By now you have likely seen or heard about the results of the special legislative session that took place in Albany in August. The Governor called for significant across-the-board cuts that, after negotiations, resulted in a 6% cut in state funding (with some exceptions), which hit many programs, including independent living centers. Home care will be subject to a 2-year elimination of the trend factor, which means that the home care agencies that provide the services necessary for allowing people to stay in their homes will not get an increase in state funding to account for inflation and increases in expenses. While we were relieved that the proposed cuts did not include cuts to Medicaid eligibility or benefits, we remain concerned that the outcome of the final agreements does not adequately reflect the push toward reforming the health care delivery system. Across-the-board cuts were what some thought was necessary in these tough economic times, but we know that using a meat cleaver when a scalpel would have been more appropriate hits the providers that serve the most vulnerable populations disproportionately. Home care and other community-based services will feel this action much more significantly than hospitals and nursing homes will.

We are hopeful that next year’s budget will reflect the Paterson administration and legislature’s commitment to continue down the road of health reform, investing in home- and community-based settings that serve New Yorkers in the best way possible. The actions taken during the special session were very discouraging because they were not in line with the policy directions we are told the administration hopes to take in the area of long-term care. We were told during the regular budget cycle to “sit tight” and “this is not the year for long-term care.” If the budget cuts made in August are any indication, next year’s budget will not do what we need it to do in terms of adequately funding the right services in the right settings.

The process for mid-year cuts was frustrating to everyone, most notably the advocates who roamed around the Capitol looking for some information about what was happening behind closed doors. A mid-year opening of the current year’s budget is very unusual and there is virtually no process by which to follow the happenings as decisions are made. As advocates, we should demand that the openness and flow of communication we saw during the budget process proper will resume for the next budget cycle.