Lawmakers outline human services, labor priorities ahead of state budget negotiations

Senator Roxanne Persaud, co-chair of the Human Services and Labor Subcommittee, and Assemblymember Andrew Hevesy, the subcommittee's co-chair, convened legislators to summarize each house's human services and labor priorities as the state moves into final budget negotiations.

The hearing focused on proposals included in the one-house budgets from the Senate and Assembly and on specific programs that lawmakers said must be preserved or expanded in the enacted budget. "We've been hearing for a while the crisis in childcare," said Senator Jabari Brisport, chair of the Committee on Children and Families, identifying workforce pay and slot preservation as urgent items. Brisport cited the Senate proposal for $500,000,000 for the childcare workforce and the Assembly's $212,500,000 proposal to preserve childcare slots.

The subcommittee emphasized a 7.8% human services cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) included in the one-house budgets and said the COLA should cover roughly 20 additional state contract lines, among them domestic violence programs, crisis services, independent living centers, supportive housing programs and maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs. "We have spoken about the COLA over and over and over and I think we have to continue speaking about a COLA," Persaud said.

Unemployment insurance (UI) debt and benefit levels were a major point of agreement and debate. Assemblymember Harry Bronson and other members urged paying down federal UI borrowing so the state can restore statutory benefit levels. "We still owe around $6,500,000,000 to the federal government," Bronson said. He argued that paying down that debt would allow the state to increase the maximum weekly UI benefit from the current $504 to an $860 level that would have applied under statute. Several speakers, including Senator Steven Rhodes, said using state resources to pay down UI debt would relieve businesses and preserve access to future interest-free loans.

Lawmakers highlighted several budget items intended to support workers and low-income New Yorkers: funding for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs targeting marginalized communities; proposals to revise prevailing-wage coverage under Labor Law 224-a for construction projects paid with taxpayer dollars; and measures to address workers' compensation access and pharmacy reimbursement. Senator Rhodes described two bills — S304 and S306 — that he said would expand access to medical care for injured workers by changing how medical treatment guidelines and pharmacy reimbursements are applied.

The subcommittee flagged multiple targeted human services and affordability items in the one-house proposals: a nearly doubled summer youth employment program at $200,000,000 (SYEP); $100,000,000 in LEAP funding for youth-work placements with small businesses and non-profits; $250,000,000 for a housing access voucher program; $2,000,000 for regional diaper banks and Article VII language to create a quarterly $80 diaper allowance for eligible families with newborns through age 2; $6,500,000 for the SNAP Healthy Incentive Program; and $500,000 to fund a benefits-cliff study via a task force. Persaud said the Senate had added the diaper allowance and other targeted measures to the one-house budget.

Several members urged increased funding and program fixes for populations with specific needs. Bronson said only New York City social service districts had opted into an HIV housing program and asked the Legislature to include roughly $3,000,000 for the program's first year so people living with HIV outside New York City can get housing and services. "If they don't have housing, they don't stay on their medication. If you don't stay on your medication with HIV, you die," Bronson said.

Lawmakers also described proposals related to family supports and early childhood: removing the minimum-wage requirement to access childcare subsidies, funding a universal basic income pilot known as the "baby bucks" bill to provide $1,000 stipends to qualifying expectant mothers, and restoring kinship caregiver program funding. Assemblymember Hevesy singled out the working families tax credit as a major anti-poverty tool that could reduce child and family poverty if expanded.

On youth justice, Assemblymember Molitor and Hevesy urged better statewide use of the nearly $1,000,000,000 appropriated for Raise the Age services, including a $100,000,000 assembly proposal for services and a proposed $50,000,000 innovation fund to send money directly to community programs. Molitor urged using the funds to build a statewide service system rather than leaving implementation solely to localities.

Several members raised enforcement and benefit-protection measures: Assemblymember Jessica Ramos described measures to strengthen wage-theft remedies, including allowing workers to place liens on employer assets; and members discussed temporary disability insurance reforms to raise low benefit levels.

The meeting closed with chairs and members reiterating the goal of an on-time enacted budget that combines Senate, Assembly and executive priorities. "We look forward to working with the assembly and the executive to ensure that we have an enacted budget and on time enacted budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers," Persaud said.