March 18, 2026 · Human Services and Labor · 4,812 words · 12 speakers · 59 segments
For the Joint Budget Subcommittee on Human Services and Labor, I am Senator Roxanne Persaud and I'm the co chair of Human Services and Labor Subcommittee. I'm honored to co chair this subcommittee with my colleague, Assemblymember Andrew Hevesy. I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the following members of the Senate portion of the subcommittee. With us today is Senator Jessica Ramos. Seneca. Senator. The other, Jessica Scarcella Spanton, Senator Stephen D. Rhodes, Senator Rob Rollison, and Senator Jabari Brisport. I'd like to turn it over now to my co chair, Assembly Member Andrew Hevesy.
Thank you, Senator Prasad, great to be working with you again. Good evening, everybody. I'd like to introduce the assembly members who will be participating today. We have Assembly Member Bronson, Assemblywoman De Villa. And we have Assembly Member Carol, whose timing is perfect.
Perfect.
I love it. Let's give him a round of applause for that.
Come on.
Unscripted.
I love it.
Okay. And also Assemblyman Michael Novikov and Assemblyman Andrew Molotar. Gentlemen, welcome.
Thank you. The Senate and the assembly will be designating secretaries for the purpose of taking minutes. And the Senate designates Lauren Walsh as their secretary.
And the assembly designates. And here's the pronunciation. You ready? Joe Lencheski. I got it. All right. Good.
Okay.
Yeah.
So the following agencies are going to be announced at this table. Department of Civil Services, Office of Employee Relations, Division of Human Rights, Workers Compensation Board, Office of the Welfare Inspector General, Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, Department of Labor, Office of Children and Family Services, Department of Veterans Services, and the Public Employment Relations Board. Now I'd like to turn it over to my colleague.
Okay. So for the assembly, if we have some statements, we're going to try to keep them under two minutes if we can, but I'd like to start with some Senator. Member Bronson.
Thank you, Co Chair Hevesy. It's really my honor to be here. I look forward to our conversations between the assembly and the Senate as well as the second floor, on issues important to our families and neighbors throughout New York State. Regarding labor, I want to highlight a few things that we certainly need to work on. I think we're all in agreement that we need to address workers compensation fraud here in New York State. And we need to put together a program that will allow us to do so. We and the assembly are willing to have conversations regarding that. We want to make sure that frauds on both levels, both on the employee side as well as the employer side, is taken care of. However, we're not sure that the original proposal regarding grants is where we should go and we should be paying this through workers comp assessments. Between 2016 to 2025, there has been a 45% cut in and workers comp assessments to our employers and a 37% cut in total total employer workers comp cost. Using an assessment to fund an anti fraud system is where we should go. Related to those workers comp assessments is also the Occupation Clinic Health Network. This is a program that was defunded a number of years ago. It's paid through the workers comp assessment program program. We in the assembly would like to have a $10 million add into that program once again utilizing workers comp assessments which have been going down year in and year out. Wage theft in New York State is also a very serious problem. And we in the assembly want to work on wage theft, but we think it's most appropriate to be done through the Department of Labor instead of the proposal that we would have a grant program that would go only to rural district attorney's offices. What about the wage stuff that's happening in my area in the city of Rochester or in New York City or something like that? We need to be funding wage theft enforcement and we need to be doing that through the DOL to cover the entire state and not just certain portions of the state. And then of course, this area is not really within our jurisdiction. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fast tracking of the state Environmental Quality Review Act. I'm happy to look at that. I think the assembly is happy to look at that. But in exchange, we must have labor standards and labor protections as part of whatever revisions we do in that review part. So I'm happy to work with people and look forward to our ongoing discussions.
Thank you. I'd like to call on Senator Jessica Ramos.
Thank you, Senator Persaud, and thank you to my counterpart, Assemblyman Harry Bronson. I'm very proud to be a member of a legislature that is continuing to tackle the needs of workers and families head on. We are taking major steps to strengthen workers rights with workers compensation reform. We added $57 million so that injured workers now get an initial hearing within 60 days of submitting a claim. We of course, are persistent in our quest for temporary disability insurance reform as well as including coverage for pregnancy loss and intermittent leave. That means more workers get the support they need when they needed most. We continue to invest in workforce developments, climate focused job programs, safety training and future care work initiatives. We're continuing to fight wage Theft along with the assembly and make our workplaces safer. We advance language to establish a New York State Worker Protection and Labor Enforcement Fund to provide a dedicated recurring fund for the Department of Labor to enforce the labor law by utilizing monetary damages and penalties recovered from prior enforcement actions, redirecting funding so that the Department of Labor can handle wage theft investigations in house and required public employers to implement plans to prevent workplace bullying and abusive conduct. Workers deserve a safe, respectful environment and now they have stronger tools to hold employers accountable. This year we invested 10 million in facilitated enrollment pilot programs across the state helping families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level access critical child care services. And for our veterans, we restored funding for programs like Helmets to Hard Hats, helping those who serve transition into meaningful careers here at home. These can be real, tangible wins for workers and families across New York State. I'm proud of the work we've done. I'm hopeful that Governor Hochul will be a partner in our work and we're going to continue the fight for these policies nevertheless that give every worker and every family the support and respect they deserve. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Senator.
Assemblymember Deviation.
Thank you. So on the Assembly's one House budget bill. Let me get back to it. Sorry. We appropriated $75 million for food insecurity. We have also worked on the CHIP program for the food stamp theft program. And we're joining the governor in her proposal to get that done this year. We have a lot of work to get done, especially this year. We're facing a very hard time in October as food stamps SNAP is going to be redirected and sort of cut this particular year. And so we want to make sure that people are not as in need as they're going to be if they do not receive their food stamps. So the $75 million will cover that. And we have put in some significant money in social services this year. And because the federal government has made so many changes this year, we expect to be able to kind of plug in those gaps. And working with our, you know, our great team that we have in social services and the elected officials that, that are on the committee. I thank you and I thank my counterpart in the Senate, Senator Prasad. Thank you very much and thank you. That's all I have to say.
Thank you. Thank you very much. And I'd like to call on Senator Brisport.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Close enough. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hope I didn't throw you off by sitting on the assembly side this evening, but wanted to thank Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins for her leadership in the Senate. One House budget representative resolution in the realm of OCFs and childcare, the Senate makes many notable additions upon the Governor's executive proposal. One particular addition I would like to highlight is $500 million for a child care worker retention grant program. This is an incredibly necessary investment in the workforce, many of whom are deeply underpaid with extremely high turnover in the field. And there is no path to universal childcare without investing in the child care workers. $500 million is a significant addition to the Governor's proposal, but it pales in comparison to the $12 billion in tax breaks that New York's wealthiest are on track to receive from the Federal Government via HR1. I sincerely hope that this worker retention grant program is in the final budget. If we do not have it. We have essentially endorsed tax breaks for the wealthiest at the expense of the livelihoods of tens of thousands of working women across the state. Tax the rich from the child care workers. Thank you.
Thank you, Senator.
Yeah, thank you, Senator. And I like it when you're sitting on this side. Assemblyman Novikov.
Sir.
Well, thank you for letting me speak
today on behalf of the Assembly Minority Conference. Affordability continues to be the major issue driving New Yorkers away from our state, and few issues raise affordability concerns as strong as child care does for New Yorkers. We're pleased to see the Governor and majorities continue to include key ideas from our legislative child care package, such as reducing unnecessary burdens on providers, developing a substitute child care pool, child tax credit expansion, and funding for alternative hours and regional cost factor models. The conference raises concerns that the rapid expansion of child care eligibility in recent years was done so without appropriate funding, causing closed applications and wait lists. Fully funding the program so that families and counties are not shouldering this burden must be a priority in this budget. EBT Fraud EBT fraud has amounted to more than $50 million over the last three years. We have called for modernizing EBITDA cards with microchip technology and are happy to see funding included in the budget proposals this year and hope to see this included in the final budget. It is imperative that these EBT microchip cards be delivered to beneficiaries as soon as possible to minimize fraud and help those who are already the most vulnerable. Ensuring that this can no longer happen should be a top priority. And lastly, we appreciate that both majorities partially restore the veterans benefits advising program funding which the Governor has removed. However, we wish to see the majority show which programs they are committed to funding the Assembly Minority Conference. Again, questions why the governor continues to use veterans benefits as a negotiating tactic and risk endangering this crucial veterans programs. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I'd now like to call on Senator Scarcella Spanton.
Thank you. Thank you to our Chairwoman Roxanne Persad. And also thank you to Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins for making meaningful investments in our New York State veterans. There's many, many things that we have added in here for New York State veterans for their legal defense programs, for job readiness programs for union labor such as helmets to hard hats VFWs. And one thing I'm very excited about making sure that we keep in the final budget is funding for the Cohen's Veterans Network, which helps veterans and their family members with mental health services. This will be a big deal particularly for our Fort Drum community and our Queens community as well. I look forward to continuing advocating veterans fall into many, many different places in the budget, as we have learned over the last couple of years. So we will continue to do that. But thank you very much, everyone.
Great. Assemblymember Molotar.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair Hevesy. And thank you, Chair Davila. Thank you, Ranker Novikov. I'm gonna sort of beat this drum that I've continued to beat here. We must work to find ways to shorten our fair hearing and judicial decision, reduce cost to our counties. This year we're looking at an anticipated snap penalty of $70 million. Oh, that's not just getting closer. Oh, I gotta get closer.
Should I start over?
Well, I'll just keep going further. You know, New York snap payment errors must be fixed so that we will not have to pay penalties to the federal government in the future. Hopefully we can collaborate to lower the highest combined tax burden in the nation here in New York by finding a more responsible and efficient way to administer our safety net benefits while also compassionately serving our citizens that are most in need by, yes, giving them a hand up while also giving them a dignified off ramp for the temporary benefits that they're receiving. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Senator Rhodes.
Thank you. Madam Chair. I'm Steve Rhodes. I'm the ranking member of the Senate Standing Committee on Labor. And I'm pleased that we're here today with the assembly examining proposals for the 26, 27 state budget related to human services and labor. I am a little disappointed because if, if prior years are a harbinger of things to come, this will be the last time that this conference committee meets and will be the Last time that you will see any minor representation on this on this committee. I hope that that changes this year because we would love to be able to participate in these discussions and shape the final budget package that will reach the floor. You know the Senate and Assembly 1 House budgets in my opinion cannot be considered to be serious documents when the main issue challenging this state on both sides of the aisle agree is affordability. I don't see how raising spending by 10.8% when the rate of inflation is 2.4% contributes to affordability. This state is number one in taxes. We are number four in cost of living. We have the second worst business climate in the country and if we could tax and spend our way into affordability, this would be the most affordable state in the nation.
It's not.
We know that. So I think that off the bat as a whole, the budget has some definite challenges and should be re envisioned. With respect to the labor front, I do think that there are some very worthwhile proposals that are here. Preventing workplace violence, something that Senator Ramos has championed. Creating a fund in part JJ for labor law violations so that the Department of Labor can continue to fight wage theft and labor law issues is certainly a valuable proposal. I am concerned, however, contrary to Assemblyman Bronson's proposal, I'm concerned that the assembly removes the 17 million in grants to local district attorneys which would help support anti fraud activities in part W. The workers compensation fraud interdiction and prevention units I think is a and the committee is a worthwhile and valuable proposal. However, I again disagree that the 4.4% base 40 basis points on employers to fund the investigation and prosecution of workers compensation fraud should be placed on employers. Understand that additional costs that we add to our employers are killing jobs. Every cost that we add to our employer is a is a missed opportunity for those employers to be able to create work for the workers that we so desperately are trying to represent. Especially when workers compensation insurance carriers have made record profits of a billion dollars. This workers compensation fraud proposal is one that is absolutely necessary. We should be combating workers compensation fraud. It will be the insurance companies that are the beneficiaries of those efforts. And insurance companies in face of those record profits should be the ones that are challenged with helping to pay for that system. But again, hopefully I look forward to the chance to work with my colleagues also. One other thing that I will mention in the governor's proposal, the idea of putting non coded doctors as a chance to expand the pool of doctors that can treat workers compensation claimants I think is A mistake which in both one houses, I think we've recognized. Simplifying the claims process is a much more beneficial way to get doctors to participate in the program. Getting those doctors getting, not getting paid in a timely fashion is the number one challenge to doctors participating in the program. So simply adding more doctors who don't understand the workers compensation system, don't understand the process are simply going to result in workers not getting the care they need because their claims are going to be denied. Being reminded of my time. So thank you, Senator Prasad. Thank you, Senator Prasad.
And thank you, Senator.
Appreciate the committee.
Much appreciated. I'm going to take my two minutes if I can, although I'm watching how you're hitting that button. Okay. So first, thank you. Thank you to all of my colleagues for their time and everybody for spending their time. I do want to comment about the general growth of this budget. I will tell you that I believe that that's in response to 12 years of austerity under the former governor that we're still trying to come back from with cola. So let me start there with the cost of living adjustment. So grateful to both houses for putting the cost of living adjustment in. I would argue that we need to do one step further, which is there's a whole pile of workforces that are not included in that cola. I think they need to be put on budget this year. Even if they don't qualify for this year's inflationary increase, they should be put on budget because we can't continue to give callers with leaving people out. A couple of other things.
Raise the age.
Very important that we keep the money for that Innovation Fund, Assembly Member Romero's bill and eliminate the barriers for New York City for the LEAPS program. That hundred million that the assembly put in for 4,000 slots to get all of the kids that we dropped off when we transitioned to LEAPS is crucially important for child care. Good for the Senate. Thank you to my Senate colleagues for putting in that $500 million for child care workforce in the Assembly. We were not able to get that far, but we are with you and we're going to be looking to keep pushing until we get to that $1.2 billion fund that we need. Supportive housing. We are missing in our one house and I want to put this back on the table. We need a $20 million investment for the second year to get the NYSHIP program, that's the older legacy supportive housing programs, back up to where they need to be. And now let me just rattle off some. Some of the smaller Ones at the end, Kinship Navigator, Mount Hope Boys and Girls Club, Youth Build, Runaway and Homeless Youth, and the YMCA among others. These are the things that we have to fund to make sure that we get services directly to people on the ground. And again, I thank my colleagues for allowing me to speak today.
Thank you. So in the Senate one House budget, you know, we restored the prior legislative years ads for dap, noip, welfare to careers and others, which is extremely important and we feel we must continue to fund it. These are very important programs that benefits all of our constituents. We've added the 4% Human Services TII that covers approximately 20 new state human service contracts, including domestic violence programs, independent living centers, New York State supportive housing programs and some others. It's important, as my colleague has said, that we include all of the programs that were excluded for a number of years and we have the legislation to do so going forward. Of the 4% that has been included, we are asking that at least 1.3% go directly to the employer, the employees working to uplift our vulnerable New Yorkers. That is extremely important. We want to see the money getting to the workforce, EBT skimming. We have allocated the funding and we agree with the governor that we must provide the funding for the CHIP enhanced cards. We have seen many of our constituents whose funds were skimmed, especially our seniors, they're going to the source to purchase their food and they've seen the money on the card and when they put the card there, there was absolutely no money and there was no alternative. They have to go hungry or go on the pantry lines and we cannot allow that to continue happening. So we're pleased that the funding is allocated so that car card can be given to each person. We're concerned that there's no funding for snap. Ed. We know what the federal government has done and we're going to continue to advocate for funding for SNAP education because that is extremely important in all of our communities. The $5 million increase, the proposed support for summer youth employment. Everyone who has heard me every year, I'm always saying the amount of money that we put forward for summer youth employment is never enough. We have to be investing in our youth. And since we want to do the pilot for a year round youth employment program that will build on the SYEP program and I'm pleased that we've included that in the budget. We see that with the changes in the federal, at the federal government level about abod, we're making sure that no New Yorker who was supposed to receive the SNAP benefit loses their benefits. Because they're unsure of what they're supposed to do. And so we're working with otda, et cetera, to ensure that the programs are in place so that again, you know, if someone has to lose the benefit, it's not because of that they didn't meet the requirement that's been changed by the federal government funding for. To pay in. Just in case we have to pay the federal government based on. On the error rates that we're working with OTDA and the other social service districts to decrease the error New York's error rate so that we would not have to pay that $70 million that has been allocated just in case the federal government penalizes us for that. And the $200 million increase for HAVP, for a total of 250 million. We are pleased with that. And $200 million for the Energy Affordability Program and the allocation of 10% of that for LIHEAP. We know that that comes from the federal government also. And for the weatherization program, many people are concerned that we're not going, that weatherization programs are not going to be funded. But we are committed to ensuring that we have funding for those programs. All in all, we know the budget is not final. We're continuing to have the conversations about the issues that affect our constituents. And we are going to ensure that we work together, all parties, that when the budget is enacted, that we have the best possible budget. So thank you, everyone.
Assembly I think that's it.
I just want to thank other people.
We have two other people.
Yes, on my side.
Yeah.
Yes, I'm going to give.
No, I'm going to go back to you then.
Go ahead.
Okay, thank you. So I'm just going to give Senator Rolison two minutes and then followed by Senator Zellner for two minutes.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm the ranking member of the Children and Families Committee. I served with the chairman, Senator Brisport. And I think we could say that when we're looking at a $260 billion budget proposal from the governor and of course the one houses will add further funding and the finished product will of course be above 260 billion. We need to think about where we start. And the priority, I would say respectfully to of course my colleagues, I think they, they, they feel somewhat similarly, of course, is children is a priority. And when we talk about what the budgets over the past few years have done in the area of child care, we've made great strides here in the state of New York, but we still have one of the highest costs for child care to our, to our families. And the the budget is making the investment especially and I to congratulate the one House, my colleagues on the other side with the one house who put additional money in for child care workforce retention grant program. And also we've talked about a lot in our conference is the fully funding of the CCAP program which many of you of course know ran out of money in many counties throughout the state. And when we talk about affordability, it is definitely linked to child care because if individuals cannot get their children in child care, they may not be able to go to work, they may not be able to go to school, which definitely impacts the affordability of those families and the affordability of all the individuals who live in this great state. So I look forward to the discussions that we'll be having on our side of the House as it relates to finalized budget proposals. But I would also say, Madam Chair, that there are probably some things that are not going to make it into the final budget as as it has to do with early childhood education, child care. And I would hope especially those are policy decisions that both the Senate and the assembly can continue to advocate for policy changes that will positively impact the ability to put children in these very, very important places and be able to afford them at the same time. So again Madam Chair, thank you for the the chance to say a few words this afternoon in this hearing.
Thank you Senator Zellnor. No, hold on.
Thank you Senator Prasad, for your leadership. I want to thank our leader Andrea Stewart Cousins. I am excited about our budget, the one house budget. I am very excited about the $500 million that we are putting into childcare workers. I think and hope that this is just the beginning of a step of fully realizing universal pre k across the state of New York when we talk about affordability. It is the top issue that I hear from my constituents and I know that's the case across the state. And if we could close that gap with child care, it's going to help a lot of families. I'm also very excited about our funding for suny. That is another issue that we are focused on in our conference is making sure our higher ed is funded, particularly with capital projects. I am very excited about our bilingual funding for our Buffalo State and Long island schools so we can continue training those that we have shortages in for bilingual education. And I would also just end on. I am very concerned that we seem to be heading in a bad direction with insurance. Insurance is costing us a lot of money when we discuss affordability, but we shouldn't be demonizing folks who have been injured, who are victims of negligence or those who are seeking justice. As well, we should do all we can to make insurance affordable, but not at the cost of those who have been injured via negligence or those who are damaged by somebody's negligence. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. And thank you, everyone, for coming. We are all focused on ensuring we have a budget that we can be proud of. And with that, the Senate looks forward to working together with the assembly and the executive. And that concludes our hearing today. Thank you, everyone.