Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery is deeply thankful that the Legislature and Governor agreed to include a 2.7% targeted inflationary increase for human services providers in this year’s final budget. At a time when community-based mental health and substance use providers continue to face rising costs, workforce shortages, and growing demand for services, this investment represents an important step toward stabilizing and strengthening New York’s public mental health and addiction recovery system.
We are also incredibly grateful to the leadership of the Mental Health Association in New York State and the many statewide advocacy organizations, providers, peers, families, and community members who came together throughout the budget process to push for this increase. Alliance staff Harvey Rosenthal and Luke Sikinyi were proud to join advocates at the Capitol almost every day alongside longtime advocate Bob Dodge, legislative champions, and coalition partners advocating for this critical investment.
This funding will help providers retain staff, improve continuity of support, and ensure more New Yorkers can access timely, community-based mental health and substance use services. While additional investments and reforms are still needed, this advocacy victory reflects what is possible when advocates across the state come together with a unified voice focused on protecting and strengthening services for New Yorkers in need.
We will have additional budget updates and analysis later today as more budget bills are reviewed, so please stay tuned for further updates from the Alliance.
