I apologize for providing bad information about the Senate COLA proposal. They do not propose any additional funding for this year’s COLA. They are consistent in supporting the Executive’s 5.4% increase. That said, we remain hopeful that when the three sides negotiate, COLA will be a top priority.Sorry for the confusion but we will go forth and advocate strongly for the increase.
I will provide more accurate information tomorrow.
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Today the Senate introduced their one house bill which doubles the proposed COLA to 10.8%
As I referenced last night when the Assembly introduced their one house, this is the time that the Senate, Assembly and Executive will negotiate the final budget. We are appreciative of the work of both houses of the Legislature. What is of top priority to MHANYS is the Senate’s proposed COLA addition of 5.4% and the Assembly’s proposed addition of 5.6%*
Now both houses have clearly prioritized the COLA (10.8% in Senate and 11% in the Assembly). Our job as advocates and as the grassroots is to make some noise in support of this additional funding. All of you make that case every day in your tireless efforts to provide support and recovery for individuals with mental health related issues as well as supporting their loved ones in crisis. Now we have to follow up with phone calls, texts and meetings to let them know how important this funding is to the mental
health community.
Look for actions coming up this week.
*Glenn*
Thanks to my good friend and colleague Harvey Rosenthal for his quick analysis of the Senate One House Bill which is listed below
The NYS Senate has released its one house resolution. At first look, it provides for the following:
- Adds another 5.4% COLA to the Governor’s 5.4% COLA for a total of 10.8%. The Assembly has proposed an increase of 11%.
- Does not accept the Governor’s 3 amendments to Kendra’s Law and extends it for one year only. The Governor and Assembly have proposed a 5 year extender. The Assemlby had only accepted one of the Governor’s amendments, allow physicians to give virtual testimony with patient consent.
- Adds $22 million to support 200 additional OMH state operated inpatient beds.
- Adds an additional $5 million for the Crisis Intervention Demonstration Program
- Modifies the Governor’s 9-8-8 suicide prevention and behavioral health crisis hotline system by “modifying reporting metrics and ensuring call centers are established in-house.”
- Creates a new proposal to create a crisis intervention team demonstration program to assist law enforcement officers in responding to crisis situations involving individuals with mental illness and/or substance use disorder (S.4748).
More details as we get them.
