Both the Senate and Assembly One House bills will be out over the next few days. Then we will be less than three weeks away from a final budget. Now is the time to fight for our top funding priority in this year’s budget—the addition of $500 million dollars for the mental health and addictions community workforce as well as for services and support.In 11 of the last 14 years, the statutory COLA for human services was either unfunded or underfunded. As a direct result, the community behavioral health sector lost over five hundred million dollars. Imagine how life would be different for so many New Yorkers if we had that funding to combat deaths of despair like overdose and suicide completions Imagine how much less homelessness or incarceration there would be if we had that funding for community behavioral health.
Now is the time to move forward and add that $500 million as well as call for a permanent COLA and the inclusion of Health Home Care Managers as part of the COLA funding.
How will this happen?
It doesn’t happen without you. In the coming weeks, we will be asking you to call the State’s legislative leadership to let them know of this priority
Stay tuned for additional actions.
