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Chairs press for 7.8% COLA, youth jobs and housing vouchers in human services budget
Summary
The subcommittee’s Senate chair outlined a package of human services priorities in the one‑house budget, including a 7.8% cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) for human services contracts, expanded summer youth employment, housing vouchers, diaper assistance, and SNAP incentives.
Senator Roxanne Persaud, co‑chair of the Human Services and Labor Subcommittee, outlined significant human services priorities she and colleagues want in the final enacted budget, including a 7.8% COLA for human services contracts and a slate of program funding additions.
Persaud said the 7.8% COLA is aimed at providers across human services and that the Senate requested the COLA cover roughly 20 additional state contracts, naming domestic violence programs, crisis services, independent living centers, New York State supportive housing programs, and maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs among those to be covered. "We have spoken about the COLA over and over and over and I think we have to continue speaking about, a COLA," she said.
Among dollar items Persaud cited: nearly doubling summer youth employment funding to $200,000,000; $250,000,000 for a housing access voucher program (funded at the housing table but noted at this human services table); $2,000,000 for local and regional diaper banks; Article 7 language to create a quarterly $80 diaper allowance for income‑eligible families with newborns through age 2; $500,000 to fund a benefits cliff study task force; and $6,500,000 for the SNAP Healthy Incentive Program. She also said the Senate included restoration of certain legislative adds for programs such as DAP, NOEP and welfare‑to‑careers.
Persaud framed these allocations as linked to workforce stability and program effectiveness, and urged negotiators to close outstanding items. She indicated the Committee will continue to press for these priorities in final budget negotiations. No formal votes occurred in the subcommittee meeting.
