Thanks to Barbara for writing and to Wini for forwarding.
From: “Barbara V. Crosier” < bcrosier@CPOFNYS.ORG >
Date: March 27, 2013, 9:16:49 AM EDT
To: “Barbara V. Crosier” < bcrosier@CPOFNYS.ORG >
Subject: NYS Senate Passes 2013-2014 Budget with 4.5% DD Cut
The New York State Senate worked last night until 4:32 am passing the 2013-2014 state budget. As scheduled, the Senate convened session at 5:50 pm, adjourned at 12:04 am and reconvened at 12:06 am Wednesday, a “new session day”, when all the bills had “aged” and could be acted upon.
As expected, all the budget bills passed but the Senate Democrats, led by Senator Avella, offered a “hostile amendment” for full restoration of the cut to not-for-profit OPWDD supports and services. There apparently was considerable discussion about the 4.5% DD cut during both the Heath and Mental Hygiene language bill/Article VII as well as for the “Aid-to-Localities appropriation bill which included the actual 4.5% cut. Many Senators, including Senators Tkaczyk, Carlucci, Krueger, Kennedy, Sanders, Gipson, Rivera, Dilan, Golden, Peralta and Parker all made reference to the OPDD cuts and the impact on services to individuals with developmental disabilities.
Additionally, following is an article from the Schenectady Gazette blog that Senator Tkaczyk voted against the Health &Mental Hygiene budget bill because of the 4.5% cut to individuals with developmental disabilities
We will give you the link to the debate and the final vote as soon as it is available.
The Assembly is scheduled to convene session tomorrow at 10:30 to pass the 2013-2014 budget. You can watch the Assembly session live at: http://assembly.state.ny.us/av/ and we will provide you with further information after the Assembly passes the budget.
Once the final budget is passes by both Houses, we will be working on our next steps for advocacy. One of the first steps will be to thank everyone who was so supportive and tried to convince the Administration to fully restore these harmful cuts to individuals with developmental disabilities, families, staff and communities. I know that many legislators are as frustrated and incredulous as we are that there was only a 25% restoration of the cut. As I have said before, we have all fought an amazing fight together and I believe that if we continue together we will be able to right this wrong.
More to follow shortly……
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Tkaczyk goes to bat for developmentally disabled
By David Lombardo
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
State Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk, D-Duanesburg, voted against the health budget bill citing spending cuts for the developmentally disabled.
The freshman senator highlighted the 4.5 percent cut in the negotiated budget and grilled Senate Finance Chair John DeFrancisco on the potential impact. The cut is 75 percent of what was proposed in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget, who called for a 6 percent cut that would cost $120 million.
Tkaczyk has been raising this issue since the governor’s amended budget introduced this cut. The budget resolutions for the Senate and Assembly completely restored funding , but Cuomo has insisted on the cut.
Assemblyman James Tedisco, R-Glenville, has suggested a tax credit aimed at the Tonight Show should go toward funding available to the developmentally disabled .
Tkaczyk noted that when the OPWDD commissioner came to a joint budget hearing she couldn’t identify the impact of the 6 percent cut. As a result, the senator hoped DeFrancisco could shed light on the impact.
He said it depended on how the cut was implemented, but suggested the governor planned finding savings with administrative costs and not patient care. In response to Tkaczyk, DeFrancisco added there were references to how the cuts should be implemented in the aid to localities budget bill, which was scheduled to be passed very early on Wednesday and that’s when he would talk about the specifics.
Tkaczyk, speaking on the bill, said the 4.5 percent cut will impact 429 people in Montgomery County and mean a loss of $1 million and impact 1,219 people in Schenectady county and cost $2.2 million.
“These are real cuts,” she said. “We still don’t have the answers on how is this going to impact the people we’re serving”
The health portion of the budget passed with 34 votes.
Barbara Crosier
Vice President, Government Relations Cerebral Palsy Associations of NYS 90 State Street, Suite 929 Albany, New York 12207 Phone: (518) 436-0178 Cell: (518) 424-3198 Fax: (518) 436-8619 E-mail: bcrosier@cpofnys.org