March 17, 2026 · Mental Hygiene · 2,922 words · 8 speakers · 28 segments
Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Assembly Member Joanne Simon and I am co chair of the General Conference Mental Hygiene Subcommittee and the Chair of the Mental Health Committee. I'd like to introduce the following assembly members, Assemblymember Phil Steck, Assembly Member Steve Stern, Assembly Member Angelo Santa Barbara, Assemblyman Quani Ofara, Assemblywoman Lorinda Hooks, Assemblywoman Jody Giglio, and Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski.
And good afternoon. I'm State Senator Natalia Fernandez and I'm serving as co chair of the General Conference for Mental Health Subcommittee. I would like to introduce Senator Leah Webb and a ranking member of the Mental Health Committee, Senator Kansanari Fitzpatrick, with the members.
If each member, if you'd like to make a statement, you can do so at this time. We'll just start here and move down the. And then the Senators can do the same.
Thank you, Joanne. To be very brief, I just wanted to express my support for two things which are in the Senate budget and not in the assembly budget, which are $7.5 million for workforce recruitment and retention, which is kind of self explanatory. The need for qualified staff in the area of alcoholism and substance use services is very critical. And second, 2.5 million for the Recovery Ready Workplace program that was passed by both houses last year. It is a voluntary program where employers can go to OASIS and if they meet certain qualifications, they will be certified as Recovery ready. And that's very helpful because experience in dealing with persons in recovery is very valuable so that they can be employed during their recovery. The Governor vetoed it and said it would cost $2.5 million. When I say that to people, they raise their eyebrows. It doesn't seem like it would cost that, but if that's her position, we certainly would support adding that amount in the budget.
Thank you, Mr. Santa Barbara. Yes.
Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Oh, no. Yes.
Okay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to make a few brief comments as Chair of the Assembly's Committee on People with Disabilities. Just want to recognize the progress that's reflected in the budget proposals we've seen so far and what that means for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Most notably the inclusion of the 4% targeted inflationary increase, which is an important step. It sends a clear signal that we understand the pressures that are facing providers. And we've all heard during various testimonies and other meetings at our office about the direct support workforce and the strain that they're under and the need to help stabilize these services because so many New Yorkers, so many New Yorkers depend on them every day. We also see continued attention to maintaining key programs and safeguards that are supportive to the continuity of care, transparency and particularly during periods of transition. These types of provisions may not always make headlines, we may not always hear about them, but they matter a great deal to many families out there who rely on consistency and trust in the system. And at the same time, we know there's some challenges that remain, some work we have to do to continue during the budget process. Across the state, families continue to raise concerns about workforce shortages, timely access to services and long term planning for their loved ones. These are policy issues that are not abstract, they are real and they affect real people in our communities. And again, we've heard from a lot of self advocates and providers. I want to add as both a parent and a legislator. My son Michael was up here just last week at a disability rally where we met with providers and self advocates that talked about the very issues that we're addressing in this budget. And I continue to hear directly from families about how important stability, predictability and strong based community, strong community based services are in their daily lives. So as we continue the budget process, Madam Chair, I look forward to working with our colleagues to build on the progress we have so far and to identify additional opportunities to strengthen supports for individuals with disabilities and the workforce that serves them. Families across New York State are counting on us to get this right. And in this budget we have the opportunity to keep moving in the right direction. Thank you for the opportunity to speak, Madam Chair. And I look forward to working with everyone as we continue on the budget process. Thank you.
Mr. Simpleinski, are you okay if we just go down the road or do you want to say something? Okay, great.
Good afternoon, My name is, I represent Nassau and Suffolk Counties and I'd like to thank all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and New York Senate and in the assembly today I would like to emphasize the how important mental health is and essential for the well being of all communities and all citizens of New York State. Too many New Yorkers are suffering in silence and we must, must continue to invest and break the stigma and ensure that every person receives the care that they so rightfully deserve. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the investments across mental health and hygiene, particularly as we continue to focus on supporting some of the most some of our most vulnerable populations. I've heard from many advocates for the justice center and the critical role it plays in protecting individuals with special needs. As we move forward, it's important that we ensure these resources are translating on the ground. This funding can be used to fill the gaps and have protections for individuals in our core systems when it comes to safety and well being. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for letting me speak today on behalf of the Assembly Minority Conference. As we enter the final stages of budget negotiations, we urge the importance of those discussions happening on a five way basis to ensure that the diverse perspectives of all New Yorkers are fully represented and valued. The final enacted budget must incorporate funding to assist those facing mental health challenges, individuals with developmental disabilities and people battling substance use disorders. The Assembly Minority Conference continues to support investments in early intervention services to continue to provide these important services, particularly in rural and underserved areas. The Assembly Minority Conference advocates sustained funding through targeted inflationary increases for human services agencies that deliver essential support to vulnerable New Yorkers requiring assistance. The Assembly Minority Conference is also encouraged to see continued support for the Joseph P. Dwyer program which provides critical peer support to veterans experiencing mental health issues. I look forward to working together with all of you through an open and transparent process to enact an on time budget that strengthens mental health services for all New Yorkers.
Thank you.
Thank you. Chairwoman. Wanna underscore the remarks of Ms. Giglio and three particular points I wanted to highlight. I was so happy to see in the one house budgets, investments in early intervention. I'm the father of a early intervention graduate and I really can't think of things that have a better return on investment than spending money on early intervention because you're really affecting the trajectory of people's lives in the long term. Obviously we get a lot of attention on the TII and once again I'm glad to see that the one House budgets were well above the executive and I hope they remain. That remains a priority in the final negotiations. Making sure that our providers get the money they need. And one, one point, something that wasn't in the one house but was in the executive and I hope somehow gets done which is the joint licensure. And I was very pleased today and committee Chairwoman that we moved a standalone bill on that unanimously through mental health. So thank you for moving that bill. But I think that'll help folks with co occurring disorders and, and hopefully in the end we get it done either which way, whichever way it gets done. So thank you very much.
Thank you. And I'm not going to expound upon the budget at this moment. But Senator, maybe your senators would like to introduce.
Yes, Senators, would you like to have a minute to speak on each budget? We'll start with our ranking member, Ken Savispatrick.
Thank you, Senator Fernandez. I appreciate the opportunity to be here as well. I'm pleased to see that both the Senate and the Assembly 1 House bills included targeted investments in mental hygiene services which recognize the continued workforce strain facing providers across the state. Our nonprofit providers and direct care workforces need more support than the executive proposed. And I support the Senate and the assembly increasing the targeted inflationary increase to 4%. These workers are essential to maintaining the care continuum for individuals with mental illness, substance use disorder and developmental disabilities. I'm happy to see increased support for nonprofit direct care and community based services at omh, OASIS and OPWDD reflecting the need to stabilize providers that have been under pressure for years from workforce shortages, rising operating costs and growing demand. I support strategic investments in mental hygiene programs in the one house, such as the $10 million for state operated assertive community treatment teams, 7.5 million for an OASIS workforce recruitment and retention initiative, and 15 million for Daniel's Law Community Crisis Response Pilot programs which will help develop best practices. I support the intent behind Daniel's Law, but I reiterate my concern that we should ensure this effort is being done in conjunction with law enforcement for the safety of all involved. As we continue negotiations, I look forward to working with all of my colleagues to deliver a fiscally responsible budget that provides sufficient and sustained support for mental health and hygiene services throughout the state while also strengthening our workforce and improving accountability for the people these systems intend to serve. Thanks so much.
Thank you so much, Senator Webb.
Thank you to our chairs. I'll keep my comments brief as well. I think that this budget most certainly reflects the priority that over the last several years we've taken with respect to mental health and mental hygiene. Of course, I want to add my voice to supporting the increase to the targeted inflationary proposal that the Governor put in the budget. We know that workforce continues to be a challenge, but this presents real opportunity to help our workforce do the great work that they do. In addition to that, the peer support programs like the new initiatives such as the Teen Mental Health First Aid Initiative that is specifically targeting youth. We know that there's a lot of challenges for our youth, especially today, with not only accessing mental health supports, but also having the need to have those peer supports in place for that important population in our communities. And of course, the Daniels Law pilot. This program has been proven to not only help to help communities, but it is something that we need to expand statewide and we need more funding to do that. And so again, I look forward to our continued discourse over the next Several weeks with the budget and most certainly continuing to prioritize equitable investments in mental health.
Thank you.
Thank you. Senator Botcher has joined us. Thank you so much. Would you like to say something? No, thank you. Just to flag again, I don't know people know. But I'm filling in for Senator Brook. She is on maternity leave and I currently chair the committee of alcoholism and Substance use Disorder. And just to say a few things about this one House resolution, the original package that was presented to us was strong and I'm very happy to see how we made it stronger in making sure that we have a higher TTI rate so so employees can be able to sustain their lives and still work in these fields that are so very much needed. The workforce and retention investments is something that we have hard fought and very proud to see that in there. Very happy to see also the recovery ready workplace. Myself and Assemblyman Steck have been working on this to help people retain, get work and retain work and also have a mechanism to continue to break the stigma against people in recovery. The investments to teen mental health, youth mental health, to our indigenous communities. Getting funding are really leaps into an area that we've been striving for to bring awareness to the, to the need to our young people and to invest in it. But thank you all to the members on both sides for your work in contributing to these one House resolutions. And I look forward to seeing them pass almost as is as we continue this process. Yes, Assemblyman Simon.
WOMAN Simon thank you. So I'm Assembly Woman Simon and I also want to add my support for the increases that we have provided for the workforce. As you know, the governor provided for 1.7%. The consumer price index is going up by at least 2.7%. But we know that the cost of running programs is that much greater. And so both houses have joined together in proposing 4%, which we think is a very reasonable estimate. And I'm very hopeful that we're able to see that in the final budget. I also want to be very supportive of the work that we're doing on co occurring disorders as well as youth mental health, including our indigenous members of our community. And we're looking forward to from a good budget, making it a better budget for the mental health community in New York State. So I'm going to go over some joint budget subcommittee guidelines. So the co chairs shall determine all manners of parliamentary procedure unless otherwise specified by these rules. Any dispute with regard to procedure that cannot be resolved by the co Chairs shall be referred back to the general Conference committee and shall be resolved by the co chairs of the General conference committee. The co chair shall designate each staff person to serve as secretary for the purpose of taking minutes. An alternate may participate in a subcommittee meeting but shall not vote upon any deliberations of such subcommittee unless he or she has been designated to fill an excused vacancy on such subcommittee. Such designation shall be made by the co chair of the general conference committee representing the house in which the excused vacancy exists. If such vacancy is in a minority seat on the committee, the subcommittee, then the representative. The designation shall be made upon the recommendation of the respective houses. Minority representative of the general conference committee. Are you getting the sense that some lawyer wrote this? Okay, so I'll continue. It's a little bit wordy. Such designation shall be made as soon as practicable by the appropriate co chair by providing notice to the other co chair of the general conference committee. An excused absence in the general conference committee may be filled by temporary designation of a member by the co chair of the general conference committee representing the house in which the excused vacancy exists. No subcommittee members or alternate members shall be permitted to participate via proxy. Subcommittees shall restrict their deliberations to their respective subject areas and as determined by the general conference committee. Any issues which are determined to be non germane by the co chair shall be referred back to the general conference committee. Each member shall be permitted a reasonable period of time as determined by the co chairs to discuss any matter germane to the subject area of the subcommittee. No report shall be filed except upon the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of each house's delegation on the subcommittee. Jeffrey Chen will serve as the recording secretary for the assembly and Kesha Murray
will serve as the recording secretary for the senate agencies to be discussed at the Mental Health Hygiene Joint Conference Committee, Department of Mental Hygiene, Office of Addiction Services and Support, Office of Mental Health, Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, State Council on Developmental Disabilities and the justice center for People with Special Needs.
We look forward to continuing the conversations with the executive to get a three way agreement on the rest of the items in the executive budget. It's very important that we work together to restore funding for those items that Senator Fernandez mentioned. In addition, there are also a variety of policy pieces that we continue to discuss.
And we look forward to working with the assembly and the executive on restoring the vital funding for addiction treatment and support services, mental and behavioral health programs and workforce, which includes mental health services for veterans, youths, Daniel's Law, crisis intervention services and a targeted inflationary increase. And I believe that is it?
I think that is it. The staff is in consultation with members and will continue to work through the issues. And I thank you for your attention.
Thank you all for coming.
I'll be closing this hearing.