[NYAPRS Enews] NYS Budget Update, Praise and Criticism Flies

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: While we await the final budget language that will confirm
details of a NYS budget agreement that, in some areas like Medicaid and
education, still is being finalized, some things are getting clearer:

*         The NYS Office of Mental Health will be authorized to close up
to 600 state hospital beds in the coming year, including at least one
state hospital and numerous wards and ward conversions. Along the way,
hundreds of state jobs will likely be eliminated. 

*         Community mental health services will not be folded into
health plans and will remain in fee for service for two more years,
during which time avoidable inpatient admissions will be promoted by 5-6
regional behavioral health organizations. They'll be expected to fold
into integrated managed care plans in 2013-4 that will be developed
under state and local oversight. 

*         Those services will be spared the 2% cross the board Medicaid
cuts but will take a 1.1% cut and some later reductions in state aid to
be determined by county mental health departments. They will once more
be denied a previously promised cost of living increase. 

*         Integrated new Medicaid provider networks that feature strong
care coordination and ER/inpatient diversion called 'health homes' will
be promoted broadly. 

*         Legislative leaders did announce yesterday that they had
agreed to preserve prescriber prevails protections for those Medicaid
drugs that remain out of managed care; it's still unclear which those
are although there's speculation that mental health meds for those
served by the 'BHO carve out' are included in that group. Groups are
still working to ensure that patient protections around med access are
also included in any managed care program. 

*         Still unclear whether some of the funds promised to create
supported housing as part of the adult home resident court settlement
have been siphoned off. 

Groups fighting to reduce cuts by pressing extension of a 'high
earner's' tax will be escalating efforts in the coming days, hoping to
keep the issue alive. 

Stay tuned. 

 

Praise, Biting Criticism Flies Over NY Budget

Associated Press  March 28, 2011

 

ALBANY, N.Y. - Significant negotiations continued Monday on key elements
of the tentative state budget deal, leaving schools and other groups
still wondering if the spending bill would force teacher layoffs and
higher local taxes.

No one seemed to think the tentative deal - praised by fiscal
conservatives and cursed by advocates for the poor - was threatened, but
the inches-thick budget bills hadn't yet been written or printed. The
Legislature must pass the bills by the end of Thursday to adopt the
budget on time, as promised.

"There is still much work to be done," said Senate Education Committee
Chairman John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, a day after Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders announced the deal.

For school districts, questions of whether to begin thousands of
projected teacher layoffs will have to wait at least another day until
aid is determined for each school district.

The tentative $132.5 billion plan would reduce overall state spending by
more than 2 percent and would address a $10 billion deficit without
raising taxes or borrowing money.

The budget would restore $272 million in school aid from Cuomo's
proposed $1.5 billion cut to schools. Of that restoration, $230 million
will be general operating aid shared among the 700 school districts
based on enrollment, poverty and other factors, with New York City and
other high-needs districts getting larger shares.

Substantial cuts to public universities and health care would remain.
Cuomo and the Senate's Republican majority killed the Assembly's
proposed "millionaire's tax" to ease the cuts.

But the health care industry that Cuomo so carefully cultivated to back
his planned cuts to Medicaid reacted angrily to the budget's lack of a
proposed cap on medical malpractice settlements. The issue was a
recommendation of Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, but was excluded in
the tentative budget deal. Hospitals and physicians sought the
malpractice cap to save money and counter the losses in Medicaid aid
under the rest of the team's recommendations.

"We are angry, disgusted and feel betrayed by this unconscionable
decision," said Dr. Leah McCormack, president of the Medical Society of
the State of New York. "This deal potentially decimates the already
fragile New York health care system. Under these circumstances, the
Medical Society no longer endorses the Governor's Medicaid Redesign
Plan."

Anger was also clear from those who sought the millionaire's tax to ease
or eliminate cuts to schools, local governments and community social
service programs.

While there wouldn't be additional state income taxes, "school and
municipal property tax increases this year will be substantial as state
and federal funding decrease," said Carole Krause of the upstate-based
New York State Property Tax Reform Coalition.

"We elected this governor," said Agnes Rivera of Community Voices Heard,
a coalition of social service groups based in New York City. "But he's
acting like he's been selected by his millionaire buddies."

Cuomo's team took "an unconventional approach that, while imperfect,
gave us the best opportunity to keep the cuts as low as possible," said
William Van Slyke of Healthcare Association of New York that includes
hospitals.

Others said the budget will set New York in a critical new direction
after years of overspending and overtaxing.

"This budget agreement marks a dramatic reversal in the tax-and-spend
habits of Albany that drove this state to the brink of fiscal disaster,"
said Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City. "They have sent
a clear message to employers that New York is open for business."

Legislators declared victory Monday.

"After two years of chaos, we agreed on a budget that sets the state in
a new direction," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, whose
Republican conference recaptured the majority in the November elections.

"We're pleased with the restorations we were able to make along with the
governor," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a lower Manhattan
Democrat.

The plan was on track to be adopted by the Legislature by the end of
Thursday. The 2011-12 state fiscal year begins Friday. That's as
politically important for lawmakers after years of scandals and tax
increases as it is for the first-term governor.

Veteran Democratic Assemblyman Keith Wright summed up the hope when he
closed a work session with a paraphrase from the movie "Star Wars:" "May
the force be with us."

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP99c9d676214c44f9b09f13a97fe6e085.html

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