NYAIL and Advocacy Update

NYAIL and Advocacy Updates:

Much to our dismay, Governor Paterson vetoed both housing bills in the Disability Priority Agenda last week - S.7800/A.9757 (would incorporate the housing provisions of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act into State law) and S.7613/A.10689 (would make discrimination by landlords based on a tenant's source of income illegal under State Human Rights Law). We have been in touch with both sponsor's offices and intend to work with them on the bills to get them re introduced and passed next year with a new Governor in office. NYAIL issued a press release in response to the vetoes, which was distributed to the network along with both veto messages. If you did not receive either, please reply to Lindsay and she will resend.
• NYAIL has been in constant communication with the Governor’s office regarding the poll site access bill. We anticipate the bill will be sent to the Governor’s office soon, and will kick off our e-advocacy efforts when it does.

NYAIL, along with CDR and CDPAANYS, has been advocating for the NYS Department of Health to exercise its authority as the oversight agency of the Medicaid program to intervene in Monroe County's dispute with the Center for Disability Rights regarding the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. Monroe county's allegations against CDR are based on a complete misunderstanding of the consumer directed personal assistance program and will have statewide implications if allowed to stand. More than 300 consumers and 700 aides lives were thrown into turmoil by the county's actions, and today is the county’s new extended deadline for consumers to switch to one of 5 for-profit providers designated by the county. CDR and the county are also in court today on the county's motion to dismiss CDR's lawsuit challenging the decision to end CDR's contract. The action of the county also represents a challenge to community-based individual and systemic advocacy by ILCs on behalf of the people we serve, even as ILCs have county contracts in place to provide services. For more details, visit CDR’s website at www.cdrnys.org or call Lindsay or Melanie.

What follows is an article from Gannett News on August 14th which provides a good overview of the budget process and deficits we’ve experienced thus far, and what’s likely to come down the road. So far this year we’ve been successful in avoiding cuts to Independent Living Centers and we stopped the proposed 12 hour personal care cap. Sustained advocacy efforts will be necessary should we face mid-year budget cuts, including to close the $1billion gap predicted by some analysts.

Will This Year's State Budget Hold Together?
By
Joseph Spector
Gannett News
August 14, 2010

In April 2008, lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson closed a $4.6 billion budget gap. A few months later, as the economy dived, a $2 billion midyear deficit emerged.
A year later, state leaders closed a massive $18 billion deficit, but just as soon as the ink dried, Paterson was warning of a $3 billion hole later that year. His predictions proved true, leading lawmakers to cobble together a plan in late December to balance the state's books.
This month, lawmakers and Paterson agreed to close a $9.2 billion deficit in the current fiscal year through an array of new taxes and spending cuts.
So once again, the question arises: Is this year's budget made of bricks and mortar or sticks and straw?
State officials believe the budget with hold together.
They estimate the midyear gaps over the past two years that played havoc on New York's finances -- which led the state to essentially go broke twice since December and forced delays of billions of dollars in aid to schools and local governments -- shouldn't happen again this fiscal year, which runs until March 31.
The budget has fallen out of balance in recent years because spending outpaced revenue as the economy soured and tax revenue fell.
Paterson, who has been credited with sounding the alarm over the state's financial woes, said he expects the budget to stay in balance. Revenues have stabilized and some spending cuts were made, he has said.
The state also received good news this week: about $1.4 billion in federal aid is coming for Medicaid and schools and $380 million is expected from a licensing agreement to allow Aqueduct Race Track in Queens to have video lottery terminals.
"We're in a much, much better situation than we were this time last year when I was telling you we were $3 billion in debt," Paterson said Thursday in a radio interview.
Paterson's budget director, Robert Megna, was less definitive, but also optimistic. But Megna said the state still has cash-flow issues that will force later payments to schools next month.
"Is it out of the realm of possibility that we'd have to deal with a problem again within the fiscal year? No. But we are a lot more confident that we're in better shape," Megna told Gannett's Albany Bureau.
But for some lawmakers and fiscal experts, they've heard similar promises made before. Some critics said the $136 billion budget spends too much during an economic downturn and relies on risky revenue raisers, such as $300 million from lifting the exemption starting in October on sales tax on clothes purchases under $110.
"I don't see how" the budget stays balanced, said Assemblyman David Koon, D-Perinton, Monroe County, who voted against the budget. "It's like a farmer using bailing wire and duct tape."
Some analysts indicated they would expect a budget gap to emerge of less than $1 billion this year, which would be more manageable than the recent midyear gaps.
Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director at the Citizens Budget Commission, said a gap of $500 million is possible if the economy doesn't worsen. Robert Ward, deputy director of the Albany-based Rockefeller Institute, said it could be about $1 billion, which the governor might be able to manage with agency cuts and other cutbacks.
"I would suspect that the governor may have to take some action," Ward said. "I don't expect there will be problems so severe that the Legislature has to get involved."
But the budget is not without risks. The state, for example, is banking on $440 million in revenue from a $1.60 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes and a tax on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations to non-tribal members.
The cigarette tax, which at $4.35 a pack gives New York the highest tax in the country, is already forcing New Yorkers out of state to buy cigarettes, which may cut into the revenue anticipated. And Indian tribes are expected to fight the tax on their reservations, which starts Sept. 1.
In all, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in an estimate last month that the budget could be out of whack by as much as half the $9.2 billion deficit, but that was before the federal aid and the Aqueduct license came through.
Still, the state's fiscal picture doesn't get any rosier in future years. State officials estimate next year's budget gap could be as much as $9 billion and as high as $15 billion in the 2012-13 fiscal year, when most of the federal stimulus money that the state has been receiving runs out.
This year's budget relies on about $5.7 billion in stimulus aid, the comptroller's office said. Also, higher income taxes on the wealthy are set to expire in two years, which this year is expected to bring in about $5.5 billion.
In DiNapoli's report, he notes: "Despite a consensus that the budget process is badly flawed and a chorus of public and private proposals for budgetary and fiscal reform, the enacted budget contains no reforms that would help impose the fiscal discipline necessary to realign recurring spending with recurring revenue."