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New York Governor Kathy Hochul at a press conference. Standing on a stage behind a pedastal with US and NYS flags behind her
New York Governor Kathy Hochul at a press conference. 

On January 18, New York Governor Kathy Hochul released her executive budget, which includes $216.3 billion in spending. It’s the Governor's first draft of the budget, and it still needs to be negotiated with the New York Legislature, which should result in the final budget getting signed into law by April 1. 

The first draft executive budget includes several key provisions for new funding to the I/DD sector. The budget provides for an across-the-board 5.4% cost of living adjustment (COLA) to all human services work, and funds new incentive payments to workers in the I/DD field, allowing each worker to receive up to $3,000 total through two incentive payments in the 2023 fiscal year. An additional $1 billion will go toward training and development initiatives for the healthcare workforce, to ensure providers are fully staffed and can adequately train staff.  

This money will take some time to make it into the hands of providers and workers, most likely getting disbursed around June 2022. And while the increase in spending for I/DD providers is higher than recorded in decades (past budgets have increased the COLA by around .2% annually), there remain concerns among advocates that this new funding is not enough.  

"We should not praise a budget that does the bare minimum simply because the last 10 budgets were actively harmful," said Scott Karolidis, YAI’s Director of Government Relations. "DSPs deserve more—we must demand more." Several organizations, including YAI, are pushing the State to drastically increase funding to lift wages across the sector and help stabilize the workforce crisis.  

Your voice is critical to this effort—if you are in New York, go to yai.org/advocacy to send a letter to your State representatives calling on them to maintain and increase funding for the I/DD community.