Download PDF: IAC Budget Recap 2015

IAC’s: Another On Time New York State Budget

By Wini Williams

Late on March 31st (actually 1:30 am on the 1st), the legislature passed the final budget bills which were still being printed on the last day. The Governor “postponed” many of the reforms he previously insisted on, including minimum wage, ethics and education, to have an on-time budget for the 5th consecutive year. As for programs and services for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities…..here’s what happened:
 State Education Department (SED)
IAC is very hopeful that SED will request an increase for both 4410 and 853 programs, in the 3-3.5% range, through the usual process that exists outside of the budget. The Assembly had called for a 2.4% increase in the budget. However, we felt a more significant increase was necessary and therefore, they removed their request for a specific percentage. We will continue to support these increases through the next few months. The Assembly also included a delay in the implementation of regional Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) rates till July 2016 which we were concerned would derail the 4410 increase mentioned above. The final agreement contains welcome language which enables regional SEIT rates to be implemented as soon as SED is ready, but no later than July 2016. As always, the blanket waiver of NYS requirements for special education, proposed by the Governor every year, was defeated in the final version.
 OPWDD
The Governor proposed $30 million for new services ($120M all shares fully annualized) and we had lobbied for modest increases for specific needs including $11.25M for residential development for people in desperate need, living at home with families and $3M for the expansion of Supported Employment, which is a State priority. In the end, only $2M ($8M all shares fully annualized) was added for new opportunities for families who can no longer care safely for their loved ones with developmental disabilities at home and an additional $1M to be used to facilitate the collection of information on peoples’ needs (so that good planning for the future can be accomplished). It is also intended to help advance the work of the transformation panel, charged with examining and making recommendations on the future of our service system (which our own Peter Pierri sits on). Language was included which ensures choice for people currently attending sheltered employment programs, the collection and dissemination of information on regional need for planning purposes (to be financed by the additional $1M), as well as reporting on the efficacy of the Front Door, and other provisions from bills that were vetoed by the Governor last legislative session. We will provide details on these provisions in the near future.
 DOH
Early Intervention:
Again this year, EI was ignored. According to the Department of Health, there was a decrease in spending for the program of $4.8M last year even though the number of children and the utilization
intensity per child stayed relatively the same and many new providers entered the system. We will get additional information on these claims so that we can develop a strategy for next year since we know that our providers have been discontinuing services for the last few years with no increases for virtually 20 years for this life-changing program.
 Article 16 Clinics:
Two years ago, a 2% across the board cut was made to clinics and other Medicaid services, but for Article 16 clinics, the cut was taken based on utilization thresholds. Clinics which managed to reduce the number of therapies per person below the threshold received no cut. Others which were unable to reduce the number of services based on the individual needs of patients received as much as a 5% cut. Last year that cut was restored except for the Article 16 clinics. Despite support from the Legislature to add language which would direct the DOH to restore the Article 16 cut, the Department’s opposition to the restoration prevailed. We will continue to address this issue through the rest of the legislative session. Staff contact: wini@iacny.org