Alliance Alert: As Albany enters the final stages of state budget negotiations, advocates across the health and human services sector are making the case for stronger investments in the workforce that supports New Yorkers every day. The Alliance for Rights and Recovery continues to call on state leaders to include a 2.7 percent targeted inflationary rate enhancement for mental health and substance use agencies and the dedicated professionals who provide these essential services.
Community-based organizations remain on the front lines helping people access treatment, maintain housing, and avoid crisis. Without adequate funding to support staff and sustain programs, agencies will continue to face serious workforce shortages that limit access to services. Investing in the behavioral health workforce is essential to ensuring New Yorkers can receive timely and effective services in their communities.
The Alliance and our partners will continue advancing these priorities throughout the Alliance’s Week of Action, as advocates across the state meet with legislators in their districts and virtually to discuss the needs of the behavioral health system. We also expect the State Senate and Assembly to release their one-house budget proposals this week, which will shape the final phase of negotiations leading up to the April 1 budget deadline.
For leaders who want to stay informed and engaged in these policy discussions, the Alliance encourages participation in our upcoming Executive Seminar. The seminar will provide nonprofit and provider leaders with updates on key policy issues, state budget provisions, and other developments affecting mental health and substance use services across New York. Participants will also learn more about the Alliance’s advocacy efforts and the actions needed to strengthen services and support the workforce that makes recovery possible.
Register Today:
2026 Alliance for Rights and Recovery Executive Seminar Tickets, Thursday, Apr 16 from 9 am to 4 pm | Eventbrite
Health Care Interests Take Shape ahead of State Budget Negotiations
By Ethan Geringer-Sameth | Crain’s Health Pulse | March 9, 2026
As the contours of state budget negotiations begin to come into focus, health care interests, both institutional and labor, are emerging from the woodwork in Albany to lobby for billions of dollars in additional aid.
A coalition led by the Associated Medical Schools of New York went to the State Capitol on Thursday to push for another $100 million in the upcoming budget to support biomedical research and life sciences. The funding, backed by a small cadre of Democratic lawmakers, would add to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed $65 million investment in biotechnology.
The group argues that the money is needed to support scientific research and workforce development, and to keep New York’s biomedical research market competitive. The state is the second-largest recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health, receiving more than $3.5 billion in 2024. The Associated Medical Schools of New York says the money supported 35,000 jobs.
There was concern about funding last year as President Donald Trump sought freezes and restrictions on federal research grants. While the NIH ultimately awarded New York roughly the same amount in 2025, the number of grants shrunk by more than 500, meaning fewer awards for early-career scientists, said Jonathan Teyan, President and CEO of the Associated Medical Schools of New York.
“One thing we’ve seen over the last year is that federal funding that we thought was bedrock support for biomedical research is no longer unshakable,” he said. “The state really should be a partner, not to make up for federal shortfalls, but to be that stable partner when there may be uncertainty.”
Assemblymember Al Stirpe, a Syracuse Democrat spearheading the push in the Legislature, said unpredictability about federal support has put New York at a disadvantage, while other major medical research states, like Texas and California, have developed more stable in-state funding streams.
“Without additional investment in basic research, we risk losing thousands of the best and brightest researchers New York has attracted over decades,” Stripe said in a statement. “It would take an entire generation to rebuild what we stand to lose.”
The effort comes weeks before the State Senate and Assembly release their rebuttals to Hochul’s $263 billion executive budget, which will tee off the final stage of negotiations between the Legislature and the Second Floor ahead of the April 1 start of the next fiscal year. As that day nears, advocates and lobbyists are ramping up their efforts to get the governor and legislative leaders’ attention and secure their demands.
On Friday, a coalition of labor unions went to Buffalo to curry favor with Western New York politicians for another $2 billion to fill funding gaps left by cuts in Trump’s H.R. 1. The group, which includes 1199SEIU, the New York State Nurses Association, and the Healthcare Education Project, a joint lobbying entity of the Greater New York Hospital Association and 1199, launched the campaign in January. The group is expected to make its demands at a rally at the MVP Arena in Albany later this month.
The governor has already included $38.2 billion in Medicaid funding in her executive budget proposal in January, a more than 11% increase from the current year. Last month, she amended the proposal to include an additional $1.2 billion from a tax on managed care organizations.
“Even amid unprecedented volatility driven by Washington Republicans and ongoing uncertainty around federal approvals of the (managed care organization) tax, Gov. Hochul remains committed to strengthening New York’s health care system and ensuring critical providers have the support they need,” said spokeswoman Nicolette Simmonds.
Another group, New York Disability Advocates, which represents hundreds of nonprofit providers, is separately asking for additional funding for the Intellectual and Developmental Disability workforce, including a 2.7% inflationary increase, up from the governor’s 1.7% proposal. That coalition is holding a rally in Albany on Tuesday.
Simmonds pointed to increases for the sector in the last three budgets and said the governor would work with the Legislature “on initiatives that continue to support the needs of this critical workforce.”
The state Senate and Assembly typically release their so-called one-house budget proposals at the end of March. Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, did not comment on the specific health care proposals but said the chamber would release its spending plan this week. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ office did not return requests for comment.