- LEGISLATURE OVERRIDES GOVERNOR’S VETOES!
- NYSACRA STAFF SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN INAUGURAL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
- SPITZER PLATFORM ON DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
LEGISLATURE OVERRIDES GOVERNOR’S VETOES!
The
Legislature overrode almost all of Gov.
Pataki's 207 budget
vetoes. Pataki, saying the door is
now closed on his 12th and
final budget, pledged on constitutional
grounds to ignore and/or
block many of the Legislature's most
significant overrides,
including the one authorizing property tax
rebate checks and the
lawmakers' move to restore $650 million
worth of cuts from
Medicaid. "The budget is
over," Mr. Pataki said, though
legislators don’t agree. His overrides
could lead to a
constitutional clash that would be
uncharted territory for state
government. The governor's
rejection of the property tax rebate
plan was a serious blow to the State
Senate who called the rebates
their #1 priority for Senate
Republicans. Two relevant Vetoes
were not overridden: one was
the “Recruitment and Retention” money
for home health care, AIDS home care,
hospice care, and managed
long term care programs; the other was
the language added to the
OMRDD, OMH, OASAS COLA, requiring that
the money only goes to
direct support. While the home care
Veto struck the whole
section, the COLA language Veto does not
impact the original
Governor’s Budget.
STORY UPDATE as of 5-5-
06:
According to a May 5, 2006, New York
Times article by Danny Hakim,
Governor Pataki’s aides said on Thursday
that the governor was
moving to restore funds to six Medicaid
programs. The reversal
restored at least $113 million of the nearly
$1.3 billion the
governor had cut from Medicaid. It also
added to growing confusion
in Albany over what the governor meant
when he said he would not
carry out many of the Legislature's
spending initiatives because
of a complex constitutional dispute. The
governor's staff is also
taking the unusual step of using
appropriations left over from
previous budgets to selectively revive
certain programs. This
week, for instance, Mr. Pataki also
restored $1 billion in federal
aid for poor families.
Top
Legislative aides said they were hearing
more about the budget
from reporters than from the governor's
office. Legislators, as
well as union leaders, hospital officials and
community groups,
have been left to puzzle over what
survived the tortuous budget
process, and they are even uncertain
about the budget's size. It
could be $109 billion, it could be $113
billion — no one knows. A
spokesman for the Governor said a budget
report would be issued
next week and would clear up the
uncertainty.
Read NYT article Here
S. 6457-C
Budget Bill and Vetoes
NYSACRA STAFF SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN INAUGURAL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
NYSACRA’s
Director of Member Services, Joe Macbeth,
was recently selected by
the Center for Disability Studies at the
University of Delaware as
one of fifteen emerging leaders from
organizations across the
United States to participate in the first-
ever Summer Leadership
Institute. Joe will join an
accomplished and diverse group of
emerging leaders for an intensive
leadership development program
and will work with a faculty of national
experts like Michael
Smull, Jim Gardner, Steve Eidelman, Renee
Pietrangelo and K.
Charlie Lakin, among several others.
The Institute is sponsored
by the University of Delaware, ANCOR and
the Council on Quality
and Leadership.
According to
the three sponsoring organizations; “there
is a crisis looming in
the field of developmental disabilities.
More than half of the
CEO's of not-for-profit organizations and
an equal number of
government senior managers are within
five years of retirement.”
These fifteen individuals will learn
how to manage and sustain
person-centered, organizational
transformational change, how to
take on leadership challenges unique to
the field of developmental
disabilities, and how to use their personal
influence to
strengthen organizations and improve the
lives of people with
disabilities. The focus will be on
determining and setting
organizational direction, moving the
organization to a
high-performance model and building a
lifetime network of peers
and leaders to sustain career
growth. Please join us in
congratulating Joe on his
selection.
SPITZER PLATFORM ON DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
Gubernatorial
candidate Eliot Spitzer recently presented
his platform on
developmental disabilities at Westchester
Arc. Spitzer said his
priorities are “to ensure we continue to
move towards a culture
of inclusion, independence and
empowerment”, and he lauded the
growing self-advocate movement that
“has emerged to challenge
all of us to take a fresh look at the way
we approach these issues
and even the way we talk about
them.” Recognizing Westchester
Arc’s name change Spitzer said, “But
more than changing the
vocabulary, you have changed the way we
should care for and
support people with disabilities,
emphasizing integrated
employment over sheltered workshops,
community-based homes over
institutional facilities, life planning over ad
hoc case
management.” For a complete
copy of Spitzer’s platform on
developmental disabilities, please see the
link below or online at
www.nysacra.org
Spitzer
Remarks on Developmental Disabilities
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