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March 28, 2008

Celebrate May Mental Health Awareness Month Event
with MHANYS on May 1 at the State Room in Albany,
featured speaker is David Kaczynski.

This is our second annual Awareness Month event at the State Room. It promises to be a very enjoyable event as it was last year. David Kaczynski is a wonderful and passionate speaker on causes of human rights and people with psychiatric disabilities. Also, we will have lots of great food, gift baskets to bid on and you will also be helping a great cause. For more information and registration, go on to our web page at www.mhanys.org

Tentative Numbers on Budget Agreement—
Mental Hygiene Table to Get $8 Million

Last night, the Legislative Leaders and Governor Paterson agreed to add $500 million to the budget (the so called avails). We just found out that there has been $8 million added to the Mental Hygiene Table. We want to make sure that the priorities of MHANYS are included in that funding including the funding for health care enhancements for direct care staff in mental health programs, funding for geriatric mental health and raising the issue of funding for employment programs in non-Medicaid programs.

At the Health Table, we need to restore the cuts to the anti-depressants in the Preferred Drug List and we have to make sure that the budget includes funding to pay for Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus in Timothy’s Law.

We will be working closely with many of our colleagues in the community who have been vested in the same priorities as MHANYS.

Mental Health Budget Cuts

Last week we sent a letter to Governor Paterson urging him not to make any cuts in human services programs. We have also advocated strongly on these issues. There is still great concern that the mental health table will be hit across the board with 2% cuts as have all the other state agencies.

Everyone recognizes that we are in difficult financial times but going after mental health programs will only end up costing the state a great deal more through increased use of emergency rooms, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and state psychiatric centers. Cutting the base will only exacerbate the problem.

Time to Review the Retention and Recruitment of Staff
in the Mental Health System

Over recent years, there has been a piecemeal approach to the recruitment and retention of staff in the mental health community. COLA’s have been an important recognition of the problem but there needs to be a lot more done to retain good staff. That is one of the reasons why MHANYS has also been advocating so strongly for the Health Care Enhancements.

However, we also have to identify additional ways to retain quality staff such as new training initiatives, tuition reimbursements, tax credits and other useful tools. The bottom line is we need to have a Comprehensive approach as outlined in the President’s New Freedom Commission Report.

I don’t care if it is a for profit business or a not for profit 501 C 3, no business can be run successfully when you have turnover rates of 35% to 40%. Until we create a comprehensive plan, we are not going to be successful in implementing quality programs.

We will be calling upon the administration to work with us in developing a comprehensive plan for the recruitment and retention of a quality mental health work force.

Congratulations to Our Good Friend Harvey Rosenthal

Tonight our colleagues at NASW—NYS are presenting their annual advocacy award to Harvey Rosenthal. It is a very wise choice. There are few people who have had a greater impact in New York’s mental health system over the last fifteen years than Harvey.

His tireless efforts, collaborative approach and intelligence have helped to make NYAPRS a major voice for change in New York and across the country. Congratulations to Harvey.

In the News:

Paving Way on State Budget - $124 billion package taking form, Governor, Legislative leaders say
Times Union, March 28, 2008
By James M. Odato, Capitol bureau

ALBANY -- As the bottom falls out on Wall Street revenues, legislative leaders and Gov. David Paterson late Thursday said they are hastening to fashion a new state budget of about $124 billion that will be built on some increased fees and other unspecified funds.

The leaders and Paterson gathered before reporters to announce they have a "framework" of a deal, although much more negotiating is necessary.

Paterson said he's agreed to an additional $500 million in spending from the roughly $123.5 billion budget he proposed. "We will pay it off with revenues that are real," he stressed.

With a worsening revenue picture because of an ailing financial sector, the leaders said they will be moving quickly to complete an on-time budget. The plan is due in four days, and the lawmakers hope to begin drafting bills this weekend.

None of the leaders could say what the revenues will be, although they did say new taxes are not part of the plan.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was outvoted in the negotiations on his plan to add $1.5 billion a year for five years by raising the taxes on income above $1 million.

"I believe the fairest way to do this budget is to ask the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay a little more," he said, acknowledging, "I'm alone right now."

Paterson said the group is still negotiating what fees will pay for the increased spending and help close a $4.6 billion budget gap. The parties have argued over increasing fees on HMOs and health insurance policies, according to some sources.

"What I've learned is you just can't get everything done on Day One," Paterson said, adding some levity to the budget talks. Yet he has warned that programs will be cut to make way for some of the legislative priorities and keep the budget growth relatively modest -- about 4.7 percent or less, instead of the more than 5 percent increase Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed.

There were several oblique references to Spitzer, who resigned March 17 amid a prostitution scandal. The leaders applauded the way Paterson, in his second week as governor, handled himself to help bring about a handshake agreement.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno noted how it was a "pleasure to be able to work in a congenial way."

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco noted Paterson's ability to "relate to people" and said he is stunned to be part of a process that appears to be heading toward the highly unusual delivery of a budget lower than the one originally presented by an executive.

"I think we've done something close to a miracle," Tedisco said.

The joint legislative conference committee is expected to meet this morning to lay out a schedule for subcommittees to carve up about $1 billion in available funds. The money comes from a combination of re-estimating needs, new revenues and cuts.

Budget Director Laura Anglin was unable to provide specifics.

Some people were so upset with the budget plans, they got arrested.

Twelve demonstrators who laid down on the marble corridor floor in front of the Senate majority's office at lunchtime were dragged, cuffed and taken out of the Capitol by State Police. They were among about 50 people protesting for more funds for AIDs programs.

The 12 were arraigned on charges of disorderly conduct and released for a court date on April 10 in Albany City Court, said their lawyer, Mark Mishler.

They objected to the Republican-led Senate's budget plan omission of $1.4 million for job-training for people with HIV/AIDS, and the Senate's move to let the state count disabled children's benefits in figuring assistance for families with AIDS. Families would lose $573 a month per disabled child, advocates say.

Several Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, called for restoring the money. It could be one of many additions the Legislature makes in a final plan that may require cuts elsewhere.

Albany Leaders Agree on $124 Billion Spending Ceiling
New York Times - Morning Buzz, March 28, 2008
By Sewell Chan

Gov. David A. Paterson and the leaders of the State Legislature announced an agreement on Thursday night for a rough spending ceiling of $124 billion for the fiscal year that begins April 1, Jeremy W. Peters reports. Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, backed away — for now — from his plan to seek an income tax increase for New Yorkers who earn more than $1 million a year, as lawmakers took a step toward completing a state budget.

Though the state’s top leaders settled one of the most difficult issues in front of them, they left some of the biggest ones unresolved, including how richly some programs in education, health and transportation will be financed. And it remained far from certain whether the state would have a budget in place before the April 1 deadline.