within the next three years.

When he announced his vetoes and declared the budget process over, Mr. Pataki forcefully added: "I'm not going to do anything that allows more spending."

The governor also is eager to approve a plan for the state to help Advanced Micro Devices build a $3.5 billion-microchip manufacturing plant near Albany, which would cost the state about $1 billion. The plan could bring as many as 2,000 jobs to the region, officials said.

In total, the changes the governor was considering would most likely put more than $4 billion in spending back into the budget, legislative staff members said.

Aside from the budget, legislators were also moving closer to an agreement on a bill that would require insurers to cover treatment for mental illness and addictions. The bill has stalled in the Senate for several years, but the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, said on Tuesday that he would push for a compromise to offset the cost for small businesses, something that had been a sticking point in years past.

The final agreement could hinge on whether the bill covers mental illness treatment only or also includes treatment for drug and alcohol addictions, something the Senate has raised objections about.

"We're closer than we've ever been, but that could be the make-or-break item in the Senate," said Assemblyman Alexander P. Grannis, a Manhattan Democrat who has been involved in the negotiations. "But there's enough still in the air that we can still manage to get things done."

The Senate also was expected to approve on Thursday a number of appointments the governor has made to the state's regulatory boards, including one the governor's office said it was reconsidering earlier this week. Earlier this month, Mr. Pataki nominated the daughter of one of his closest advisers, John F. O'Mara, to the state's Workers' Compensation Board, a position that pays $90,800 annually. The nomination of the woman, Ellen O. Paprocki, is for a seven and a half years, rather than the normal seven-year appointment to the board.

In the Midnight Hour - As the legislative session in Albany winds down, some top priorities.
Newsday Editorial, June 21, 2006

If there were a Hippocratic Oath for politicians, it should begin the same way as the one for physicians - first do no harm. As they wrap up the current legislative session this week, state lawmakers should at least do no more harm.

As state Comptroller Alan Hevesi reported earlier this month, the Democratic Assembly and the Republican Senate made a bad executive budget worse by adding billions to Gov. George Pataki's spending plan. So any new programs or restorations of those vetoed en masse by Pataki must not add to the $13-billion deficit projected over the next few years.

So far, with only a day or two to go before breaking to campaign for re-election, Albany has not solved many problems, large or small. In addition to some criminal-justice issues we discussed on yesterday's page and wetlands protection below, here is a list (by no means complete) of other areas on which the legislature and governor should settle:

Health care. Pataki's veto pen left many hospitals and nursing homes in limbo. If the state is going to cut more than $1 billion in expected Medicaid spending hikes - and it should find a way to do that and more - the money must be reduced carefully, as part of an orderly plan. Most Long Island hospitals are feeling the financial pinch from government and private payers, and there is a limit to how much they can reduce care.

Medicaid fraud. The state needs an inspector general, as the Senate has pushed for, to ride herd over more than $45 billion in Medicaid spending, plus billions more through other health-related programs. But the Assembly is right to insist on allowing whistle-blowers to collect a share of money recovered, a measure that has been successful in other states, including Republican Texas, without becoming a sop to trial lawyers.

Timothy's Law. The Senate should agree to the Assembly's plan to guarantee similar insurance coverage for mental and physical ailments. Currently, people seeking treatment for depression and other psychological illnesses pay higher co-pays and premiums, if they can get coverage at all. As other states have found, the nominal increase in insurance costs is more than covered by reducing losses to businesses and families.

Ethics. Lawmakers should build on progress made last year when they restricted lobbying on state agencies that grant lucrative contracts. They should tighten the state's gift ban, strengthen the "revolving door" restriction for former legislative employees, and ban honoraria and campaign contributions for personal use.