SERINO: SENATE ONE-HOUSE BUDGET MAKES SENIORS A TOP PRIORITY

ALBANY, NY—Senator Sue Serino (R, C, I—Hyde Park) today announced that the Senate One-House Budget Resolution that was approved earlier today includes key provisions that will help significantly improve aging services, actively combat elder abuse and increase access to vital services.

Senator Serino, who chairs the Senate’s Aging Committee said, “Earlier this year, we asked legislative leaders to step up for seniors and deliver for them directly in this year’s budget. The Senate answered that call and today passed a budget resolution that makes smart, significant investments to ensure that New York is a place where our seniors can age better—at home in our communities—with dignity. Making the growing population of seniors a priority in this year’s budget is good for our families, it’s good for our economy and it will play a critical role in keeping our state ahead of the curve for generations.”

The resolution put forth by the Senate Majority and passed today works to make New York more affordable for all of its residents, rejecting hundreds of millions of tax-and-fee increases proposed by the Governor and protecting money-saving programs like STAR.

Further, the proposal restores potentially devastating cuts and adds additional funding to ensure that our seniors have the resources they need to enable them to receive critical services and supports. These include:

• Adding language aimed at combatting the financial exploitation of vulnerable older adults;
• Adding $5 million for the Community Services for the Elderly Program (CSE) which provides funding directly to communities, enabling them to provide services like home care, meal delivery and transportation;
• $500,000 for a transportation pilot program in Dutchess and Putnam counties that would allow seniors who no longer wish to drive to trade in their vehicles in exchange for credits for a ride service;
• Restoring $3.35 million for the New York Connects—a one-stop-shop kind of program that provides free comprehensive services and supports for seniors and caregivers;
• Providing $10 million to establish a statewide central register of elder abuse and maltreatment so that we have the tools necessary to better protect vulnerable older adults; and
• Restoring $700,000 to fund the successful multidisciplinary investigative teams that work to investigate and address elder abuse and maltreatment and return monies lost to elder financial exploitation, as well as including legislation that creates those teams—an initiative Senator Serino lead the charge to fund for the first time in last year’s enacted budget.

Serino continued, “As budget negotiations continue, I urge my colleagues in the Assembly to continue to make our seniors a priority and ensure that these critical pieces make it into the final enacted budget. The health, safety and security of New York’s seniors depends on it.”

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