Mental Health Update
Articles from Yesterday’s Press Conference About the Need for a 2.7% Investment in Behavioral Health and Human Services
Great job by the Behavioral Health Advocates in getting an early push on our budget ask for next year by holding a press conference yesterday.
Listed below are stories about the press conference in Spectrum News and the Times Union.
Spectrum
In Albany, calls ramp up for more human services funding ahead of tough state budget
BY JACK ARPEY NEW YORK STATE
PUBLISHED 7:39 PM ET OCT. 15, 2025
In Albany, calls ramp up for more human services funding ahead of tough state budget
Mental health advocates were back in Albany Wednesday three months before the start of the legislative session, pleading with the state for a 2.7% inflationary increase to human services funding. They laid out how New York individuals and families are in crisis with massive waitlists, high turnover rates and limited funds to make progress in addressing those issues.
Fearing the impact of federal cuts on other areas of funding and a state budget sure to be battered by them, advocates are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and budget officials to provide the increase, and to look elsewhere as they attempt to absorb the impact of those cuts set to ramp up by late next year.
Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, is working to get the message across that if these programs aren’t funded properly, taxpayers will end up footing the bill somewhere else at a time when Hochul’s administration continues to drive home an affordability message.
“We’re here to save the state money,” Liebman said. “This 2.7% investment will save literally millions of dollars from people who won’t end up in homelessness, or end up incarcerated, or end up in emergency rooms.”
Bill Gettman, chief executive officer of Northern Rivers, stressed that while the call for an increase across human services is not new, in fact the same advocates have previously endured years with no bump in funding, the need is only growing more acute as struggling facilities brace for an even rockier road ahead.
“The providers here if we go out of business, it’s going to be someone else’s responsibility, its going to fall to the state and the state is going to have to pay a lot more money in their system to care for the folks we care for every day,” he said. “Waitlists are up, at Northern Rivers we have almost a thousand individuals who need services, across New York state we have vacant jobs, and turnover rates somewhere near 35%, there are thousands of vacant jobs in the mental health field.”
Liebman emphasized that turnover rate won’t level off until what he described as a mission driven workforce is paid enough money to remain in their preferred field.
“Mission driven doesn’t pay the rent, it doesn’t pay student loans so thats why we’re asking for this 2.7% increase,” he said.
It is still early in the budget process. The call letter to state agencies directing them to compile their requests by Oct. 24 only went out last week, but that letter stressed the governor’s continued focus on affordability despite acknowledging the significant challenges which lie ahead.
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2025/10/15/increased-human-services-funding
Times Union (Capitol Confidential)
Human services groups want a 2.7% funding increase in next year’s state budget
Advocates representing human services organizations wanted a 7.8% cost of living adjustment in last year’s state budget. That funding increase ended up being 2.6%.
They’re shooting lower this year, hoping to convince Hochul and the state Legislature to approve an increase of about the same size: 2.7%.
Human services organizations are important to the state. New York contracts out those services to nonprofits, like supportive housing projects and mental health support services. But many have high turnover because they don’t have funding to pay competitive salaries.
But those advocates are already up against a challenge. Hochul has asked agencies to keep spending flat in next year’s state budget.
Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association of New York State, told me that the state should see an increase for human services organizations as a cost-saving measure.
“You’re keeping people in the community instead of putting them in hospitals or prisons,” Liebman said, noting that those costs can quickly add up.
