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April 10, 2008
Legislature
Passes Budget: Last night, the New York State Legislature passed the State Budget. It is still to be signed by Governor Paterson but since he was involved in the negotiations, it is unlikely that he would veto parts of the budget. As of last week, it appeared that many of the legislative priorities of MHANYS and other organizations did not make it into the budget. However, over the last few days there was funding added to the budget for Health Care Enhancements ($300,000) and $250,000 added for funding of Veterans Mental Heath Issues. We are very appreciative of the legislature’s recognition of the issues of Health Care Enhancements for direct care staffs in mental health programs. This has been one of the priority issues for MHANYS in this year’s budget. Senator Thomas Morahan, the Senate Mental Hygiene Chair, was a real leader and champion on this issue and worked hard to insure that it was added to the budget. Assembly Mental Hygiene Chair, Peter Rivera also played a significant role on inclusions of health care enhancements in the budget. We also are very appreciative of the legislative staffs in playing important roles in highlighting the issues of recruitment and retention of direct care staff in mental health programs. We would also like to thank our members and the advocacy groups who continue to support the enhancements. Jeff Wise, the Executive Director of the New York State Rehabilitation Association, has played an important role in pointing out the impact to his members of the high turnover rates in mental health programs. David Nemiroff, the Executive Director of the Nassau County MHA, was incredibly helpful in discussing his past experience in working at a major OMRDD provider agency and how the impact of the health care enhancements, in his former agency, served as an important incentive in retaining quality staff. We all know that $300,000 will not implement health care enhancements across the New York. However, we also know that there are several positive pieces that come from the funding of the enhancements.
This is an issue that will not go away. Our consistent mantra has been that you can’t run quality programs without quality staff. The recognition of the enhancements are just a start on what we hope will be a long term commitment from our partners in and out of state government to identify long range plans to keep and recruit quality staff. We very much look forward to being part of the implementation phase discussion of enhancements and how it will assist in retaining a strong work force in community based mental health programs.
Additional Budget Update The issues of PTSD and veterans have been discussed in great detail in the media in recent months. MHANYS Deputy Director Helena Davis has been very involved in working with veterans groups and development of trauma based trainings. Thanks largely to the work of our colleagues at NASW—NY, there will be additional funding in the budget ($250,000) to develop and implement statewide trainings for mental health professionals on issues of veterans and trauma. In addition as we mentioned last week, the other positive additions to the budget was that the legislature was able to add anti-depressants back into the mental health carve out for medications in the preferred drug list. One of the most significant advocacy pieces of MHANYS is the over arching need for medication accessibility. Among the advocacy agenda that was not funded this year included geriatric mental health, employment for people with psychiatric disabilities and funding for youth in transition with psychiatric disabilities. All are major priorities we will continue to work with our colleagues in the advocacy community to see them come to fruition. We were also disappointed that there was not additional funding for Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus in the budget for Timothy’s Law. Timothy’s Law has been an incredibly effective tool in dramatically transforming coverage of mental illness in insurance plans but to have true equity, CHP and FHP must be covered in the future. Impact of Mental Health Budget Cuts We are still not clear about the impact of the administration budget cuts to mental health this year. We have been assured by all the major state policy makers that they would try to minimize the impact to community mental health programs. The Paterson administration has demonstrated this commitment by assuring the community that the third year of the COLA will not be cut. In addition, there is new language that makes the COLA 3.2% for this year, up from last year’s 2.5%. We will keep you posted as we get additional information
MHANYS
Celebrates Mental Health Month with We hope that you will be able to attend our May 1st Reception at the State Room in Albany from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Our keynote speaker is David Kaczynski. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Kaczynski, he is a leading social rights activist. He is also the brother of Ted Kaczynski, the so called Unabomber. For those of us who have heard him speak, he provides folks with a very stirring message about hope and forgiveness. We are honored that he is joining us for the evening. Other highlights of the event include great food (we have many testimonials about that from last year’s event), lots of baskets to be auctioned off and great company. In addition, you are helping a very worthy cause. For information on registration on line, go to www.mhanys.org. We hope you will spend the evening with all of us.
In
The News: ALBANY -- Lawmakers completed a $121.7 billion state budget Wednesday that includes substantial borrowing and that budget critics say is precariously balanced on one-time revenues and more than $1 billion in increased taxes and fees. The budget raises spending 4.9 percent from the $116 billion spent last year. The Legislature and Gov. David Paterson agreed to split $1.28 billion for big-ticket items that will likely be supported through bonds, including $46 million for the proposed Advanced Micro Devices chip fab in Malta. Some of the new revenues close loopholes affecting businesses, but some will hit consumers directly, such as a $1.25 increase on the per-pack tax on cigarettes and $70 million more in assessments on health insurance policies. Paterson said the budget is imperfect and spending habits will have to change drastically, given the nation's faltering economy. Laura Anglin, his budget director, could not provide many details -- state work force numbers, new debt estimates or the size of the budget gap that will need to be filled next year. The state earlier pegged it at $3.6 billion, according to an analysis by rating agency Standard & Poor's. Critics said not only will there be an imbalance in 2009-2010, a midyear correction may force lawmakers back this year to cut programs, find emergency revenues, or both. "It's a concern . . . I'd rather be optimistic," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno. Education spending rises by $1.75 billion. Paterson agreed to strip tenure requirements for certain education aid from the budget deal, saying it wasn't fair to base job security on student test scores. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Paterson did "an extraordinary job leading us to this," given that the governor has been in office just 23 days after Eliot Spitzer's resignation. The Legislature did well, Silver said, to deliver a budget "only nine days late." Assemblyman James Hayes, R-East Amherst, said the measure needed more paring. "The money is simply not there," he said, predicting "a crushing blow that will come later." The budget includes $200 million for community projects for the Senate and Assembly, and for Paterson using unused "member item" funds from past years rather than new money, said Anglin. She said it isn't feasible to ask the Legislature to reprogram such discretionary funds for more essential needs. As a result, the final budget bills are laden with member items for such things as Little Leagues, gay and lesbian organizations, food pantries, circuses and ethnic programs. More and bigger member items are is possible: The capital budget includes $350 million for the majority conferences of each chamber to use for economic development. Silver identified some his projects, such as $25 million for the University of Rochester's Clinical and Transitional Science Building and $15 million for the developing Marcy NanoCenter. The Senate did not produce a list. Bruno did tease that an international business will be moving its operations to the Capital Region. Paterson said he will hold off on spending his $585 million, but ruled out using it on "pork." Much of his money is already committed under projects announced by Spitzer. Some of it also is wrapped up in a huge deal set up by Gov. George Pataki in 2006 for Advanced Micro Devices. The new budget calls for $45 million to fix up Luther Forest Technology Campus with infrastructure upgrades and $1 million for the economic development corporation that runs the campus. Bruno said the money supplements the $1.2 billion in Pataki-era incentives to lure AMD. The financially ailing chip manufacturing company proposes a $3.2 billion plant at the Luther Forest site. Bruno said some of the Senate capital will be for GE Healthcare's move to North Greenbush, for which $10 million is committed. Another $200 million is earmarked for affordable housing programs and $40 million is set up for grants to the agriculture industry. The sums are less than Spitzer proposed. Moreover, Spitzer's $1 billion upstate revitalization initiative was shrunk to a $700 million program. To support the budget, one-time revenues known as "one shots" are included in $1.52 billion in new funds. It assumes $250 million from a vendor willing to pay for develop Aqueduct racetrack and run video gaming there. |
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