NYAPRS Note: Advocates from across the state are making plans to come to Albany for NYAPRS February 28th Annual Legislative Day to press for funding to address our most urgent priorities, including a major Cost of Living (COLA) increase and the passage of Daniel’s Law. See below for details about regional forums that we’re holding over the new few weeks, as well as about our Legislative Day program.
We are looking to fund upwards of 12 buses that day: to Get on the Bus in your area, contact Policy Director Luke Sikinyi at LukeS@nyaprs.org!! Here’s more information about several of our top priorities.
A Cost of Living Adjustment
As expected, references to Governor Kathy Hochul’s mental health budget proposal are featured in almost every article and interview about the budget that she and her Administration released last week. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of them lauded the unprecedented size and scope of the Governor’s commitment to fixing New York’s mental health system, in keeping with our own analysis and that of ICL’s Jody Rudin. In my 45 years of working in the field, no Governor has ever made mental health such an extraordinary front burner priority.
At the same time, while almost every response hailed the Governor’s resolve to invest an extraordinary amount of funding to fund new services and innovations, there is common agreement that the proposed 2.5% COLA to boost funding for existing services misses the mark, especially at a time when so many agencies are unable to afford or retain a workforce to meet existing needs.
People living with major mental health needs are in desperate need for those services: last week I was unable to locate crisis residential services for a very troubled woman because currently authorized beds or programs that would have helped her were unavailable due to funding and staff shortages.
Our challenges are mirrored in many states across the nation. Take Montana, where the Governor just told the Wall Street Journal that “there are lots of facilities, there’s just nobody to staff them.”
NYS Senate Mental Health Committee Chair Samra Brouk told Spectrum News today that “the governor’s proposed one billion dollar investment into our state’s mental health system is an opportunity for New York to finally correct decades of divestment that has left our friends and neighbors without the support they deserve. Now, in a time when countless New Yorkers are seeking mental health treatment, our communities are woefully underprepared to meet the growing need that exists—and we have an obligation to act. To that end, a 2.5% cost of living adjustment for these workers is insufficient, and if we truly want to make mental health care accessible for our most at-risk residents, we must ensure that these adjustments are indexed to inflation.”
We are counting on the leadership of both our mental health chairs, Senator Brouk and Assembly member Aileen Gunther to lead their houses to join the Governor in increasing the size of the COLA, ideally to 8.5%, matching the current Consumer Price Index.
Daniel’s Law
The Spectrum piece goes on to highlight another top NYAPRS priority, a proposal by Senator Brouk, Daniel’s Law that “would create mental health care teams to respond to a person who is in a mental health crisis. The measure is meant to meant to remove police from such situations, and is named in honor of Daniel Prude, who died in 2020 after being restrained by police. Following an investigation, the officers involved in the incident did not face any charges.”
NYAPRS Legislative Day Program
NYAPRS’ Annual Legislative Day is just around the corner! Join us in Albany on February 28th to fight for the COLA and passage of Daniel’s Law and other criminal justice reforms. Harvey and Luke will be conducting 9 more regional forums (we were in Suffolk and Nassau Counties last week) leading up to legislative day. Please see below for information about our legislative day program and the upcoming forums.
