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Sean Delaney went to Washington D.C. to open the eyes of our Congressional leaders and to share stories of life as a Direct Support Professional serving people with developmental disabilities. Please watch Sean's music video, "Open Your Eyes" and share it with everyone you know, help tell their story.
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Upcoming Events
BUILDING A VISION FOR COMMUNITYJuly 11, 2008 Join us for an exciting day and a half conference to explore the impact of community and social capital.
July 10 & 11, 2008
The Saratoga Hilton
534 Broadway
Saratoga Springs NY
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NYSACRA BUDGET UPDATE - 4-1-08 |
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 |
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· HEALTH & MENTAL HYGIENE BUDGET PASSED!! MOST CUTS RESTORED
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NYSACRA BUDGET UPDATE!
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| Issue No. 11-08
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April 1, 2008
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Open Your Eyes! Watch it Now!
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NYSACRA Calendar
Executive Positions
Action Center
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Greetings NYSACRA Members!
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| · HEALTH & MENTAL HYGIENE BUDGET PASSED!! MOST CUTS RESTORED
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Very late last night, the NYS Legislature passed A. 9804-D / S6804-D, the Health & Mental Hygiene Budget Bill for 2008-09, which includes OMRDD. In a welcome but surprising move, the NYS Assembly provided the restoration of the OMRDD cut, at $4 million, leaving about $1 million in cuts intact. It is still undetermined where that money will be cut from. Since A. 9804-D was the only Budget Bill passed, there is still much uncertainty around what the final budget will entail. We understand that the Legislature restored the cuts and rate restructuring aimed at the hospitals for this fiscal year, 2008-09, which in turn would mean that the clinic "rationalizing" that OMRDD expected may not happen right away. Instead, it appears the Legislature opted to phase in a restructuring plan over the next four years, to be fully effective as of December 31, 2012. Also unclear at this time is the fate of Governor Paterson's demand for a 2% across the board cut to each State Agency, and whether there are any other cuts that may materialize in the next few days as they negotiate the final budget.
At the Mental Hygiene Budget Conference table this year, which met on Sunday, there was only $8 million available to both the Senate and Assembly to dole out for varied purposes. While a good portion of this "table money" often goes to member items/grants, some is usually used to restore cuts made, as was the case this year. The $8M was the smallest amount in recent memory, leaving little for each of the three Offices, OASAS, OMH and OMRDD to share. The fact that the Assembly chose to restore the OMRDD cuts with their entire $4M share of the $8M is extraordinarily good news, and we should immediately contact them to offer our thanks and appreciation. The Senate should also be commended for its early support for the restoration, as we previously reported. It is uncertain at this time why the Senate did not split the restoration with the Assembly since both had considered it a priority. In the interim, the Legislature also passed a stop-gap bill to keep government working for this week, a measure that will need to be revised if they fail to pass the remainder of the budget by next week.
All previously reported items in the OMRDD Executive Budget were maintained in A. 9804-D / S6804-D, the Budget Bill that passed last night. Today both houses of the Legislature passed A. 9808-C / S6808-C, the Article VII "Language" Bill, which includes components of the Mental Hygiene Budget that implement the Budget.
Our friends from the Mental Health Association of NYS reported that the Legislature restored the funding cut to the Preferred Drug List for the anti-depressants. Which means that there will continue to be a full carve out for mental health medications in the Preferred Drug List.
NYSACRA will update you as the Budget negotiations progress, and provide a more detailed fiscal analysis once the State Budget is fully passed.
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