Regular Session - March 14, 2022
1227
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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6
7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 March 14, 2022
11 2:09 p.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
15
16
17
18 SENATOR JAMAAL T. BAILEY, Acting President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
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25
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
3 Senate will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: In the
9 absence of clergy, let us bow our heads in a
10 moment of silent reflection or prayer.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
14 reading of the Journal.
15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Sunday,
16 March 13, 2022, the Senate met pursuant to
17 adjournment. The Journal of Saturday, March 12,
18 2022, was read and approved. On motion, Senate
19 adjourned.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Without
21 objection, the Journal stands approved as read.
22 Presentation of petitions.
23 Messages from the Assembly.
24 Messages from the Governor.
25 Reports of standing committees.
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1 Reports of select committees.
2 Communications and reports from
3 state officers.
4 Motions and resolutions.
5 Senator Gianaris.
6 SENATOR GIANARIS: Good afternoon.
7 Mr. President, on behalf of Senator
8 Skoufis, I wish to call up Senate Print 1735,
9 recalled from the Assembly, which is now at the
10 desk.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
12 Secretary will read.
13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
14 460, Senate Print 1735, by Senator Skoufis, an
15 act to amend the General Business Law.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to
17 reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Call the
19 roll on reconsideration.
20 (The Secretary called the roll.)
21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The bill
23 is restored to its place on the Third Reading
24 Calendar.
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: I offer the
1230
1 following amendments.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
3 amendments are received, and the bill will retain
4 its place on the Third Reading Calendar.
5 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
6 there's a privileged resolution at the desk,
7 Senate Resolution 2081, by Leader
8 Stewart-Cousins. Please take that resolution up
9 and read its title only.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
11 Secretary will read.
12 THE SECRETARY: Senate Resolution
13 2081, by Senator Stewart-Cousins, in response to
14 the 2022-2023 Executive Budget submission
15 (Legislative Bills S8000-A, S8001, S8002,
16 S8003-A, S8004-A, S8005-A, S8006-A, S8007-A,
17 S8008-A, S8009-A) to be adopted as legislation
18 expressing the position of the New York State
19 Senate relating to the 2022-2023 New York State
20 Budget.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
22 Gianaris.
23 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
24 expect there's going to be extensive debate on
25 this resolution. For that debate, our Finance
1231
1 chair, Senator Krueger, will be responding for
2 the Majority.
3 And we are ready at this time to
4 begin the debate.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
6 you, Senator Gianaris.
7 Senator O'Mara.
8 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
9 Mr. President. Thank you, Senator Gianaris.
10 Senator Krueger, look forward to some
11 explanations of the Senate one-house budget that
12 we have before us today.
13 I guess on the resolution for a
14 moment, please, Mr. President.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
16 O'Mara on the resolution.
17 SENATOR O'MARA: It won't be long.
18 So we have received this Senate
19 one-house budget resolution about 7 p.m. last
20 night. It's 2 p.m. the next day now. So, you
21 know, it's 19 hours for our staff and ourselves
22 to digest what is being proposed as a nearly
23 $230 billion budget.
24 Increasing spending overall by about
25 8 percent, increasing the state funds portion of
1232
1 that spending by over 11 percent year to year, on
2 top of what was in excess of a 10 percent
3 increase in this current year's budget year to
4 year. That's an over 20 percent increase in just
5 state funding over the years, and about a
6 22 percent increase in overall funding, including
7 the federal money that's come in for us.
8 This spending, in my opinion and I
9 think from our side of the aisle, is
10 unsustainable, it's unwarranted, and it really
11 doesn't -- the resolution proposed, and we'll get
12 into some of the subject matter here, doesn't
13 respond enough to the issues of the day of
14 everyday New Yorkers, of the overall
15 affordability of living in New York State by
16 New Yorkers.
17 It does nothing to end the exodus of
18 New Yorkers from New York State as the majorities
19 in both houses, for years now, have worked to
20 massively increase state spending, and further
21 stifling economic activity in New York State when
22 we should be looking to do everything we can to
23 foster a better business climate in New York
24 State so that businesses can provide the
25 opportunities to New Yorkers that we all need to
1233
1 meet our everyday costs of living, which continue
2 to escalate disproportionately in New York State.
3 You know, aside from what is now an
4 8 percent inflation rate nationally, we're adding
5 to that in New York State by going with an
6 11-plus percent increase of spending in New York
7 State. I will note I believe -- and we'll ask
8 some questions on this in a moment -- that there
9 are not tax increases in this proposal and that
10 the Majority is pursuing the reduction of the
11 middle-class income tax rate that had been put
12 off for a few years. And that's important, I
13 think, to go towards the affordability of
14 New York State.
15 Beyond that, there isn't much here,
16 frankly, for everyday New Yorkers to meet their
17 budgets and their households, to provide for
18 their families, and to have the economic
19 opportunities of a job in New York State and the
20 dignity and self-respect to go to work and earn a
21 living to provide for themselves, as opposed to
22 sitting back and waiting for further and further
23 handouts from state government and federal
24 government.
25 So with that, Mr. President, if
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1 Senator Krueger could yield for a few questions,
2 starting out, at least, on the financial plan.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY:
4 Certainly. Senator Krueger, do you yield for a
5 few questions?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will,
7 Mr. President.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
9 Krueger yields.
10 SENATOR O'MARA: Now, Senator
11 Krueger, can you explain to us how this level of
12 increased spending of over 10 percent last year,
13 over 11 percent this year, is sustainable to
14 New Yorkers and to New York State government,
15 using up surplus funds we have now, using up
16 federal assistance that's come for COVID? When
17 that money's gone, how is this increased spending
18 going to be sustained?
19 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
20 Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like
21 to thank the sponsor -- excuse me, my colleague
22 for the question. And I think I need to put it
23 in the context of what we're doing with the
24 one-house, as he raised some issues about the
25 context that he perhaps was misinformed about our
1235
1 one-house.
2 The things he was laying out,
3 Mr. President, that he hopes for all New Yorkers
4 are exactly the things we are trying to do in
5 this one-house budget. We have heard the working
6 people -- the people of New York State who have
7 come off of two years of COVID, the people of
8 New York who have come off of years and years of
9 underinvestment in the programs and services they
10 need -- crying out for help. And we are
11 attempting to respond to them in this budget.
12 So we are investing in childcare so
13 that mothers and fathers can go to work and be
14 assured that their young children are taken care
15 of, are helped with education and protected so
16 that they can go and earn more money for
17 themselves.
18 We are investing in desperately
19 needed home care services at the other end of
20 life -- as you're older, as you're disabled,
21 you're in a situation where you can't even get
22 home care services so that a family member may
23 have to give up a job in order to stay home with
24 you, and you may not get the care you need at all
25 and may be trapped alone. Meanwhile, the wage
1236
1 rates for home care workers and other low-income
2 workers in the healthcare professions -- they're
3 crying out for more people to come into these
4 fields. We need people to work in these fields,
5 but we need to be able to pay them a wage that
6 even provides them enough money to pay for a car
7 to drive to their job in upstate New York. And
8 right now the wages are so low they can't even
9 afford to take the jobs.
10 We hear the people of New York
11 talking about needing to make sure that our
12 public college system is invested in at the level
13 that assures our young people are getting the
14 education they need to compete in a 21st-century
15 labor market. Do you know that New York's young
16 people are going to other states' public
17 university systems because they can't get what
18 they need in our CUNY and SUNY systems, because
19 we have failed to underwrite them at the level
20 they need to be underwritten to ensure
21 New Yorkers can graduate, get jobs here, stay
22 here and raise their own families here? That's
23 what we hear people crying out for.
24 So we are putting significant new
25 investments in the infrastructure for care for
1237
1 people, for jobs for people, and of course for
2 the fundamentals of infrastructure in the very
3 traditional sense of making sure that we have
4 roads and bridges and buildings that are going to
5 hold up and ensure that we can get to and from
6 the jobs, get to and from the cities and towns,
7 invest in our public transportation system,
8 invest in all the things that the research shows
9 drive people and businesses to New York and keeps
10 them here.
11 So I'm very, very proud of the
12 investments we are attempting to make through our
13 one-house budget bill. And yes, to answer
14 Senator O'Mara's question, we are spending a bit
15 more money than the Governor originally laid out.
16 And we are changing how she would be using some
17 of the funds because we believe there are better
18 uses. But we do believe this is sustainable,
19 particularly because investing in job creation,
20 investing in our small businesses, investing in
21 our higher education, investing in our childcare
22 means there's more opportunities for more people
23 to go back into the labor market or join the
24 labor market and, of course, become taxpayers
25 into the state's revenues into the future.
1238
1 So he's correct that we are
2 increasing the operating spending by about
3 $9 billion in the Executive Budget over what the
4 Governor recommended. But in fact we all agreed,
5 including my colleague Senator O'Mara, that there
6 was an additional $1.2 billion in revenue
7 consensus offsets, and that we are including that
8 and spending that.
9 We all know that the Governor held
10 $2 billion for a pandemic assistance account.
11 We're programming that into issues that we think
12 are the critical things to spend money on this
13 year.
14 We are fast-tracking casinos a year
15 early so that we anticipate $3 billion in casino
16 licenses. We are decreasing the rate at which
17 the Governor proposed debt prepayment. We're not
18 not paying our debts; I assure you we are. But
19 the Governor proposed a fairly dramatic speedup,
20 spinup, of prepaying debt, and so we reduce that
21 from $3 billion to 1.5 billion, and that gives us
22 another billion and a half dollars.
23 And yes, the Governor also had a
24 robust proposal to increase the amount of our
25 reserves in a Rainy Day Fund, which she proposed
1239
1 at approximately 3.2 billion and we're reducing
2 to 1.8 billion -- am I getting that right?
3 Excuse me. She proposed a
4 $5 billion Rainy Day Fund contribution, and we
5 are reducing that by 1.8 billion, leaving
6 3.2 billion to go into the reserve fund this
7 year.
8 We're also hoping that our federal
9 government will continue to follow through on a
10 number of the commitments that they have verbally
11 made but not completed the legislative
12 assignments on. So we also want to make sure, in
13 an era where there are New Yorkers at risk of
14 eviction and homelessness, that there are
15 landlords who can't be paid because there isn't
16 the money in their tenants' pockets to pay
17 them -- we are hoping very much that the federal
18 government will make good on a commitment to
19 increase the amount of money they are sending us
20 to help landlords who are owed money and tenants
21 who owe money. And everybody wants them to be
22 paid, we just need the money to do so.
23 So I think that's the general
24 outline of the answers to your questions,
25 Senator O'Mara.
1240
1 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
2 Senator.
3 Through you, Mr. President, if the
4 Senator will continue to yield.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
6 Krueger, do you continue to yield?
7 SENATOR KRUEGER: Happily.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
9 Senator yields.
10 SENATOR O'MARA: Just to clarify
11 some of these numbers that we've opened up with
12 on the overall.
13 Last year's budget increased
14 spending year to year by over $11 billion, and
15 that was the significantly largest increase in
16 the prior decade of state spending. Would you
17 agree with that, Senator Krueger?
18 SENATOR KRUEGER: I believe that
19 numerically that's correct. And that was heavily
20 due to a massive surge of federal revenue just at
21 the last few days before we completed last year's
22 budget.
23 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
24 Mr. President, if the Senator will continue to
25 yield.
1241
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Do you
2 yield, Senator Krueger?
3 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
5 Krueger yields.
6 SENATOR O'MARA: Well, I would
7 submit that the lion's share of that increased
8 spending last year was due to the insatiable
9 desires of these majorities to continue to spend.
10 And last year you had Governor Cuomo over a
11 barrel with the investigations that were going
12 on, and took full advantage of that situation to
13 increase spending by 11 billion.
14 This year, in addition to that new
15 spending of 11 billion last year, we're looking
16 at -- while Governor Hochul only increased the
17 budget by 3.2 percent in her proposal, with a
18 spending increase of $3.7 billion, you raised
19 that by 9.1 billion, so it's $12.8 billion
20 increased spending from year to year. Is that
21 correct?
22 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, that sounds
23 about right.
24 SENATOR O'MARA: How much --
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1242
1 O'Mara, are you asking the sponsor to yield?
2 SENATOR O'MARA: Yes, through you,
3 Mr. President, if the sponsor would yield for a
4 question.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
6 sponsor yield?
7 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
9 sponsor yields.
10 SENATOR O'MARA: How much of the
11 federal pandemic relief -- which was I think
12 about $12.7 billion -- how much of that is being
13 utilized to balance this budget?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: $2.4 billion.
15 SENATOR O'MARA: And then how much
16 of that has been spent already? How much of that
17 $12.7 billion has been spent already?
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
19 O'Mara, are you asking Senator Krueger to yield?
20 SENATOR O'MARA: Yes, I am, sorry.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Do you
22 yield, Senator Krueger?
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you. I
24 believe about 4.5 billion has been spent already.
25 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
1243
1 Mr. President, if Senator Krueger will continue
2 to yield.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
4 sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR KRUEGER: Of course.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
7 sponsor yields.
8 SENATOR O'MARA: Of the -- I
9 forget, so I'll just ask this question,
10 Senator Krueger. Of the budget surplus funds
11 that we have -- I forget the exact amount off the
12 top of my head right now; you mentioned it
13 before -- how much of those surplus funds are we
14 spending in this year's budget?
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: We're continuing
16 to make deposits into the reserve fund. So we're
17 doing 3.2 billion into the reserve fund.
18 So the Governor's Executive Budget
19 would have put 5 billion in, and we are putting
20 3.2 billion in.
21 SENATOR O'MARA: So we're
22 putting -- through you, Mr. President, if the
23 Senator would yield.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
25 sponsor yield?
1244
1 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
3 sponsor yields.
4 SENATOR O'MARA: Through my numbers
5 that I have in my head -- and they're rough, they
6 may not be exact, so correct me if I'm wrong --
7 that we have somewhere in the range of surplus
8 revenues in our budget of $10 billion, and we're
9 only putting 3.2 of that into reserves for future
10 years? So we're spending close to $7 billion of
11 that in this year's budget?
12 SENATOR KRUEGER: Give us a minute.
13 (Pause.)
14 Through you, Mr. President, if I
15 could ask Senator O'Mara to clarify where he
16 thinks the 10 billion surplus is. (Pause.)
17 I'm sorry, Mr. President, I was
18 asking if you could ask Senator O'Mara to clarify
19 where he thinks the 10 billion surplus is.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY:
21 Certainly.
22 Senator O'Mara, can you clarify the
23 question, please?
24 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
25 Mr. President, that $10 billion figure is a
1245
1 combination of federal pandemic funds that have
2 come in and increased revenues throughout the
3 fiscal year above what was budgeted?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: I apologize, can
5 I please ask him to rephrase the question again
6 for us, the original question.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: Yes, through you,
8 Mr. President.
9 Senator Krueger, year to year, from
10 last year to this year -- in this year's current
11 budget, what is the anticipated revenue surplus?
12 SENATOR KRUEGER: Over what we
13 projected? So when we end this year, how much
14 additional revenue will we expect to still have
15 over what we had earlier anticipated, is that
16 what the question is?
17 SENATOR O'MARA: Yes.
18 SENATOR KRUEGER: Through you,
19 Mr. President. While you can always label things
20 differently, we believe that the -- that the
21 Governor originally said there was 5 billion that
22 she would put into reserves, and now we're
23 reducing that to 3.2 billion to go to reserves.
24 So that would be the surplus.
25 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
1246
1 Mr. President, if the Senator would yield.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
3 sponsor yield?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
6 sponsor yields.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: Senator, the
8 figures I have are that revenues exceeded
9 expectations by about $4.5 billion in the last --
10 the prior fiscal year, and they're on track about
11 the same. So roughly $9 billion over last year
12 and this current year?
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: So if we're
14 counting last year plus the future year -- so the
15 year we're ending plus the future year, and
16 that's approximately 9 billion, close to
17 10 billion above what was originally projected,
18 right, from different revenues -- we are spending
19 some in the coming year in our proposal and we
20 are still having 3.2 billion to go into reserves.
21 Plus the five from this year.
22 SENATOR O'MARA: Can you clarify
23 that? Where does that five fit in there?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: Okay. Yes. So
25 there was a projected 10 billion over the two
1247
1 years. The Governor is putting 5 billion away
2 from this year that we are ending, the '21-'22
3 year, and then she was also planning to put
4 5 billion in the '22-'23 year, but we are only
5 leaving her 3.2 billion for an additional
6 reserve.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
8 Mr. President, if the Senator would yield.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
10 sponsor yield?
11 SENATOR KRUEGER: Of course.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
13 sponsor yields.
14 SENATOR O'MARA: Of that then
15 $2 billion that you're taking away from reserves
16 that Governor Hochul had put in, what is that
17 going towards?
18 SENATOR KRUEGER: That is part of
19 the $9 billion of increased spending that our
20 one-house budget lays out in totality.
21 So it's not that the 2 billion is
22 specifically for Item A versus Item B; it is
23 money that we are defining as available for
24 increased expenditures that are quite broad and
25 quite transformative across any number of
1248
1 important issues.
2 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
3 Senator.
4 Mr. President, through you, would
5 the sponsor continue to yield.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
7 sponsor yield?
8 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
12 Senator Krueger.
13 Out of those surplus funds that
14 are -- that you're allowing in the Governor's
15 Executive Budget to go towards reserves, can you
16 outline where those monies are going to be put
17 into reserves, and for what purposes? And is
18 this one-house changing the funds from what the
19 Governor had proposed?
20 SENATOR KRUEGER: So the Governor
21 proposed 5 billion going into reserves in the
22 coming year. In our analysis, she's only left
23 with 3.2 billion to go into reserves. The
24 reserves are not defined as for specific items.
25 (Pause.) I love the questions,
1249
1 thank you. I'm learning more every day.
2 So there are statutory reserves and
3 non-statutory reserves. So there's 920,000 of
4 statutory reserves -- 920 million. What's
5 920,000? It's petty cash -- 920 million in
6 statutory reserves, and we aren't touching that.
7 That will continue to go so. And then the
8 remaining reserves will go into the general
9 reserves. The economic uncertainties reserve.
10 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
11 Mr. President, can you -- can the sponsor answer
12 another question.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
14 sponsor yield?
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: I'll do my
16 damndest to try, yes, sir, Mr. President.
17 (Laughter.)
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
19 sponsor will do her damnedest.
20 (Laughter.)
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
22 sponsor yields.
23 SENATOR O'MARA: Of that fund, what
24 is the outline for uses of that money in that
25 fund?
1250
1 SENATOR KRUEGER: For which one,
2 the statutory reserve or the economic --
3 SENATOR O'MARA: Economic
4 uncertainties fund.
5 SENATOR KRUEGER: Not defined. You
6 know, you hit another bad period, tax revenues go
7 down, another pandemic hits, the federal
8 government changes hands and stops sending to the
9 states, et cetera, et cetera.
10 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
11 Mr. President, if the sponsor will yield.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
13 sponsor yield?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR O'MARA: Of the money going
18 into reserves, how much of that is going to pay
19 down the debt that the state owes to the federal
20 government for the Unemployment Insurance Fund
21 that the state borrowed and it now has a balance
22 of about $9 billion still owed to the federal
23 government?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: So neither the
25 Governor's proposal for the reserves nor our
1251
1 proposal for the reserves specifies that any of
2 it goes back to the federal government for the
3 UIB borrowing. But there is 600 million within
4 our budget proposal to help repay the interest --
5 is it the interest or the actual underlying -- so
6 the 600 million goes to helping with the
7 underlying debt.
8 And just to remind everyone, when we
9 borrow from the federal government to pay out
10 UIB, as we did during the pandemic because we had
11 so many unemployed people, technically UIB is not
12 an on-budget or General Fund expenditure, it is a
13 separate program paid for by businesses.
14 So yes, this has to be paid back,
15 hopefully at the lowest or zero interest
16 possible. Hopefully the federal government may
17 decide to allow us to discount some of what we
18 owe them. But it's actually not a budget item
19 per se, it's a separate item.
20 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
21 Mr. President, will the Senator yield.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
23 sponsor yield?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
1252
1 sponsor yields.
2 SENATOR O'MARA: Senator Krueger,
3 we have seen quite a few other states in the
4 nation that racked up pretty incredible
5 unemployment debt to the federal government
6 during the pandemic that have utilized their
7 pandemic relief to help pay down that debt so
8 that ultimately businesses and employers don't
9 have to pay that back over a series of years for
10 that debt.
11 Why are we in New York choosing a
12 different course of action? And why is it
13 appropriate to -- over the period of this
14 lingering debt, for however long it lasts -- why
15 should we be requiring employers to shoulder that
16 burden from the pandemic which will further
17 tighten their businesses and their ability to
18 hire people to work?
19 SENATOR KRUEGER: We actually, in a
20 separate section of our one-house, are moving to
21 delay some of what they would otherwise owe.
22 That's 600 million.
23 And you ask an excellent public
24 policy question about why do different states
25 make different decisions with their money. So
1253
1 one of the answers -- I'd have to go back to
2 earlier decisions in the state -- we actually
3 don't, per business, collect as much from
4 businesses for unemployment costs as many states.
5 We're behind on having increased our scale of
6 what we collect.
7 So it left us with less money than
8 some other states, but it's still the fundamental
9 question of who is obligated to pay for
10 unemployment benefits. And the design and model
11 has been that businesses are responsible for
12 paying for unemployment benefits. The workers
13 pay into it when they're employed, and the state
14 holds the funds and distributes them.
15 But I don't think that this state
16 has had a public policy debate about changing the
17 rules of the road so that unemployment benefits
18 are not an obligation of business but rather an
19 obligation of the General Fund or the taxpayer.
20 What I am very proud of is that we
21 are investing a large amount of money within our
22 one-house budget in helping the smallest
23 businesses with their debts and to help them stay
24 open, or even to reopen when they've been forced
25 to close, to get workers back to work so that
1254
1 they're building up the tax revenue and actually
2 paying into the unemployment fund, which will
3 help it bounce back more quickly.
4 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
5 Mr. President, if the Senator would yield.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
7 sponsor yield?
8 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR O'MARA: I'm not suggesting
12 that we change the method of how unemployment is
13 paid for in New York State on -- in a regular
14 environment. We've come through a two-year
15 pandemic that had significant unanticipated
16 layoffs, causing people to go into the
17 unemployment fund, that were no fault of that
18 business. It's no fault of the business either
19 cutting back or laying off employees, it has to
20 do with the pandemic that built up this
21 $9 billion fund.
22 And the Majority in this house
23 thinks it's reasonable to use only $600 million
24 of in excess of $10 billion available and
25 $12.7 billion in pandemic aid, most of which has
1255
1 not been spent. Why that greater effort is not
2 being made in these exigent circumstances of the
3 unemployment insurance -- not changing the way we
4 account for unemployment costs going forward, but
5 for this period of time of the pandemic that
6 specifically created this $9 billion debt, why
7 are we not making a greater effort towards paying
8 that down?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: I don't think
10 there's $12 billion left of federal pandemic aid.
11 I don't know where that number came from. But --
12 one second.
13 But I do think it's still partly an
14 ideological disagreement, Tom -- Senator O'Mara,
15 sorry. That we're trying to make sure that the
16 money that we have available to spend is invested
17 in creating jobs for New Yorkers who need to go
18 to work, who need to make sure that their
19 children are cared for so that they can go to
20 work, as opposed to making the decision to help
21 businesses repay something they owe under the law
22 while we are trying to smooth out and decrease
23 the rate at which they have to pay it back.
24 But if you look at the history of
25 unemployment benefits, you have your good times
1256
1 and then you have your times of recession. And
2 during times of recession, you end up spending
3 down a lot more unemployment and you, thank
4 goodness, can turn to the federal government for
5 loans to make sure that those benefits are paid.
6 And then, over time, businesses repay the fund
7 and everybody moves forward.
8 So the UIB, since it was created,
9 has actually proved to be a model that does over
10 time adjust for the good times and the bad
11 times -- or I suppose, biblically, the fat cow
12 times and the thin cow times. And I have
13 confidence that we will do the same again.
14 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
15 Mr. President, if the Senator will continue to
16 yield.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
18 sponsor continue to yield?
19 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
21 Krueger yields.
22 SENATOR O'MARA: Senator, can you
23 point to any other period of time in our UIB
24 program where we have had anywheres close to this
25 number of job losses due to not just a pandemic,
1257
1 but to anything that was other than unrelated to
2 a specific business?
3 You know, where in our history --
4 this seems to be unprecedented, to me, the job
5 losses and the debt that we owe the federal
6 government, that is unrelated to economic -- just
7 economic normal conditions. So, you know, how --
8 why is this not being treated differently?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: I think we would
10 both need to go back and look up the history of
11 UIB and where the unemployment rate has been at
12 different times in our history to know the
13 answer. I certainly don't know that off the top
14 of my head.
15 I mean, the recent reference is the
16 2008-'10 economic collapse of much of the world
17 economy. And I think we ended up owing 5 billion
18 back to the federal government at that time,
19 which we were able to pay back under our normal
20 rules of the road.
21 I'm going to guess that the one
22 previous to that -- it's almost every ten years
23 that you end up with some kind of recession
24 period. But I don't have that data memorized.
25 Perhaps one of the staff can do that homework for
1258
1 us and get back to me during the course of this
2 debate.
3 But right now I'd have to say for as
4 long as we've had UIB, we've had a situation
5 where we had our good times and our bad times
6 that were caused by all kinds of reasons,
7 including war, and we've been able to bounce
8 back.
9 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
10 Mr. President, if the Senator will continue to
11 yield.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
13 sponsor yield?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR O'MARA: Shifting gears off
18 of that topic a little bit, even though I would
19 certainly disagree with you that this pandemic
20 was not -- it was and is unprecedented in the
21 history of the UIB and therefore should be
22 treated differently, rather than just requiring
23 employers to pass that cost on and therefore
24 stifle hiring, in my opinion, and the creation of
25 those job opportunities that New Yorkers
1259
1 desperately need.
2 From -- in this budget resolution
3 that's before us, what is the increase in
4 anticipated revenues to New York State from year
5 to year?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: So we're showing
7 an 8 percent increase in annual growth under
8 taxes and a 3.2 percent All Funds receipts annual
9 growth rate.
10 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
11 Mr. President, if the Senator would continue to
12 yield.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
14 sponsor continue to yield?
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
17 sponsor yields.
18 SENATOR O'MARA: What is the dollar
19 amount of those two figures you gave me from year
20 to year?
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: Okay. For our
22 growth in taxes, it's 109 million, 109.257
23 million. And for our total All Funds receipts,
24 it's 234 million, 302,000 -- billion, sorry.
25 Total All Funds -- excuse me. I'm sorry, Tom.
1260
1 Total All Funds receipts will be 234 billion
2 compared to this year, which was 220 billion. So
3 a 3.2 percent growth. No? (Pause.)
4 You know what, Tom, I don't want to
5 be on the record reading you the wrong numbers.
6 So something was slightly off.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: I appreciate
8 clarifying these numbers --
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you. So
10 I'll stick with --
11 (Overtalk.)
12 CHAIRWOMAN KRUEGER: All right, I'll
13 stick with the tax revenue.
14 But the total All Funds receipts
15 this year: 227 billion, 138 million. Next year,
16 our projected, 234 billion, 302 million. We like
17 those numbers better.
18 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
19 Mr. President, if the Senator will continue to
20 yield.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
22 sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, sir.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
25 sponsor yields.
1261
1 SENATOR O'MARA: So from my I guess
2 evaluation of those numbers -- I think I'm
3 reading from the same page as you now, from the
4 financial plan -- there's about an $8 billion
5 estimated or anticipated increase in taxes in
6 New York State and an increase of about
7 $7 billion in All Funds revenues.
8 Those are significant -- that is
9 significantly less, I would say, than the
10 proposed spending increases in this Senate
11 one-house proposal.
12 Once the surplus monies are expended
13 throughout this year, the coming year and the
14 year after that, how does the Senate Majority
15 intend to continue to sustain that level of
16 spending without the shortfall between revenue
17 increases in spending and therefore, then,
18 without the federal aid that will probably be
19 gone within two years?
20 SENATOR KRUEGER: So for this year
21 taxes -- projected taxes are still higher than
22 what we're expecting to spend, so we're fine for
23 this year.
24 We try to do outyear projections; we
25 always end up changing them. But the expectation
1262
1 is that we will continue to see some tax growth
2 the year afterwards, an outyear. That is an
3 outyear where the Governor is now also proposing
4 putting another 5 billion into reserve funds.
5 I'm not exactly sure how much we
6 expect to put in the outyear, but that's always
7 another question for us.
8 But we actually do feel that at the
9 rate of tax growth and the rate of the money that
10 we are expecting to spend if we had our one-year
11 budget -- one-house budget, that we actually
12 would still be fine for this year and at least
13 the year after.
14 And again, things change rapidly in
15 government. So I should point out what you
16 already know, what we all know: This is an
17 aspirational budget where we hope we can
18 accomplish as much of this as possible. We need
19 to go into negotiations with our colleagues and
20 with the Governor, and we will see where the
21 final numbers end up. But we're feeling pretty
22 comfortable about our ability to meet our
23 responsibilities to the people of New York and
24 meet our aspirational targets.
25 SENATOR O'MARA: Through you,
1263
1 Mr. President, if the Senator would yield.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
3 sponsor yield?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I do.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
6 sponsor yields.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: I would agree,
8 Senator Krueger, that these are certainly
9 aspirational numbers.
10 I believe they're unrealistic and
11 unsustainable over the years, particularly with
12 the uncertainty we have going forward with our
13 economy with 8 percent inflation and many
14 economic pundits talking about recession now.
15 That will certainly impact the revenues and
16 receipts of the state going forward.
17 What do we have in this one-house
18 aspiration to provide for this risk of a
19 recession and a drop in revenues for all of these
20 recurring billions of dollars in expenses that
21 are built into this?
22 SENATOR KRUEGER: As I mentioned
23 several times, we are putting money into a
24 reserve fund that has already grown by 5 billion
25 this year and would grow by another 3.2 billion
1264
1 in the coming year.
2 We live in a tricky age, I agree
3 with Senator O'Mara. I remember standing here
4 two years ago when we were dealing with a budget
5 and literally the words "COVID" and "pandemic"
6 had just first been uttered. And everyone
7 realized that suddenly everything might be
8 changing, and we had no idea what the impact
9 would be on our budget.
10 And we -- the Governor then asked us
11 to give him extraordinary powers both over
12 emergency situations and to the ability to borrow
13 money. I think we gave him 11 billion
14 supplemental emergency borrowing power at the
15 time. Approximately. And then a year later, we
16 were still literally moving into the final weeks
17 of negotiating a budget, still in panic about
18 what would we do if the federal government didn't
19 come through with the committed but
20 not-yet-delivered funds. And then suddenly they
21 came through with about $13 billion, and
22 overnight we were shifting our math and our
23 realties.
24 And then over last year, where -- a
25 few weeks before the budget was passed we had no
1265
1 idea whether we would have enough money to get
2 through the year or not, and we were talking
3 about all kinds of emergency responses, none of
4 which were pretty. And then the money came and
5 then we started taking a look -- and our tax
6 revenues were skyrocketing, and we couldn't even
7 figure out why. So that even during a time of
8 extraordinary difficulty in our economy for large
9 numbers of businesses and people, some people and
10 businesses did extraordinarily well and have
11 triggered larger tax revenues than we imagined.
12 So based on the last couple of
13 years' experience, I feel that none of us have a
14 great crystal ball about what happens two years
15 out from now.
16 What I do know is New York State is
17 very good at making adjustments when it has to,
18 even very large adjustments. And so I think as a
19 state, as a government, we want to fight for the
20 best that we can do. We want to both use hope
21 and intelligence to invest in the kinds of
22 programs and services that will strengthen our
23 families, strengthen our businesses, make us more
24 competitive in the world we live in -- and hope
25 it all goes the right direction.
1266
1 And no, sometimes it's not going to
2 go that way and we're going to need to pivot
3 fast. But if the last couple of years in
4 New York State has taught us nothing else, it's
5 taught us both our endurance and our ability to
6 pivot fast.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
8 Senator Krueger.
9 Mr. President, if the Senator will
10 continue to yield.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
12 sponsor continue to yield?
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR O'MARA: Just wrapping up
17 here. One more specific thing I wanted to get
18 into before I hand it over to my colleagues to
19 continue in various subject matter areas.
20 An area that has been highlighted
21 both nationally, regionally, and in New York
22 State has to do with manufacturing and, you know,
23 the impacts of the pandemic on the global supply
24 chain, our inability to provide -- to manufacture
25 and provide the products that we need right here
1267
1 within our state but particularly within our
2 nation as a whole, not being overly dependent in
3 these times.
4 What in this one-house proposal is
5 there to benefit manufacturers of New York State
6 and to foster further manufacturing activity in
7 New York State? I would note that I think about
8 six or seven years ago we eliminated the
9 corporate franchise tax for manufacturers in
10 New York State. I was a strong proponent of
11 that. And that fell short because it only ended
12 up applying to subchapter C corporations and not
13 so-called pass-through entities such as
14 partnerships, LLCs, subchapter S corporations
15 that were left out, and they make up about
16 75 percent of all manufacturers in New York
17 State.
18 I don't see any proposal in this
19 one-house resolution that focuses either on that,
20 to eliminate the corporate franchise tax to the
21 pass-through manufacturing entities, or anything
22 else in here that's going to help us foster and
23 bolster our manufacturing in New York State --
24 which are good jobs, but also a matter of
25 security interest to provide for our needs when
1268
1 we may not be able to get it from around the
2 globe.
3 SENATOR KRUEGER: So I agree we
4 want to do more to help our local manufacturers
5 and to support manufacturing. Because Senator
6 O'Mara is absolutely right, the supply chain
7 realities were laid out and left this country raw
8 when we couldn't build our own products, when we
9 couldn't make the things we needed when we
10 couldn't get them from anywhere else.
11 So this conference, and in our
12 one-house, we are very focused on making sure we
13 are investing in small business, because small
14 businesses actually do create the jobs in our
15 economy and can move more quickly and respond
16 more quickly.
17 So we establish -- excuse me -- the
18 suspension of state taxes -- oh, wait. Excuse
19 me. (Pause.)
20 We're reducing the gas taxes, so --
21 which was particularly important for trucking and
22 manufactured products to reduce the prices. So
23 we're lowering the gas taxes by an estimated
24 $648 million.
25 We are allocating an additional
1269
1 200 million to the Small Business Seed Funding
2 grant program. Instead of taking money from
3 existing programs, it expands the lists of
4 businesses that can apply to this program as well
5 as allowing those who lost businesses due to the
6 COVID pandemic to get some assistance which they
7 can use to restart small business.
8 We expand incentives to install
9 renewable energy, like thermal and geothermal and
10 solar products in our homes and our businesses,
11 providing significant tax credits to cover those
12 costs.
13 And the truth is the faster we are
14 moving to a green economy, and the faster we are
15 moving to things that deal with climate change,
16 the more new manufacturing opportunities there
17 are and will be in our state. In fact, Tom
18 DiNapoli, the State Comptroller, recently put out
19 a report staying that we had already created one
20 million new jobs in New York State thanks to our
21 investment and shift to green environmental
22 standards and green energy.
23 So the opportunities for job
24 creation from manufacturing of products you and I
25 might never have heard of even yet, are enormous
1270
1 in the future. And I think that if you review
2 our complete one-house budget you will see we are
3 heavily, heavily committed to investing in
4 climate change and environmental changes that
5 will absolutely help our manufacturing and our
6 small businesses.
7 SENATOR O'MARA: Thank you,
8 Senator.
9 Mr. President, I guess on the
10 resolution briefly.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
12 O'Mara on the resolution.
13 SENATOR O'MARA: I'd love to spend
14 the next hour and a half on the Green New Deal,
15 Senator, but I have colleagues that want to ask
16 questions. And as that's going to cost
17 New Yorkers in excess of $300 billion -- and
18 those are numbers by the proponents of these
19 changes.
20 With all due respect, with your
21 response to my question on what we're doing for
22 manufacturers specifically -- specifically,
23 there's nothing in this one-house budget proposal
24 to specifically help manufacturers in New York
25 State.
1271
1 I've been a strong proponent of
2 manufacturing since my time in the Legislature.
3 I believe it's where our number-one economic
4 development focus should be, because so many
5 other industries and jobs grow off of the
6 manufacturing sector to provide the opportunities
7 that New Yorkers need so that they can afford the
8 outrageous costs of living in New York that this
9 State Legislature continues to foist upon them,
10 making New York State more and more unaffordable
11 and adding to the exodus of New Yorkers.
12 And we're doing nothing to foster
13 that base of manufacturing that should be the
14 bedrock of our -- of any economy, but
15 particularly here in New York State, to foster
16 the spinoff businesses and jobs that come with
17 that.
18 And with that, I will yield my time
19 to my colleagues, Mr. President. Thank you.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
21 you, Senator O'Mara.
22 Senator Gallivan.
23 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Thank you,
24 Mr. President. Would the sponsor or appropriate
25 member of the Majority yield?
1272
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
2 Gianaris.
3 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
4 it's my understanding these questions relate to
5 the health part of the budget, which will be
6 answered by Senator Rivera.
7 SENATOR GALLIVAN: That's exactly
8 what I was going to ask. Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 The first area I would like to ask
11 about is the Medicaid global cap that we know was
12 instituted a number of years ago to limit
13 Medicaid growth to the 10-year rolling average of
14 the medical component of the CPI, which is
15 calculated at 3 percent right now.
16 The Governor in her budget proposed
17 a different formula for the Medicaid global cap.
18 The Senate one-house, though, rejects the
19 extension of the Medicaid global cap -- of the
20 Governor's proposed extension of the Medicaid
21 global cap.
22 Does the Senate one-house put forth
23 an alternative proposal?
24 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
25 Mr. President --
1273
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
2 Gallivan, are you asking the sponsor to yield?
3 SENATOR GIANARIS: I thought I
4 asked that. And yes, I do, Mr. President.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
6 Rivera, do you yield?
7 SENATOR RIVERA: I yield.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Just for
9 the record, Senator Gallivan, that's all. Thank
10 you.
11 SENATOR RIVERA: I yield.
12 And through you, Mr. President.
13 It's a pleasure to see you, Senator Gallivan.
14 The quick answer to your question is
15 we in the Majority believe -- and I have
16 certainly been saying this over the last couple
17 of years -- that the creation of the cap was
18 an -- it was an artificial construct that served
19 the prior administration more than -- it was more
20 of a messaging tool than a budgetary one. And we
21 want to do away with it.
22 And so the current proposal that we
23 have in front of us, the current resolution, gets
24 rid of the Medicaid cap altogether.
25 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will
1274
1 Senator Rivera -- Mr. President, would the
2 Senator continue to yield?
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
4 sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR RIVERA: I do.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Rivera yields.
8 SENATOR GALLIVAN: So if I
9 understand correctly, the current proposal gets
10 rid of the Governor's proposed cap on Medicaid
11 spending.
12 Is there an alternate proposal to
13 ensure that there is some type of check on the
14 spending in the Medicaid program?
15 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
16 Mr. President, I would say that it -- there never
17 was such a control. The global cap, as it was
18 referred to by the prior administration, was not
19 a real thing. It was referred to as a real
20 thing; it never really existed in statute. It
21 existed in the press releases and the press
22 conferences of the Governor, but it did not
23 actually -- it served as a tool so that they
24 could actually put money where they wanted to and
25 keep money from where they didn't want it.
1275
1 And Mr. President, I'll actually go
2 a little further and I will just say a general
3 comment as far as the budget that we -- well,
4 I'll just say the one-house resolution that we
5 have in front of us is in reference to a budget
6 that was already a pretty good one.
7 And the reason for that,
8 Mr. President, was that as opposed to spending,
9 as my colleagues will certainly continue to say,
10 I believe that a lot of what's happening here is
11 an investment. It's an investment in a lot of
12 areas that have seen disinvestment and austerity
13 for way too long.
14 So as it relates to this,
15 Mr. President, I would say that we are -- we
16 believe very strongly, and this is why it's in
17 our one-house budget here, that certainly the
18 increase in Medicaid that the Governor approved
19 -- that the Governor proposed in the budget is a
20 correct amount, at least to start from, but that
21 a cap is no longer necessary. And so we excised
22 it completely.
23 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
24 continue to yield.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1276
1 Rivera, do you yield?
2 SENATOR RIVERA: I do.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
4 Rivera yields.
5 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Well, thank you
6 for the response, Senator Rivera.
7 So how does the Senate one-house, as
8 it relates to Medicaid spending, ensure
9 accountability in the spending to ensure that we
10 limit fraud and waste and any abuse and that the
11 spending that we are spending for Medicaid is
12 indeed appropriate?
13 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
14 Mr. President, we have a -- the state, as I'm
15 sure that you're aware, has an agency, the OMIG,
16 which actually specifically deals with
17 investigations of fraud and malfeasance in the
18 Medicaid program. And they have been fairly
19 successful at times to find such things.
20 So we believe that that is -- that
21 already exists, and we fund it -- I forget at
22 what level exactly. We might have actually
23 accepted -- we accepted what the Governor
24 proposed in the one-house -- in her budget
25 proposal, because we believe it is important to
1277
1 fund OMIG going forward.
2 SENATOR GALLIVAN: If I can move
3 on, Mr. President, and ask if the Senator would
4 continue -- would yield to a question about the
5 Healthcare Transformation Fund.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Rivera, do you yield?
8 SENATOR RIVERA: Absolutely.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR GALLIVAN: So the budget --
12 the Executive Budget transferred a billion
13 dollars from the General Fund to the Healthcare
14 Transformation Account, but yet the Governor
15 provided no details on planned disbursements.
16 Which would mean that the Executive had
17 unilateral authority to spend a billion dollars
18 on unspecified programs.
19 The question is, how does this
20 one-house budget allocate that billion dollars
21 from the Healthcare Transformation Fund?
22 SENATOR RIVERA: One second,
23 Mr. President. (Pause.)
24 Through you, Mr. President, it was
25 actually excised from the one-house budget
1278
1 proposal.
2 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
3 continue to yield.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
5 sponsor yield?
6 SENATOR RIVERA: Yes,
7 Mr. President.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
9 Senator yields.
10 SENATOR GALLIVAN: We know that
11 many of our hospitals across this state are
12 distressed. We have a number of different
13 categories that historically the state has
14 provided -- provided funding and support to
15 hospitals.
16 Does the Senate one-house direct
17 payments to hospitals struggling with financial
18 losses that do not currently meet the definition
19 of "distressed"?
20 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
21 Mr. President. The -- one of the issues that has
22 existed in prior years -- and one of the reasons,
23 by the way, where I have to turn to this amazing
24 group of folks who I will identify later, because
25 they are certainly responsible for what's in
1279
1 here -- is that there's a lot of these funds that
2 have very similar names, so I always have to
3 check exactly which ones it is that we're talking
4 about.
5 In this case what I would say is
6 that in past years there had been -- the actual
7 categories are kind of hard to define. We
8 actually have an issue with defining distressed
9 hospitals. We in this one-house budget proposal
10 actually attempt to do that. We attempt to have
11 clear definitions of what distressed hospitals
12 are because we recognize -- Mr. President,
13 through you -- as my colleague says, that there
14 are hospitals all across the state, not only
15 downstate but across the entire state, that are
16 in trouble.
17 And I would reiterate,
18 Mr. President, that a lot of it has to do with
19 the fact that over the last decade the past
20 administration kind of led with austerity and
21 there was more disinvestment than anything else.
22 And so that -- I would say that
23 this -- that what we do here is try to send
24 resources to the hospitals that most need it, and
25 we'll certainly work along with all of my
1280
1 colleagues to make sure that we can identify
2 which institutions those are and make sure that
3 we can support them accordingly.
4 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
5 continue to yield.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Rivera, do you yield? Senator Rivera, do you
8 yield?
9 SENATOR RIVERA: I indeed will.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
11 Rivera yields.
12 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Is the Senator
13 able to, at this point in time, share with us how
14 the one-house can or will define "distressed" as
15 it relates to hospitals?
16 (Pause.)
17 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
18 Mr. President. And this, by the way, is why,
19 again, you surround yourself with people that are
20 smarter than you, because they obviously know it
21 off the top of their head. All good people right
22 here.
23 But through you, Mr. President, we
24 actually define it in terms of the population
25 that is served by that particular hospital, by a
1281
1 certain percentage of Medicaid population. And
2 the plan to actually -- as far as our budget, as
3 our one-house proposal states, the way that it
4 would be actually -- the billion dollars that we
5 actually allocated in our one-house would be
6 distributed, disbursed, based on this definition
7 of distressed hospitals based on Medicaid
8 population, but based on a plan to be approved by
9 the Speaker and the Majority Leader of the
10 Senate.
11 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
12 continue to yield for a question.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
14 Rivera, do you yield?
15 SENATOR RIVERA: I will.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
17 Rivera yields.
18 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Along those
19 lines -- and the Senator alluded to this, the
20 various definitions that have been created over
21 time -- we have sole community hospitals and
22 critical access hospitals. They've also been hit
23 very hard by the pandemic.
24 How does your budget increase
25 funding to these hospitals or help these
1282
1 hospitals?
2 (Pause.)
3 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
4 Mr. President, we actually -- as I stated
5 earlier, the amount that we've allocated in the
6 one-house budget proposal is a billion for these
7 types of hospitals. And it would -- depending on
8 the definition that we currently have in our
9 proposal, it would actually include all of the --
10 potentially include the institutions that you
11 just mentioned.
12 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
13 continue to yield.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
15 Senator yield?
16 SENATOR RIVERA: Yes, sir.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
18 sponsor yields.
19 SENATOR GALLIVAN: So if I
20 understand correctly, then, we had these
21 different definitions in the past, and I'm asking
22 based on the different definitions.
23 So now, as we move forward, a
24 distressed hospital and a sole community hospital
25 and a critical access hospital will all be
1283
1 treated the same as far as being provided relief
2 with the billion dollars allocated towards this?
3 (Pause.)
4 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
5 Mr. President. The answer is that they would not
6 be treated -- all the institutions will be
7 treated according to what their needs actually
8 are. So they will all have access to the fund,
9 but certainly those institutions that are more in
10 need are more likely to receive more funding.
11 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
12 continue to yield.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
14 Senator continue to yield?
15 SENATOR RIVERA: Yes,
16 Mr. President.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
18 Senator yields.
19 SENATOR GALLIVAN: How does this
20 one-house program that the Senator describes --
21 how will it actually determine which hospitals
22 are in which need? What parameters will be used
23 to determine the need? And then once that's
24 done, how will the money be allocated?
25 (Pause.)
1284
1 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
2 Mr. President. The way that it will work is that
3 there will be -- we work along -- meaning we, the
4 Senate Majority, as well as the Speaker -- would
5 work along with the Department of Health, based
6 on the definition, as I've stated earlier, that
7 relates to the amount -- the percentage of
8 Medicaid population.
9 And by the way, I should linger on
10 this for a second. It is clear that if
11 someone -- that there is a Medicaid patient that
12 goes to a particular healthcare institution, then
13 that institution will get reimbursed for the
14 services that are provided, depending on the
15 payment modality. But obviously Medicaid rates,
16 as everybody knows, are exceedingly low. So any
17 institution that has a high percentage of
18 Medicaid population will be an institution that
19 is in distress.
20 I certainly can speak for
21 St. Barnabas Hospital, which is in the middle of
22 my district. Over 95 percent of the folks that
23 go there are Medicaid patients, and therefore
24 this is an institution that is constantly in
25 distress.
1285
1 So as far -- so that is the -- as
2 far as the definition. And as far as the
3 determination of how it will actually get to who
4 it will go to, based on the need, we will work --
5 the Democratic Majority and the Speaker's office
6 will work along with the Department of Health to
7 determine where exactly this money needs to go.
8 And we again will -- it will correspond to the
9 need that is particular to each institution.
10 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
11 continue to yield, Mr. President.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
13 Senator continue to yield?
14 SENATOR RIVERA: Yes,
15 Mr. President.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
17 Senator yields.
18 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I have yet one
19 more category. Rural hospitals struggle for many
20 of the same reasons, but also some additional
21 reasons. Where do rural hospitals fit as it
22 relates to these other types of hospitals in need
23 that we've discussed?
24 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
25 Mr. President, it actually -- regardless of where
1286
1 the hospital is, certainly I've -- first of all,
2 I should tell you I certainly recognize -- I've
3 had the opportunity to visit a few rural
4 hospitals across the state. I believe -- maybe
5 some of them have been in your district. And
6 certainly I've learned a lot about the way that
7 these institutions struggle in different ways
8 than the ones that do in urban settings like the
9 ones that serve my community.
10 So we will -- we were obviously
11 saying if there is a high need, that we want to
12 make sure that we give them resources. And
13 that's precisely what that 1 billion is there
14 for, to make sure that it can be directed to
15 institutions, whether they be rural, urban or
16 suburban, that have high needs.
17 (Laughter from outside the chamber.)
18 SENATOR RIVERA: Apparently that
19 person didn't believe me. No, I mean it, bro.
20 (Laughter.)
21 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Will the Senator
22 continue to yield, Mr. President, for a question?
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
24 Senator continue to yield?
25 SENATOR RIVERA: I do,
1287
1 Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
3 Rivera yields.
4 SENATOR GALLIVAN: The Senator
5 mentioned Medicaid reimbursements that we all
6 know are very low. For hospitals, my belief is
7 while in the past several years we had talked
8 about their rate -- reimbursement rate being at
9 67 cents on the dollar, now the various hospitals
10 and their organizations represent the fact that
11 the reimbursement rate is 61 percent {sic} on the
12 dollar.
13 We know that the Executive's
14 proposal and the one-house reinstated a
15 1.5 percent cut from the prior
16 administration and, if I'm not mistaken, added 1
17 percent in the way of reimbursements. That moves
18 it up to 62 percent. And it really raises the
19 question about, you know, how is this
20 sustainable, and how are our hospitals going to
21 be able to survive?
22 The question is does the one-house
23 address the significant disparity in the funding
24 as it relates to reimbursement versus cost? And
25 if not, what can we do as a body, going forward,
1288
1 to help our hospitals so that they're getting
2 reimbursed for the services that's they're
3 providing all of our constituents?
4 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
5 Mr. President, this is a key question. And it is
6 a key question that, as I -- something that I
7 stated earlier that I'll repeat, and I'll
8 reiterate as many times as necessary. We have a
9 lot of catching up to do after 10 years of
10 austerity across the state, not only as relates
11 to hospitals in the Medicaid system, but that's
12 the one that we're talking about today.
13 And what the Governor proposed, and
14 what the one-house budget proposal does on top of
15 what the Governor proposed, is a first step in
16 the direction of actually solving that. One of
17 the things that we are -- that is currently being
18 discussed relates to potentially special rates
19 for particular hospitals that are high needs, to
20 have enhanced Medicaid rates. There's all sorts
21 of conversations that are happening right now
22 about the stability of these institutions in the
23 long term. And that's something, unfortunately,
24 we can't fix overnight.
25 So I would say that the fact that we
1289
1 went back, as you mentioned correctly -- that the
2 Governor's proposal actually brought up the cut
3 that had happened last year, it brought us back
4 to zero and then it went up 1 percent -- there
5 were conversations about whether we should accept
6 that, whether we should go for more. We agreed
7 to accept the 1 percent increase.
8 And there's a lot of other stuff
9 that we did, as I mentioned; some of the capital
10 funding, some of the distressed hospital money
11 that we talked about, et cetera. All of these
12 things are about trying to go back on what has
13 been at least a decade of disinvestment and
14 austerity for institutions that serve the most
15 vulnerable across the state.
16 So this is what we are seeing in
17 this one-house proposal, and there's a whole host
18 of other things that I hope that you will ask
19 about or one of your colleagues will ask about,
20 that we feel incredibly proud of and we think are
21 first steps in actually getting us back to
22 institutions that, again, serve the most
23 vulnerable, that can actually be stable and don't
24 have to come back to the state every couple of
25 years for rescue.
1290
1 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
3 Gallivan.
4 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I have, I think,
5 just one more question. I'd like to ask many,
6 many more questions, but we are limited in time.
7 But I do have one more question if the Senator
8 would continue -- would yield for it.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
10 Rivera, do you continue to yield?
11 SENATOR RIVERA: I think I will
12 yield once more, yes, sir.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
14 Senator thinks he will yield. The sponsor
15 yields.
16 SENATOR GALLIVAN: So the Senator
17 has talked about, among other things -- but we
18 focused a lot on these hospitals in need,
19 distressed, old definition or new definition,
20 community hospitals, rural hospitals, critical
21 access hospitals. And while it likely includes
22 more than that, we focused on the billion dollars
23 that's set aside, which will be welcomed by these
24 hospitals. I mean, no question about it.
25 All of us represent constituents
1291
1 across the state that have been affected by this.
2 And it's very likely that not one of us has a
3 hospital in our district -- hasn't heard from the
4 hospitals on the problems that those hospitals
5 have. And of course those districts -- or those
6 hospitals are located in most every district
7 across the state, those that are represented by a
8 member of the Majority or a member of the
9 Minority.
10 And we had heard from the Senator
11 that as we move forward with this billion
12 dollars, that the plan now is that the Majority
13 Leader, the Speaker of the Assembly will discuss
14 this with the Governor and ultimately allocate
15 that funding.
16 The question I have is given that
17 members of the Majority -- the Minority, rather,
18 represent hospitals, and there's a direct effect
19 on their community, what role will the Minority
20 play in allocating this spending over the course
21 of the next fiscal year?
22 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
23 Mr. President, I believe that -- this is
24 obviously something that I absolutely recognize.
25 I remember when I became a member of the Majority
1292
1 and the chair of the Health Committee, it was
2 very clear to me that the job was actually to
3 govern for the entire state and to -- obviously,
4 as it relates to the healthcare system, we serve
5 every New Yorker, regardless of where they live,
6 what party they're from, ethnicity, you know,
7 immigration status, et cetera. So we have to try
8 to make a system that serves all of them.
9 So what I can tell you is that the
10 definition that we created we believe actually
11 includes -- it includes category -- it includes a
12 set of criteria that can be implemented across
13 the state regardless of where that hospital is.
14 And what you have -- through you,
15 Mr. President -- that I give a commitment to you
16 and to my colleagues that certainly not only
17 myself but most importantly, our Majority Leader,
18 cares deeply about the entire state. And that
19 the process, which will be transparent and will
20 rely on the definitions that we create -- and
21 ultimately I should say, obviously, this is a
22 one-house budget proposal. Right? We have not
23 made it to the final, final budget.
24 But we will fight to include this or
25 as much of it as possible -- this is the process,
1293
1 right -- in the final budget, because we want to
2 make sure that we actually create a set of
3 criteria which can include any hospital or any
4 entity across the state that has these needs.
5 And then we are committed to make sure that we
6 have a transparent process, to make sure that the
7 resources go to where they are needed.
8 So I believe that we -- you know, I
9 believe that through the definition that we have
10 created and the process that we are putting
11 forward, that we'll be able to do that, again, in
12 a transparent manner. We will make sure that any
13 institution that has the needs across the state,
14 regardless of where it is, receives the funding.
15 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I'd like to
16 thank -- Mr. President, I'd like to thank the
17 Senator for responding to the questions.
18 I will -- that's all that I have for
19 now. I will yield my time to my colleagues and
20 ultimately speak later in explaining my vote.
21 Thank you.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
23 you, Senator Gallivan.
24 Senator Oberacker.
25 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you,
1294
1 Mr. President.
2 I plan on asking just a couple of
3 quick questions. The first subject would be the
4 expansion of the Essential Plan that covers the
5 undocumented populations. This is in --
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Oberacker, are you asking the sponsor to yield?
8 SENATOR OBERACKER: -- the health
9 area of the budget. I'm sorry, yes.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: So in the
11 health area, are you asking the sponsor to yield?
12 SENATOR OBERACKER: I'm asking if
13 the sponsor would yield.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
15 Rivera, do you yield?
16 SENATOR RIVERA: And the sponsor
17 yields, yes.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
19 sponsor yields.
20 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you.
21 It's still my first time here, so give me a --
22 yes, so thank you.
23 So with that, the proposal provides
24 coverage on the Essential Plan for undocumented
25 individuals, those ineligible for the federal
1295
1 financial participation in the basic health
2 program on the basis of immigration status. This
3 is with a household income below 250 percent of
4 the federal poverty line.
5 The Senate one-house bill expands
6 the Essential Plan to undocumented immigrants
7 and, under the current law, permanently residing
8 under color of law populations. My question, if
9 the Senator would yield --
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
11 sponsor yields.
12 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you.
13 Question one is if we pass this
14 proposal, why would the federal government ever
15 agree to cover the expansion and federal matching
16 funds for the Essential Plan for -- the Essential
17 Plan, Child Health Plus and Medicaid if we are
18 showing that we are willing to cover the
19 population anyway without their participation?
20 (Pause.)
21 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
22 Mr. President. I'm glad, Mr. President, that
23 this is something that is being brought up.
24 And first -- and actually, just for
25 the record, Mr. President, I want to thank
1296
1 Senator Oberacker, who referred to these folks as
2 undocumented people, undocumented persons. Some
3 of my colleagues sometimes use other terminology
4 that is not human. So I'm very glad that you did
5 that, sir.
6 Now, the answer to the question is
7 this would be an extension of the Essential Plan
8 to an undocumented population, right. These are
9 folks -- this would be only state money, so there
10 would be no federal match. It is currently --
11 right, this is not funded at the federal level.
12 If there are services that are provided to
13 undocumented people, it is not funded through
14 federal money.
15 But we believe, Mr. President, that
16 it is absolutely essential to do. And I'll give
17 you a couple of reasons. Number one, as I
18 mentioned earlier, these undocumented people are
19 still people. The fact is that they will get
20 sick. The fact is, Mr. President, they are
21 getting sick. And as opposed to someone else who
22 might have access to primary care, they have to
23 wait until they have to go to the emergency room.
24 And maybe they just ignore that pain that has
25 been in their stomach for the last four or five
1297
1 days, they'll ignore it. If it goes away, they
2 won't actually go to the emergency room because
3 they figure it's -- it's putting myself at risk,
4 it is potentially incurring costs, et cetera,
5 et cetera.
6 So the fact is that there's
7 emergency Medicaid money that is already being
8 used, state money that is being spent on the care
9 of these individuals.
10 By extending the Essential Plan to
11 these folks, we will actually -- they will
12 actually have primary care, which will allow them
13 to be able to have the type of coverage,
14 Mr. President, that many of us take for granted.
15 And among other things, secure for themselves
16 primary care, potentially, which means that they
17 will be able to identify conditions that are
18 chronic earlier. They will just be healthier.
19 And this will not only save us money,
20 Mr. President, but also make lives better for
21 those individuals, their families and the
22 communities that they're in.
23 SENATOR OBERACKER: Through you,
24 Mr. President, would the Senator continue to
25 yield.
1298
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
2 sponsor yield?
3 SENATOR RIVERA: Yes, I will.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
5 sponsor yields.
6 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you.
7 So what is the plan should the
8 federal government ever eliminate funding for the
9 Essential Plan because of this expansion?
10 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
11 Mr. President. I would like the Senator to
12 clarify his question, because I am unaware of a
13 situation in which the federal government has
14 decided to -- because I believe, if I understand
15 correctly, that what he is positing is that if
16 there is an expansion of something that is
17 strictly -- for which strictly state funds are
18 used, that the federal government might see this
19 as some sort of insult and therefore say, We're
20 not going to cover the federal share of folks who
21 are eligible for federal funds.
22 I don't understand the question,
23 Mr. President, if he could clarify.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
25 Senator, having yielded, is asking you to
1299
1 rephrase your question, Senator Oberacker.
2 SENATOR OBERACKER: Sure. I'd be
3 more than happy to. Thank you.
4 So as a businessman, the metrics
5 that I am -- as I understand them, if New York
6 moves to cover all of the undocumented under the
7 Essential Plan, the federal government has no
8 reason to participate, maintain and expand
9 federal funding for other health insurance
10 programs because we, as the state, are showing
11 that we are willing to cover the population
12 anyway with state-only funding.
13 So the question becomes why would --
14 what is the -- through you, Mr. President, why
15 would the federal government then ever continue
16 if we are showing as a state that we're willing
17 to fund these individuals?
18 SENATOR RIVERA: Mr. President, I
19 feel that I'm still a little confused by the
20 question, but I'll try to answer it.
21 This is a population that the
22 federal government has already told us they will
23 not cover. As a matter of fact, another part of
24 our one-house budget proposal relates to the
25 expansion of Medicaid for birthing people for up
1300
1 to a year after they have given birth. Which in
2 our version -- not in the Governor's version, but
3 in our version -- includes undocumented folks.
4 And yet again, this is actually something that
5 we're using state funds for.
6 So I'm not sure that I understand
7 the question. If the federal government is not
8 going to give us federal share for a particular
9 population, they're just not going to give us
10 federal share for a particular population.
11 SENATOR OBERACKER: I'll move on,
12 if that's okay. I believe I've got enough -- and
13 we can speak offline, I think, more appropriately
14 than here today. So thank you for that answer,
15 Senator.
16 Through you, Mr. President, would
17 the Senator continue to yield.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
19 sponsor continue to yield?
20 SENATOR RIVERA: Absolutely.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
22 sponsor yields.
23 SENATOR OBERACKER: Okay. The
24 sponsor's memo for the original legislation
25 stated that the budget is neutral. How -- if you
1301
1 can help expand upon that, how is that possible?
2 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
3 Mr. President, if the sponsor could produce
4 this -- I'm sorry, not the sponsor, apologies.
5 If Senator Oberacker could produce the memo that
6 he's referring to, because I'm pretty sure that
7 in none of our -- we know that it is not
8 budget-neutral. As a matter of fact it is
9 absolutely budget not neutral, I guess is the way
10 to say it.
11 It obviously is an expenditure, but
12 I will once again say that as opposed to an
13 expenditure it's actually an investment. As
14 we're saying, we are expanding the Essential Plan
15 to a population that currently has no access to
16 health insurance unless they can pay for it
17 out-of-pocket. Right? Unless they are wealthy,
18 in which case they can pay for whatever they
19 want.
20 But if we're talking about folks who
21 are within 250 percent of the federal poverty
22 level, we are talking about a population that
23 obviously is in need of some level of care.
24 Because as I stated earlier, they are people,
25 they will get sick.
1302
1 So the memo I am sure would show
2 that. As a matter of fact -- see, this is again
3 why you surround yourself with good, smart
4 people. And down at the bottom, "Fiscal
5 Implications," you might be referring to it -- if
6 you're referring to a memo that is not the
7 current one, which I'm looking at, then if you
8 would show it. But the memo that is currently
9 for Bill S1572, "Fiscal Implications: The cost
10 to the state to accomplish this goal is estimated
11 to be approximately $345 million. The state will
12 be saving close to the same amount in emergency
13 Medicaid spending. Eligible individuals will be
14 paying small premium amounts to contribute to
15 their coverage." Thank you so much.
16 So in other words, the memo that we
17 currently have clearly establishes a fiscal -- so
18 I'm not sure which one -- through you,
19 Mr. President -- you're referring to .
20 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you for
21 the clarification on that, Senator. I will take
22 that with me.
23 Would the -- through you,
24 Mr. President, would the Senator continue to
25 yield.
1303
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
2 Rivera, do you yield?
3 SENATOR RIVERA: Indeed.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
5 Senator yields.
6 SENATOR OBERACKER: So as a
7 follow-up, are there estimates of how much this
8 will cost in the future moving forward?
9 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
10 Mr. President. The amount that we have in our
11 one-house budget proposal -- the amount that we
12 put in in the one-house budget proposal is an
13 amount of 345 million, which accounts -- which
14 amounts to what we believe will be about
15 46 percent of the total number of folks --
16 46,000, apologies.
17 There are a total, Mr. President --
18 right now, according to our analysis or according
19 to the analysis of folks who are supporting this
20 piece of legislation, there are a total of
21 154,000 potential eligible people. In other
22 words, folks that fit within the criteria, that
23 don't have a legal immigration status and fit
24 within the criteria as far as federal poverty
25 level.
1304
1 Of those -- as we know, no program
2 has 100 percent use. Even if someone is
3 eligible, the idea that 100 percent of the folks
4 who are eligible for any program -- that has
5 never happened.
6 And according to our best estimates,
7 we're saying -- we're thinking that about 46,000
8 people of those 154,000 will avail themselves of
9 this program, which comes to a cost of
10 345 million.
11 But I'll say again, this is almost
12 as much as we will be saving because we are not
13 going to be using it on emergency Medicaid
14 anymore.
15 And I would remind everyone that
16 providing folks primary care and making sure that
17 they use it is actually a great way to save money
18 in the long term. Because if somebody has
19 primary care -- let's say somebody has diabetes,
20 has asthma, has any other types -- has cancer.
21 Any of these types of ailments, Mr. President,
22 can be identified if someone has access to
23 primary care, as opposed to having to rely on
24 emergency care.
25 So that means that not only their
1305
1 lives will be better, but that we will save money
2 because, as opposed to having somebody having to
3 deal with, let's say, God forbid, an amputation,
4 because of diabetes that has not been
5 diagnosed -- being able to diagnose it, take care
6 of it on a regular basis means that those
7 folks -- not only their lives will be better, but
8 we will save money in the system overall.
9 So even though I couldn't give you,
10 at this particular moment, outside of the
11 345 million that has been allocated in our
12 one-house proposal, I could certainly -- we could
13 certainly do an outyear type of analysis and
14 provide it to you, sir.
15 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you,
16 Senator.
17 SENATOR RIVERA: Absolutely.
18 SENATOR OBERACKER: Through you,
19 Mr. President, would the Senator continue to
20 yield.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
22 sponsor continue to yield?
23 SENATOR RIVERA: SÃ.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
25 sponsor continues to yield.
1306
1 SENATOR OBERACKER: Changing up a
2 little bit now to an area that of course is near
3 and dear to my heart, EMS funding.
4 So some of the background on Part F
5 of the HMH bill proposes modernization to
6 emergency medical services, including training
7 programs. However, rural communities, of which I
8 represent a large portion of, are still suffering
9 from a shortage of EMS workers.
10 So through you, Mr. President, does
11 this budget in any way help increase the number
12 of rural EMS?
13 (Pause.)
14 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
15 Mr. President, we believe that -- first of all,
16 I'll refer to my earlier comments as far as
17 10 years of disinvestment and austerity means
18 that we can't flip the boat around in just one
19 year. We're certainly going to try.
20 And what we did in our one-house
21 budget proposal is that as relates to emergency
22 medical services, not only did we add a million
23 to what the Governor had allocated for training
24 purposes, but we also accepted some of the
25 changes that we believe will indeed not only
1307
1 provide stability but potentially provide us --
2 give us an opportunity to have more emergency
3 medical technicians across the state.
4 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you,
5 Senator.
6 Through you, Mr. President, would
7 the Senator continue to yield.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
9 sponsor yield?
10 SENATOR RIVERA: Yes, sir.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
12 sponsor yields.
13 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you.
14 Is there any consideration into
15 making EMS an essential service? And if so, why
16 isn't it in the -- proposed in this budget?
17 (Pause.)
18 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
19 Mr. President. One of the things that we are
20 certainly doing is we are accepting a
21 redefinition of emergency medical services that
22 is in Part F -- hold on, Section 7. Again, did
23 you hear that? Section 7. I'm telling you, man,
24 it's good to have these folks here -- which has
25 not been done in over a decade.
1308
1 And we believe that this actually
2 will go a long way towards kind of centering this
3 in the way that it is essential in different
4 parts of the state, certainly like in rural
5 communities.
6 In subdivision 1 of Section 3001 of
7 the Public Health Law, as mentioned in
8 Chapter 804 of the Laws of 1992 -- which is what
9 Section 7 is -- emergency medical service means
10 care of a person to and from and between a
11 person's home, scene of injury, et cetera,
12 et cetera. And it specifically includes
13 "community paramedicine care."
14 So we believe that this definition,
15 which again has not been changed in quite a
16 while, goes a long way towards doing just what
17 you feel needs to be done in that regard.
18 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you.
19 Through you, Mr. President, would
20 the Senator continue to yield.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
22 Senator continue to yield?
23 SENATOR RIVERA: I continue to
24 yield.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
1309
1 Senator yields.
2 SENATOR OBERACKER: Senator, thank
3 you so much for that. I am encouraged to hear
4 you say that. Anything since 1992 I think should
5 be looked at more readily and under a microscope.
6 So again, thank you.
7 Through you, Mr. President, does
8 this budget increase Medicaid rates for EMS
9 service? And do you believe that the Medicaid
10 transportation rates for ambulance services are
11 adequate for upstate New York and rural regions?
12 SENATOR RIVERA: Through you,
13 Mr. President, the across-the-board -- the uncut,
14 if -- or the restoration. That is a technical
15 term. "Uncut" is not a word.
16 The restoration -- the restoration
17 of these funds is across the board, which
18 includes everything related to Medicaid,
19 including transportation. And then we added
20 1 percent on top of that -- in other words, we
21 accepted the Governor's proposal to do 1 percent
22 above that, and that is across the board.
23 SENATOR OBERACKER: Mr. President,
24 I would like to thank -- I'm finished with my
25 questions. I would like to thank Senator Rivera
1310
1 for his detailed questions {sic}, and I too will
2 reserve my speaking on my vote at a later time.
3 I would like to now take my time and
4 extend that out to our next -- who do we have
5 coming up here?
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Gianaris -- thank you. Thank you, Senator
8 Oberacker.
9 Senator Gianaris.
10 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you.
11 Mr. President, just for planning purposes, we
12 do -- I want to notify members we do intend to
13 honor the agreed-upon two-hour limit on the
14 debate on this resolution.
15 There are eight additional members
16 who want to debate this bill, and less than a
17 half-hour till 4:12, which is the two-hour limit.
18 We've been through three members, so if you
19 figure out the math you're averaging a half-hour
20 per member, and you have eight more members,
21 which is not going to make it.
22 So please act accordingly. We don't
23 want to cut people off, but if we reach the
24 limit, we will.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
1311
1 you, Senator Gianaris.
2 Senator Palumbo.
3 SENATOR RIVERA: Mr. President,
4 30 seconds --
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
6 Rivera, you can explain your --
7 SENATOR RIVERA: Thirty seconds.
8 Jorge Rivera, Jamie Salm, Donavan
9 Borington, Carolyn Sheridan, Jonathan Lang,
10 Chris Higgins, Lekeya Martin, Anissa Martinez,
11 Alexandrea Nuwer, and Tony Kergaravat. Those are
12 the folks that are smarter than me that did this.
13 Thank you, Mr. President.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank you
15 for the recognition of our staff, Senator Rivera.
16 SENATOR PALUMBO: (Inaudible) --
17 Mr. President, application for a credit for
18 Senator Gianaris and Senator Rivera's time?
19 (Laughter.)
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
21 Palumbo with a five-second credit.
22 SENATOR PALUMBO: Would the sponsor
23 or a colleague yield for some questions on public
24 protection, please.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1312
1 Krueger will be yielding. Senator Krueger, do
2 you -- Senator Krueger is in the position. Do
3 you yield, Senator Krueger?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do yield.
5 Thank you, Mr. President.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Krueger yields.
8 SENATOR PALUMBO: Thank you,
9 Senator Krueger. And I'll move as quickly as I
10 can.
11 Does this Senate one-house include
12 any provisions or amendments or changes to the
13 bail reform statute?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: No.
15 SENATOR PALUMBO: Will you yield
16 for another question?
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
19 Senator yields.
20 SENATOR PALUMBO: Senator, does
21 this one-house contain any provisions that would
22 allow judicial discretion with respect to bail
23 reform?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: No. This is a
25 budget document, so we didn't do policy issues
1313
1 here.
2 SENATOR PALUMBO: Certainly. Would
3 you yield for another question?
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
5 sponsor yield?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
8 sponsor yields.
9 SENATOR PALUMBO: Well, I
10 appreciate that, Senator Krueger, but I'm now
11 going to ask you about the policy that's in this
12 one-house bill, if you don't mind. Okay?
13 Because we do that quite often here.
14 And with respect to the Clean Slate
15 section in Public Protection -- I believe it's
16 Part A and AA -- there were some changes made
17 where -- and I'll just read the section quickly:
18 "The Senate modifies the Executive proposal to
19 seal criminal records three years after the
20 expiration of the maximum sentence for
21 misdemeanors and seven years after ... felonies.
22 The Senate advances language that would
23 immediately seal records three years after the
24 release from custody" on misdemeanors and seven
25 years on felonies.
1314
1 So the clock now starts, based upon
2 this one-house proposal, upon someone's release
3 from custody. And maybe an example would help.
4 Someone's sentenced to five to 15 years, for
5 example, on a manslaughter second degree. The
6 clock, under the Governor's proposal, would start
7 at 15 when they're released from parole.
8 This bill -- and please correct me
9 if I'm wrong -- this proposal would have the
10 clock start at five years in that example. Is
11 that accurate?
12 (Pause.)
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: I'm going to try
14 to get this correct. Under the proposal we have
15 in our one-house, the sealing can begin after
16 they leave prison, but they are not going to be
17 completely sealed until the 15-year mark.
18 SENATOR PALUMBO: Okay. Would you
19 yield for another question?
20 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
22 sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
25 sponsor yields.
1315
1 SENATOR PALUMBO: Okay, thank you,
2 Senator. And that just -- that clarification was
3 important, I believe, because in the Executive
4 Budget, since it didn't start until you're
5 released from probation or parole, this would
6 now -- it made that somewhat ambiguous because it
7 would -- since it starts, it's just tolled until
8 the end of their release from supervision, is
9 that accurate?
10 SENATOR KRUEGER: Sealing cannot
11 occur when a person is on probation, parole, or
12 community supervision. So it does not get
13 completed until any and all of those are
14 completed.
15 SENATOR PALUMBO: Got it. Thank
16 you for clarifying that.
17 Would you yield for another
18 question?
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
20 sponsor yield?
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: Certainly.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
23 sponsor yields.
24 SENATOR PALUMBO: Is this going to
25 apply retroactively to current convictions?
1316
1 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
2 SENATOR PALUMBO: Thank you. Would
3 you yield for another question?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
6 sponsor yield? Does the sponsor yield?
7 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
9 sponsor yields.
10 SENATOR PALUMBO: Can an individual
11 take advantage of this sealing provision more
12 than once on multiple convictions? So for
13 example, as we've seen within a lot of the news
14 stories recently, some people have 20, 30, 40
15 criminal convictions. If they're outside of
16 seven years, are all of those sealed?
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: There's no cap on
18 the number of convictions, so there's no cap on
19 this. Although it sounds like we wouldn't get
20 around to sealing anything until hundreds of
21 years later, does it?
22 SENATOR PALUMBO: Well, would you
23 yield for another question?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, of course.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
1317
1 Senator yields.
2 SENATOR PALUMBO: Thank you,
3 Senator. So by way of follow-up, is there a
4 cumulative count that it's seven years for each
5 charge? Or is it just seven years from the most
6 recent case?
7 SENATOR KRUEGER: So it's seven
8 years from the most recent felony conviction. So
9 a new conviction puts you back in square one.
10 SENATOR PALUMBO: Okay, thank you.
11 Would you yield for another question?
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
13 sponsor yield?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR PALUMBO: Okay, thank you,
18 Senator. So it would be just for newer ones,
19 more recent ones, but all the old ones would be
20 wrapped up and sealed, just so I'm clear,
21 correct?
22 (Pause.)
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: You'd need to
24 have no felony convictions in seven years. So
25 it's not like they start the count for sealing
1318
1 one, but then you get another felony but you
2 still get to get sealing on the earlier. That
3 doesn't work that way.
4 SENATOR PALUMBO: I understand
5 that.
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: So -- okay.
7 SENATOR PALUMBO: Thank you,
8 Senator. And would you yield for another
9 question, just one more on --
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
11 sponsor yield?
12 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I do,
13 Mr. President.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR PALUMBO: Thank you. And I
17 guess just to clarify, that would be -- it
18 wouldn't apply to old ones, only new ones is what
19 I understand it to be, and I think that's what
20 you just explained.
21 My next question is regarding the
22 unlawful discriminatory practice section. That
23 Part AA would make it an unlawful discriminatory
24 practice for any person, agency, bureau,
25 corporation or association to inquire about
1319
1 whether any of form of application or otherwise
2 were to act upon adversely to the individual
3 involved in a conviction which is sealed.
4 So this prohibits anyone -- and my
5 question to you is any one agency, does this also
6 apply to schools, does it apply to law
7 enforcement? Because I believe the Executive
8 Budget at least carved out law enforcement.
9 But school districts, I know under
10 the current law you can ask if someone's been
11 arrested in very limited circumstances like for
12 physicians, for lawyers, we're asked, for certain
13 law enforcement positions.
14 So does this eliminate that
15 entirely? Can you clarify that for me, please?
16 (Pause.)
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: If the job you're
18 applying for -- let's say as a teacher --
19 requires a background check, the background check
20 will show the record. But if you're not applying
21 for a job that does require background checks,
22 then your record is sealed for those types of
23 jobs.
24 SENATOR PALUMBO: Will you yield
25 for one more question.
1320
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
2 Krueger, do you yield for another question?
3 SENATOR KRUEGER: Absolutely.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
5 Senator yields.
6 SENATOR PALUMBO: Senator Krueger,
7 in that situation, then, if someone's applying to
8 be a bus driver for a school district and all
9 their convictions are sealed, are you saying the
10 school would have access to those? Say, for
11 example, for DWI convictions?
12 SENATOR KRUEGER: So a bus driving
13 job has review through the DMV system, and the
14 DMV system would continue to show these
15 convictions.
16 SENATOR PALUMBO: Okay, do you
17 yield for one more question? I think --
18 (Overtalk.)
19 SENATOR PALUMBO: -- I understand
20 that.
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: She's very
22 believable.
23 SENATOR PALUMBO: Right. Right.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
25 Krueger, do you yield for another question?
1321
1 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
3 Senator yields.
4 SENATOR PALUMBO: So without
5 belaboring that point, so that if it's not found
6 through the DMV system, then ultimately that's
7 something that you would not be entitled to in
8 the event you're looking for someone as a driver;
9 correct?
10 (Pause.)
11 SENATOR KRUEGER: School bus
12 drivers require a fingerprint check as well, so
13 they would still have access to those records in
14 addition to what the DMV system collects.
15 SENATOR PALUMBO: Good to know.
16 I'm going to go to another section, if I can ask
17 you one more question.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Are you
19 asking the sponsor to yield, Senator Palumbo?
20 SENATOR PALUMBO: Yes, I am,
21 Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
23 sponsor yield?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
1322
1 sponsor yields.
2 SENATOR PALUMBO: I have here in
3 the Governor's budget, which I guess was
4 otherwise adopted, based on the language of the
5 one-house, "In any civil action an official
6 record of a conviction that has been sealed,
7 pursuant to this section, may not be introduced
8 as evidence of negligence against any person or
9 entity that provided employment, contract labor
10 or services, volunteer work," et cetera.
11 With respect to that section, so in
12 the event someone hires someone who is, for
13 example, abusive to children or otherwise has
14 sealed criminal convictions, and then ultimately
15 they do it again to an employee, in a negligent
16 hiring case you are not allowed to admit the
17 evidence of the prior conviction that the
18 employer disregarded. And for example, say it
19 even came through -- by way of a newspaper story.
20 That's inadmissible as a result of this language.
21 Can you clarify that or tell me if
22 I'm wrong?
23 (Pause.)
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: I'll try to get
25 this one right. The employer could not be
1323
1 found -- or charged in a civil case because if
2 they went looking for records that were not
3 available to them, they did not know anything
4 about this employee. Hence, they don't have a
5 liability.
6 But if the employee is brought up in
7 a civil case, then those records are available to
8 whoever is bringing the case, and it can be used
9 against them if they lied about anything, and for
10 the actions that they took.
11 SENATOR PALUMBO: Thank you,
12 Senator. We're short on time, so I'm going to
13 leave some time for my colleagues. I have no
14 further questions. Thank you for answering.
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you very
16 much.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
18 Borrello.
19 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President, I
20 have a question on mental health. Should I --
21 will the sponsor yield?
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
23 Senator yield for a question on mental health?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: I certainly will.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1324
1 Krueger yields.
2 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
3 Senator Krueger.
4 I stood here a year ago when we were
5 discussing this chamber watering down --
6 strengthening Kendra's Law in last year's budget.
7 And as you may know, Kendra Webdale was a friend
8 of mine. She grew up in the little town of
9 Fredonia where I grew up. And it rocked our
10 community when she was pushed in front of that
11 subway train.
12 And I said on the floor "I hope this
13 never happens again." And tragically, we stand
14 here a year later and we have Michelle Go who
15 died in the exact manner, with a person who
16 should not have been out on the streets. And
17 we've seen an increase in mental health violence
18 here in New York State in this past year.
19 Very tragically, we're standing here
20 again.
21 And I'm looking at this one-house
22 budget, and we were going to renew in the
23 Governor's budget Kendra's Law for five years,
24 and the one-house budget, the Senate one-house,
25 only renews it for one year. The Assembly is
1325
1 keeping it at five years. Why will we only renew
2 it for one year?
3 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you for the
4 question. I think we're keeping it for one year
5 because we recognize it's not a perfect law and
6 that we need to do more things. And so we didn't
7 want to do a five-year extension and just say
8 we're done for five years. Because we, like you,
9 believe we need to be doing more.
10 What we did learn in researching
11 Kendra's Law is it is very rarely used in a
12 situation as the example you gave recently from
13 New York City and some of the many other tragic
14 violent cases involving mentally ill homeless
15 people. In fact, Kendra's Law is
16 disproportionately used by family members who go
17 to court to get an AOT -- is it AOT? Thank
18 you -- and not used at all when it comes to the
19 issues of homeless people without any connections
20 with their families or with any kinds of
21 community institutions.
22 So we really do believe that we not
23 only need to continue the protections that we
24 already have in Kendra's Law, but that they're
25 not adequate and we need to figure out some
1326
1 changes in our laws specifically when it comes to
2 mentally ill people who have -- again, I need to
3 say for the record, Mr. President, I do not
4 believe that most mentally ill people are ever
5 going to be violent. My conference does not
6 believe that most mentally ill people are ever
7 going to be violent.
8 We're talking about a subuniverse of
9 people who, particularly perhaps when they are
10 not on meds that they need because they have no
11 services being offered to them or no assistance,
12 no healthcare -- that these are the population we
13 need to actually be coming up with better and
14 more effective models. And those are not putting
15 them in jail, they are not throwing them in an
16 emergency room for 24 hours and releasing them.
17 This is talking about getting them actual
18 psychiatric services and care with residential
19 facilities. Because again, we're talking about
20 disproportionately homeless and mentally ill.
21 So there are all kinds of program
22 models. We don't believe Kendra's Law addresses
23 the issues we're seeing in New York City right
24 now and, I am told, in several other places in
25 the state. So we don't want anything to sunset,
1327
1 we just want to focus more on it rather than
2 doing a five-year extension and thinking we took
3 care of everything, because that would not take
4 care of everything.
5 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President,
6 will the sponsor continue to yield?
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
8 sponsor yield?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
11 Krueger yields.
12 SENATOR BORRELLO: I appreciate
13 that answer. Unfortunately, New York State has
14 summarily shut down institutions that could
15 actually help people, and now our streets have
16 become mental institutions.
17 And while it's a small percentage of
18 people, keep in mind, crime in general is a small
19 percentage of the population, but it still rocks
20 our communities. And so I don't know that that's
21 necessarily the right answer.
22 But you brought up AOTs. You know,
23 we're trying to do things to strengthen our
24 ability to ensure that people that have mental
25 health crises can be held. Yet we are taking out
1328
1 the ability for a physician to actually testify
2 at an AOT hearing to ensure that those people are
3 kept. So why would we do that?
4 (Pause.)
5 SENATOR KRUEGER: We aren't
6 allowing Zoom testimony, is my understanding.
7 SENATOR BORRELLO: Yes, that's
8 correct. We've allowed it here for the last two
9 years, but now we can't do it?
10 SENATOR KRUEGER: Well, I think
11 there's a concern about a -- I'm sorry, through
12 you, Mr. President, I think there's some concern
13 about psychiatric evaluation when you've not
14 actually met or dealt with the person.
15 But I just want to clarify the first
16 points you made. We are putting in $220 million
17 more for psychiatric beds and supportive housing
18 beds -- 20 million? I'm sorry. Let's try
19 20 million for 200 psychiatric beds. Which is
20 not 220 million, which is the number I would
21 prefer personally.
22 And there's a commitment by the
23 state to revisit reopening psychiatric beds that
24 they have closed over the last number of years.
25 You know, I don't think you and I
1329
1 are very apart on this issue at all. In my city
2 we believe we have 1,000 fewer residential beds
3 for people with psychiatric illness now than
4 eight years ago. And that -- so you wonder why
5 are there so many people on the streets with
6 nowhere to go, suffering so painfully and putting
7 others at risk? Because we took away the places
8 they used to be able to go.
9 So we need to reinvest in
10 psychiatric beds and to have various options for
11 people who are in different places and have
12 different needs.
13 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President,
14 will the sponsor continue to yield.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
16 sponsor yield?
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
19 sponsor yields.
20 SENATOR BORRELLO: Senator Krueger,
21 you're right, we aren't far apart on this. But,
22 you know, it's the actions that I'm concerned
23 about. Twenty million dollars to create
24 200 beds -- I lost 20 in my community alone just
25 in the last two years. So I think it's woefully
1330
1 inadequate.
2 So why are we not strengthening
3 that? And in fact, why aren't we using
4 Senator Savino's bill, 8508, as a model to do
5 exactly that, to invest in and strengthen our
6 mental health laws?
7 SENATOR KRUEGER: She's just put in
8 her new bill, and she's circulating it. And we
9 still have time to explore that before the end of
10 session. Thank you, Senator Savino.
11 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President, I
12 will yield the rest of my time.
13 Thank you, Senator Krueger.
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
16 you, Senator Borrello.
17 Senator Rath.
18 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
19 Mr. President, will the sponsor yield for some
20 questions on elections?
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
22 sponsor yield for questions on elections?
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: Sorry. Sorry,
24 Mr. President. Of course.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
1331
1 Senator yields.
2 SENATOR RATH: Thank you. I will
3 be brief, and I'll try to be seated.
4 This budget allocates an additional
5 $10 million for BOE assistance, the one-house
6 proposal. Is all of this intended to aid those
7 offices who are implementing early voting
8 requirements across New York State?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: One moment as our
10 voter person shows up.
11 (Pause; off the record.)
12 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
13 Mr. President, time out.
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: We'll bring in
15 the big guns for you, don't worry.
16 Did I hear you correctly,
17 $10 million specifically for --
18 SENATOR RATH: (Inaudible.)
19 SENATOR KRUEGER: And your ask is
20 for what it's being used for?
21 SENATOR RATH: Whether it is being
22 used for early voting requirements.
23 (Pause.)
24 SENATOR RATH: Mr. President, we're
25 still on the clock?
1332
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
2 second charge, time out.
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR RATH: Can we go to the
5 booth for that one?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: You win the prize
7 for how many staff can we find to help me.
8 And the answer is no, it's for
9 whatever the local boards use to wish it for. It
10 might be early voting, it might be other things.
11 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
12 Mr. President, would the sponsor
13 continue to yield? And you can restart the
14 clock.
15 (Laughter.)
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The clock
17 restarts. Will the sponsor yield?
18 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
20 sponsor yields.
21 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
22 Are you confident that this
23 $10 million is sufficient for our boards of
24 elections to meet all these new requirements?
25 SENATOR KRUEGER: Excellent
1333
1 question. We gave them more money last year.
2 We're not clear that they've spent it all. And
3 it probably varies by location.
4 But we are optimistic that it's more
5 than was going to be there for them and that
6 every dollar helps. So that it should help them
7 move along. I know some bought new machines,
8 some are still looking to buy new machines. Some
9 had fewer problems with the earlier voting, some
10 had more problems with the earlier voting.
11 So one thing I've learned is that
12 elections operate pretty differently depending on
13 what county you're talking to. Which is why we
14 didn't mandate the 10 million for any one
15 specific activity.
16 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
17 Mr. President, will the sponsor
18 continue to yield?
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
20 sponsor yield?
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
23 sponsor yields.
24 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
25 We have heard from a lot of boards
1334
1 of elections they're really struggling with
2 resources, they're struggling with training,
3 they're struggling with staffing. So the
4 additional resources are important.
5 But one of the things that's a real
6 problem is our smaller counties complying with
7 all these early voting requirements, all these
8 new mandates that are being passed down.
9 So is there any money that's
10 earmarked specifically to help out our smaller
11 and our more rural counties who are struggling to
12 comply with these mandates?
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: So it's for any
14 purpose. I know that the State Board of
15 Elections has talked about doing more online
16 training and unification of training so that you
17 don't necessarily need the same specialists in
18 every county if you can do online training of
19 your workers.
20 But as far as the other examples you
21 gave, it's not clear to me that there is a
22 general sense of what everybody ought to be
23 doing.
24 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
25 Mr. President, would the sponsor
1335
1 yield for a question or two on energy?
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
3 sponsor yield?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
6 sponsor yields.
7 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
8 This one-house proposal has several
9 large aspects to it concerning the energy sector,
10 but many of these proposals do not address the
11 concerns of long-term affordability for energy
12 consumers in New York, both residential as well
13 as industrial and commercial consumers.
14 What is the justification behind the
15 modest suspension of motor fuel taxes proposed,
16 and is there any particular reason why the
17 one-house stops short of suspending all fuel
18 taxes?
19 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you for
20 asking that. You faked us out as to what the
21 question was going to be.
22 Although I do want to just go back
23 and point out also on local election issues and
24 other local issues, we also increase AIM funding
25 to our localities by $210 million, which
1336
1 hopefully will allow them to have some additional
2 money to cover unique local issues for
3 themselves.
4 And we're also stopping sales tax
5 intercept, which is another $250 million. So we
6 are definitely, within our one-house, trying to
7 make sure that we are increasing the amount of
8 state revenue going back to our counties and
9 localities for them to use it as they prioritize,
10 which I think is a real victory, probably, that
11 everyone would agree with here.
12 Now to go back to your question
13 about -- thank you, I didn't forget, I just
14 wanted to get that in.
15 SENATOR RATH: Okay. Good, thank
16 you.
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: -- about
18 increased energy costs.
19 There is an assumption that perhaps
20 we don't agree upon that moving to -- off of gas
21 and petroleum and into green energy will cost us
22 more. Because actually the research shows once
23 we get started, it will cost us less. So we're
24 hoping to be able to move to green energy and the
25 kinds of energy that don't destroy the planet as
1337
1 quickly as possible because, one, then we won't
2 destroy the planet, and two, the pricing will
3 actually go down.
4 Now, is that going to happen this
5 year as gas prices are going up? Clearly not
6 fast enough. So we are facing a crisis of
7 increased costs of gasoline. And most everyone
8 analyzed it as being because of Putin and the
9 Russian war in Europe, which I suspect the State
10 Senate Rs and Ds won't have that much ability to
11 change the story line in.
12 What we can try to do is lower the
13 costs particularly for people who are most
14 dependent on using petroleum vehicles, as we have
15 not transitioned fast enough into EV vehicles.
16 So we are proposing, in our one-house, a
17 reduction in the gas tax, 16 cents a gallon in
18 state gas tax and then the option for the
19 localities to match it with their local sales
20 tax. Because sales taxes are usually half state
21 and approximately half locality. So we are
22 proposing that for the remainder of 2022.
23 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
24 Mr. President, one quick follow-up question.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
1338
1 sponsor yield?
2 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
4 sponsor yields.
5 SENATOR RATH: Thank you. Sixteen
6 cents, but not 33. We have the chance to cut it
7 to 33, and we're doing 16. People need a break.
8 Costs are escalating. Why not the 33-cent cut?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: Every action has
10 a reaction. And we currently use gas tax revenue
11 to pay for the highway maintenance and repairs.
12 So we thought it was not actually the best idea
13 to zero out all the funds going into the highway
14 funds. And so that's why we chose half, but
15 recognizing that the localities could get us to
16 that 33 cents by matching it at the local level.
17 And interestingly, because the price
18 of gas is going up, at the local level the sales
19 tax revenue is growing much larger than any
20 locality imagined it would be or projected in
21 their budget. Because every time the price of
22 gas goes up, they're getting more from sales tax
23 than they thought they were. So we actually
24 believe it's perfectly reasonable to suggest that
25 we take half that cost and ask them to take half
1339
1 that cost.
2 SENATOR RATH: Through you, Mr
3 President, one more question.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
5 sponsor yield?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
8 sponsor yields.
9 SENATOR RATH: Is there anything in
10 any of the proposals in your one-house proposal
11 that lowers energy costs for homeowners and
12 businesses in New York State?
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: So we are
14 offering significant tax credits for retrofitting
15 your home to solar or geothermal. We are
16 expanding the solar tax credit from 5,000 to
17 10,000. We're going to a 10,000 geothermal tax
18 as well. Right? Five thousand geothermal. What
19 else?
20 We're incentivizing the use of
21 electric vehicles by providing credits for
22 purchasing electric vehicles or purchasing
23 chargers for electric vehicles.
24 We have a package of climate change
25 proposals that put money into a number of
1340
1 additional retrofits for people -- excuse me.
2 We're not retrofitting people. How about
3 people's homes. Maybe we'd like to retrofit
4 people; I'm not sure how to do that.
5 Retrofitting private homes as well as businesses.
6 If you have a chance to review our
7 climate package within our one-house, including
8 our redefinition of the bond act and what that
9 money should be used for, I think you will see
10 quite a few other things that you might not have
11 thought about but would meet those standards.
12 SENATOR RATH: Thank you, Senator.
13 Mr. President, I'm all set and hope
14 you reset the clock for my colleagues.
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: Oh, and one more
16 thing, I'm sorry.
17 SENATOR RATH: Oh, I'm sorry.
18 SENATOR KRUEGER: Through you,
19 Mr. President.
20 SENATOR RATH: Absolutely.
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: And there's an
22 additional 400 million for utility arrears for
23 people who have not been able to pay their
24 utilities because of the same problems they faced
25 in not being able to pay their rent or their
1341
1 mortgages during COVID.
2 SENATOR RATH: Thank you,
3 Mr. President, I'm all set.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
5 you, Senator Rath.
6 Senator Serino.
7 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
8 we're at 4:12, which is the two-hour limit. In
9 an effort to be very accommodating, we're going
10 to go till 4:30 and absolutely cut it off at
11 4:30. So the remaining four or five members that
12 want to debate, that's how much time you have.
13 If your colleagues go long before you, it's on
14 you.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
16 you, Senator Gianaris.
17 Senator Serino.
18 SENATOR SERINO: I'm going to be
19 lickety split. Senator Krueger -- does the
20 Senator yield for questions?
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
23 Krueger, do you yield?
24 SENATOR SERINO: Thank you.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
1342
1 sponsor yields.
2 SENATOR SERINO: Does this
3 one-house budget proposal include specific money
4 for research, education or prevention initiatives
5 for Lyme and tick-borne diseases?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: I really don't
7 know. Does someone know and want to run up here?
8 Why don't you continue with the
9 questions, and maybe somebody will let me know.
10 SENATOR SERINO: Okay, absolutely.
11 As you know -- oh, does the sponsor continue to
12 yield? Sorry.
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR SERINO: And as you know,
17 mental health was a huge subject, right, with all
18 the questions. But with the children's mental
19 health beds, I'm glad to see that we're having
20 that conversation and it sounds like we're making
21 the investment there and in the stabilization
22 centers as well. And I share --
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: (Inaudible.)
24 SENATOR SERINO: Oh, thank you.
25 And I share the concerns that my
1343
1 colleagues had.
2 But there was -- there's a proposal
3 that includes $50 million for mental health
4 grants under Aid to Localities, and I'm just
5 wondering how those are going to be disbursed.
6 Is it going to be by -- geographically,
7 population, or through like a competitive
8 process?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: It's in
10 education, so it will go through the school
11 districts.
12 SENATOR SERINO: I just hope that
13 they streamline the process because it -- they
14 can't get bogged with too many -- you know, too
15 much red tape.
16 Did they have the answer to the
17 question on Lyme yet? Because I'm --
18 SENATOR KRUEGER: (Inaudible.)
19 SENATOR SERINO: And I'll just be
20 real -- I'll just be real quick.
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: We accepted the
22 Executive of $69,400 for Lyme.
23 SENATOR SERINO: And I see that the
24 one-house proposes an additional --
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1344
1 Serino -- I'm sorry, I know you're going quick,
2 but are you asking the sponsor to yield?
3 SENATOR SERINO: Oh, yes, I'm
4 sorry.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
6 sponsor yield?
7 SENATOR KRUEGER: Sorry, it's my
8 fault also.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR KRUEGER: Sorry,
12 Mr. President.
13 SENATOR SERINO: Sorry. I see that
14 the one-house proposes an additional $2 million
15 for the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, a
16 program that of course plays a critical role in
17 protecting the health and safety of nursing home
18 residents.
19 While that's a start, I submitted a
20 bipartisan letter for $20 million to bolster and
21 professionalize this critical program. Can you
22 tell me why there's been such a small investment
23 made in such a critical program in your proposal?
24 SENATOR KRUEGER: You're going to
25 get me fired, Sue Serino. I wanted 20 million
1345
1 also. (Laughing.)
2 Mr. President, because we didn't
3 have enough money to go around and we thought it
4 was a great idea and at least in Year 1 we could
5 get it started, knowing that we're going to need
6 more funds.
7 SENATOR SERINO: Thank you,
8 Senator.
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT
11 BAILEY: Senator Helming.
12 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you,
13 Mr. President. Will the sponsor yield for a few
14 questions.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
16 sponsor yield?
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
19 Senator yields.
20 SENATOR HELMING: Thanks, Senator
21 Krueger.
22 Senator Krueger, if there's one
23 thing we've learned over the past year it's that
24 the ERAP program is so bureaucratic, it's very
25 slow, and both tenants and landlords are
1346
1 suffering. Tenants are falling further behind
2 with their rent payments, and landlords are at
3 risk of losing their property because they can't
4 meet their financial obligations.
5 I look at this one-house budget as a
6 great opportunity to streamline the ERAP process
7 and the program. Is there anything in this
8 one-house budget that proposes doing just that?
9 SENATOR KRUEGER: We share the
10 frustration. We know that we started off slow
11 moving the money out. We sped it up quite a bit.
12 And I think we've now given out 1.6 of the
13 2 billion. And we have the dilemma of the
14 difficulty in finding the landlords sometimes,
15 finding the right paperwork. It's amazing how
16 complicated it is. And a lot of it is tied up
17 with the requirements of the federal government
18 and what they tell us we have to collect. Which
19 is also why we wanted to make sure we have a
20 state program to invest money in directly to the
21 landlords, and we're continuing that and putting
22 how much money in?
23 (Pause.)
24 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
25 Mr. President, if the sponsor would continue to
1347
1 yield.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
3 sponsor continue to yield? I thought --
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: I believe
6 she was still answering the question. I'm sorry,
7 Senator Helming.
8 SENATOR KRUEGER: No, that's okay.
9 Go right ahead.
10 SENATOR HELMING: I mean, I would
11 argue every point that you just made, that it is
12 so challenging and difficult to get any answers
13 to specific questions from the commissioner and
14 his agency.
15 But I want to switch quickly because
16 we are so limited in time. Something that's
17 personally very important to me is providing
18 housing for those homeless veterans who are
19 seeking it. In the Greater Rochester area, we
20 have a tremendous lack of housing for veterans,
21 especially females, women with children.
22 And I'm wondering if there was any
23 discussion and if this budget includes a
24 restoration of the Warrior Salute program. In
25 the past, they received about $250,000, $300,000,
1348
1 but I believe it was cut out two years ago.
2 SENATOR KRUEGER: I'm not familiar
3 with that program.
4 There is a -- there has been quite a
5 bit of discussion about needing more funds for
6 homeless people statewide, the recognition that
7 every community is suffering from populations
8 that are homeless. (Pause.)
9 We also did the $250 million Access
10 program for funding for people who are homeless,
11 so we really upped the amount of money. And I
12 guess what I would suggest is that if you know a
13 group specifically in Rochester that's working
14 with homeless veterans, that we should make sure
15 that they're being reached out to to make sure
16 that they know how to apply.
17 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
18 Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
19 yield.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
21 sponsor yield?
22 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
24 sponsor yields.
25 SENATOR REICHLIN-MELNICK: I will
1349
1 do that.
2 And I asked about the Warrior Salute
3 program because it's so wonderful and successful
4 every year.
5 But just moving along very quickly
6 here, keeping people in their homes is very
7 important. I agree that we have a homelessness
8 issue that needs to be addressed. This includes
9 people who live in state-operated group homes,
10 people with developmental disabilities.
11 Over the weekend I attended the
12 event with PEF. My colleagues from this body
13 were in attendance as well, and we heard about
14 the dozens of group homes that have been closed
15 since 2019, both permanently and temporarily
16 closed, along with the day treatment programs.
17 Is there anything in this budget
18 that says -- that commits to our developmentally
19 disabled population in New York State that we are
20 going to reopen these homes and we're going to
21 stop moving you around like you're pieces of a
22 puzzle instead of the human beings that you are?
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: So we know that
24 we have a new commissioner for OPWDD who I think
25 comes to the position with a much better
1350
1 understanding of the real-life issues for
2 families and the real pain if a facility is
3 closed that was working and being successful for
4 their probably in most cases adult children.
5 Although I guess also children children.
6 And there is additional funding for
7 facilities within the "O" agencies. But I am not
8 aware of the Governor making any commitments to
9 reopening specific facilities, and I don't
10 believe we got that far into the weeds in our
11 one-house.
12 SENATOR HELMING: Mr. President, if
13 the sponsor will continue to yield.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
15 sponsor yield?
16 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
18 sponsor yields.
19 SENATOR HELMING: Senator Krueger,
20 continuing along the same lines, the CDPAP
21 program, Consumer Directed Personal Assistance
22 Program, this Medicaid program -- I know you're
23 familiar with it -- provides services to
24 chronically ill or physically disabled
25 individuals who have a medical need. These folks
1351
1 cannot live in their own homes without services.
2 They cannot. We are at a crisis with that
3 program. The Center for Disability Rights is
4 right around the corner from my district office.
5 I hear from people, I met with a woman on Friday
6 and she had this to say to me. She said: "Pam,
7 I'm at the end of the rope, I don't know what to
8 do." She needs 24/7 care. She said, "I'm
9 thinking about trying to commit a crime so I
10 could get into jail and get the services that I
11 need."
12 Is there anything in this budget
13 that increases the ability for folks in the CDPAP
14 program to increase the wages, to restore
15 benefits to the people who work in those
16 programs?
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: So yes, one of
18 the major initiatives in our one-house bill is
19 increased revenue for salary increases for people
20 who are working in home care, which will include
21 through CDPAP as well as through other
22 traditional models. So absolutely, more money
23 for staffing.
24 But there was also some changes the
25 state made in the number of CDPAP intermediary
1352
1 agencies, and there's some concern about that.
2 And so we sort of slowed that down a bit also
3 within our one-house.
4 And we also invested some money into
5 capital for home care facilities as well. Which
6 would actually be more a fit with the previous
7 question you asked about the group homes.
8 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you,
9 Senator Krueger.
10 If the sponsor will yield for one
11 more question.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
13 sponsor yield?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR HELMING: Changing topics
18 here a little bit. The Gananda Central School
19 District received significantly less Foundation
20 Aid per student when it's compared to similar
21 schools. Even wealthier school districts receive
22 almost double what Gananda receives per student.
23 In the past budgets I have seen
24 carveouts for schools who have needed an
25 additional bump-up -- Yonkers, Rochester City
1353
1 School District and others. Is there anything in
2 this budget for the Gananda Central School
3 District? I know they've highlighted their
4 plight to myself, to the chair of the Education
5 Committee and others.
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: I don't know them
7 personally, so I'm just going to check with this
8 gentleman.
9 So my understanding is everybody got
10 at least a 3 percent increase in Foundation Aid
11 base funding. And that you should probably have
12 a chat with the Education chair, Shelley Mayer,
13 about what other possibilities there might be.
14 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
15 Mr. President. Thank you. And that has been
16 done for the last couple of years. And I know
17 the school district has reached out numerous
18 times as well.
19 That does it for my questions.
20 Thank you, Senator Krueger.
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
23 Martucci.
24 SENATOR MARTUCCI: Thank you,
25 Mr. President.
1354
1 My question is with respect to TED
2 Part RR, if the Senator would yield.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
4 Krueger, do you yield?
5 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do. But remind
6 me what Part RR is.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
8 sponsor yields.
9 SENATOR MARTUCCI: I'll tell you
10 about it. Extender producer responsibility.
11 SENATOR KRUEGER: (Inaudible.)
12 (Laughter.)
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: -- it's amazing.
14 SENATOR MARTUCCI: I'm trying to
15 make this more efficient, because I've only got
16 six minutes left. So I'm going to use it well.
17 All right. My question is with
18 respect to municipalities that currently have
19 recycling programs. If a municipality operates
20 its own recycling program, is it able to opt out
21 of EPR?
22 (Pause.)
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes. It's a new
24 agreement between the producers and the
25 municipalities, and the municipalities can opt
1355
1 out.
2 SENATOR MARTUCCI: So if the
3 Senator would yield.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
5 sponsor yield?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
8 sponsor yields.
9 SENATOR MARTUCCI: Through you,
10 Mr. President. So if the municipality is able to
11 opt out, or chooses for some reason not to opt
12 out, is there anything that is included in the
13 language that's before us today that would
14 somehow protect or dictate what happens to the
15 collectively bargained workforce?
16 SENATOR KRUEGER: No, it doesn't
17 address collective bargaining. They would have
18 to work that out at home.
19 SENATOR MARTUCCI: Thank you,
20 Mr. President. I have one other question.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
22 sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
25 sponsor yields.
1356
1 SENATOR MARTUCCI: Thank you,
2 Senator.
3 I'm going to pivot to Part SS, which
4 has to do with a ban on certain packaging.
5 That's a part of this proposal as well.
6 Has there been any consideration
7 paid to carveouts, specific carveouts with
8 respect to packaging that's used for medical
9 purposes such as storing of cellular therapies,
10 cryogenics, and even the storage and distribution
11 of vaccines? Which we've clearly seen over the
12 past year is pretty important.
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: It's not in the
14 Governor's proposal. But apparently the industry
15 has been approaching us as well with concerns
16 about medical packaging. So I think we're very
17 open to learning more about this.
18 SENATOR MARTUCCI: Thank you,
19 Mr. President. I thank the Senator for answering
20 our questions. And I look forward to those
21 conversations in the weeks to come. Thank you.
22 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
24 you, Senator.
25 Senator Tedisco.
1357
1 SENATOR TEDISCO: Will the Senator
2 yield for a few questions?
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
4 sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR KRUEGER: Of course.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
7 sponsor yields.
8 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you.
9 First of all, let me let you know I
10 checked the drawer for Senator Gianaris's old
11 desk. There's nothing in it today, so I'm not
12 going to be using anything in there. So he can
13 relax.
14 I want to ask you very quickly, what
15 are the two largest spending and revenue parts of
16 this budget? The two largest.
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: Without even
18 looking, it's education and healthcare.
19 SENATOR TEDISCO: Yeah. Or social
20 services? Excuse me.
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: No, social
22 services are nothing compared to education and
23 healthcare.
24 SENATOR TEDISCO: Okay. Now, you
25 said in one of your comments earlier on, I think
1358
1 it was with Senator O'Mara, "The state is very
2 good at making very large adjustments quickly and
3 effectively."
4 Do you remember a man named Willie
5 Sutton?
6 SENATOR KRUEGER: I don't know him
7 personally, but I remember the reference. That
8 he would rob banks because that's where the money
9 was.
10 SENATOR TEDISCO: That's where the
11 money was. And I don't know if he really said --
12 excuse me.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
14 Krueger, do you yield?
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: I do yield.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
17 Krueger yields.
18 SENATOR TEDISCO: I don't know if
19 he really said that, but they say he really said
20 that.
21 And what I want to ask you is about
22 one time not so far back -- you and I were here,
23 several members were here -- we had a terrible
24 deficit, a terrible deficit. There must have
25 been some bad budgets leading up to that deficit.
1359
1 And we corrected that deficit. And you probably
2 remember how we corrected that deficit. When I
3 say large amounts, and you said education, it was
4 through taking money from education.
5 And when we took that money from
6 education, we developed an unbelievable, terrible
7 gap in providing funding for kids and schools and
8 special education. And it was a hard process to
9 get back to the point where we actually closed
10 that gap.
11 Would you call that a very good -- a
12 very large adjustment, very quickly, to solve a
13 problem?
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: So if I had my
15 druthers, no, I would not choose to cut education
16 funding or healthcare funding.
17 SENATOR TEDISCO: Would the
18 gentlelady --
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
20 sponsor yield?
21 SENATOR KRUEGER: I certainly do.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
23 sponsor yields.
24 SENATOR TEDISCO: So we're not
25 always very good at making large adjustments.
1360
1 SENATOR KRUEGER: Well, apparently
2 we're good at making them. We may not always
3 make the right decisions. But we made the
4 decisions when we had to, yeah.
5 But I would agree -- I don't think
6 that I was the Governor that day, or any day, but
7 I don't think that our cutting education funding
8 proved to be a very good move for us.
9 SENATOR TEDISCO: Will the Senator
10 yield.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Does the
12 sponsor yield?
13 SENATOR KRUEGER: Of course.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR TEDISCO: Just help me one
17 more time. The difference between the Governor's
18 budget and our budget, with numbers and
19 percentages of increase. We've increased it by a
20 percentage and we've increased it by numbers.
21 What's the percentage and the number?
22 SENATOR KRUEGER: We increased it
23 by $9 billion over what the Governor proposed.
24 And that percentage increase would be
25 11.1 percent.
1361
1 SENATOR TEDISCO: Eleven point --
2 SENATOR KRUEGER: -- .1 percent
3 over the Governor's.
4 SENATOR TEDISCO: Would the
5 gentlewoman yield.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Krueger, do you yield?
8 SENATOR KRUEGER: I'm sorry, 11.1
9 over -- over this year's budget. But her
10 proposed budget goes up 3.2 percent; ours goes up
11 11.1 percent.
12 SENATOR TEDISCO: This has gotta be
13 the last question, and I'll tell you why -- would
14 she yield?
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
16 Krueger, do you yield?
17 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I'm happy to
18 yield.
19 SENATOR TEDISCO: Last question,
20 and I'll tell you why I'm going to ask it.
21 Because we have the worst inflation in 40 years.
22 Every dollar -- we talked about the gasoline tax
23 and cutting the tax, but it's really the cost of
24 a gallon of gasoline also. Home heating, buying
25 groceries, paying the kids' tuition, paying our
1362
1 car payments -- everything is chipping away at
2 every dollar.
3 I want to ask you -- the one thing I
4 don't hear a lot about when we're providing all
5 this funding -- an 11 percent increase,
6 $9 billion -- is the beleaguered property tax
7 owner. Are we doing anything about the STAR
8 program to enhance it and help them out through
9 that? It's been a very good program. I remember
10 when I was in the minority, we fought for it, we
11 helped development -- we helped to get it across
12 and save 35 or 40 billion dollars. But when you
13 eat away at all those other things -- and I'll
14 tell you why it's important.
15 You've got young people before the
16 pandemic and leading into the pandemic who bought
17 homes. They're looking at their mortgage now,
18 they're looking at their tax payment now, and
19 they're saying, Wait a second, I don't think I
20 can afford to keep my house anymore.
21 But above and beyond that, even with
22 the Enhanced program, we have seniors who are
23 calling me and saying, "I'm on a fixed income,
24 I've been on a fixed income for a long time."
25 Maybe just Social Security, maybe just a very
1363
1 small pension system. "I could afford to pay for
2 my house over 40 or 45 years, Senator," they tell
3 me, "but I don't think I can keep it now because
4 I can't afford to pay the taxes even with the
5 STAR program in place."
6 So we talk about regressive taxes?
7 My mom died at 97. She lived for many years --
8 my father worked in the foundry for 30 years to
9 bring up three children and to be able to own a
10 home. She lived on Social Security of 12 or 13
11 or $14,000 for many, many years. My father
12 passed away at 67. She lived to be 97.
13 Her house had a value. Was it fair
14 to charge her with the fellow next to her who
15 might have been making $100,000 or $200,000 at
16 the General Electric as an executive? It's a
17 terribly regressive tax.
18 Why is there nothing done to enhance
19 that -- I'm a little bit interested in helping
20 people out with their heating bills, that's fine.
21 But that's not going to cover the cost of the
22 expansion of the taxes eating into their small
23 pensions and eating into their small Social
24 Security.
25 SENATOR KRUEGER: So Mr. President,
1364
1 I wanted to thank Senator Tedisco for that
2 question. We put $2.2 billion into expanding
3 STAR in our one-house budget. We still have
4 400 million that we put in last year to continue
5 a circuit-breaker for exactly this population.
6 So combined, it's $2.6 billion in property tax
7 reductions through STAR and circuit-breaker.
8 And we made adjustments to the
9 Governor's proposal to target more of it to
10 people who have less than $75,000 in income and
11 people who have -- for people under 75,000 there
12 would be an additional $942 in STAR. For people
13 75,000 to 150,000 in income, an additional 683 in
14 STAR. For people 150,000 to 200,000, an
15 additional 393 in STAR. And for the Enhanced
16 program, an additional $800 on top of the
17 existing STAR, on top of the -- for those who are
18 eligible, the circuit-breaker that we expanded
19 last year and continued it to this year.
20 So I'm very proud of my conference's
21 commitment to trying to address exactly what
22 you're describing for exactly that population.
23 SENATOR TEDISCO: Will the
24 gentlewoman yield.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1365
1 Tedisco, this will be the last question that we
2 permit.
3 Senator Krueger, do you yield?
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Yes, I will.
5 SENATOR TEDISCO: Now, what
6 percentage would that be as compared to the size
7 of the budget increase? I mean, you said 9
8 percent for the budget. What increase would that
9 be to help the homeowners?
10 (Pause.)
11 SENATOR KRUEGER: So we're
12 increasing the budget in total 9 billion, but
13 2.2 billion is going to the new property tax
14 reductions.
15 So if you look at the total, not
16 just the General Fund, it's a $13 billion
17 increase, of which you've got the 2.2 billion
18 STAR, the 400 million continuing circuit-breaker.
19 We also -- the gas tax is also
20 relief, we think, for a very similar population
21 of people.
22 And we accepted the Governor's
23 proposal to accelerate the phase-in of middle
24 class tax deductions as well.
25 So I actually think we have a very
1366
1 robust package of tax reductions here.
2 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
4 you, Senator Tedisco.
5 Are there any other Senators wishing
6 to be heard?
7 Seeing and hearing none, debate is
8 closed.
9 Senator Gianaris.
10 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
11 Mr. President.
12 I want to thank the members for
13 their cooperation.
14 Just as a remainder, the rules say a
15 resolution can be debated for 30 minutes. We are
16 now on two and a half hours. So we've, as I
17 noted, been very accommodating.
18 As we move into vote explanations,
19 we have a number of members who will be
20 explaining their votes on both sides of the
21 aisle, and I know Mr. President is going to be
22 very strict with the two-minute vote explanation
23 rule.
24 So just to let all the members know
25 how this is going to go for the next probably
1367
1 over an hour, with the number of people on the
2 list.
3 Thank you, Mr. President.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Call the
5 roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: As
8 mentioned by Senator Gianaris, pursuant to
9 Rule 9, Section 3, subsection (e), please,
10 colleagues, kindly but firmly keep your comments
11 to two minutes.
12 Senator Rivera to explain his vote.
13 SENATOR RIVERA: Thank you,
14 Mr. President.
15 As I stated earlier, the most
16 important part here is that we have to think
17 about the fact that for the last 10 years the
18 budgets have been about disinvestment, about
19 austerity. And so I am happy to say that the
20 Governor's budget proposal was a great beginning,
21 but our one-house budget proposal is many, many
22 more steps forward.
23 We talked about some of the things
24 during my debate, but I just wanted to mention a
25 couple more. The bonus language for workers, we
1368
1 modified to make sure that we include frontline
2 workers. We also make sure that we address the
3 benefits cliff.
4 We repealed the Medicaid global cap,
5 as I said. We increased the capital program. So
6 we added an additional $400 million in resources,
7 so we have pots for hospitals all across the
8 state and for -- we took 25 percent of that and
9 we save it for safety net -- for a set-aside for
10 capital funding to be directed to community-based
11 organizations. We want to make sure they don't
12 get left out.
13 We expanded the Executive's one-year
14 postpartum coverage proposal to include all
15 residents of New York State. We added language
16 to create parity in dispensing fees for
17 pharmacies. Thank you, Senator Skoufis, for that
18 language. We omitted the Executive's telehealth
19 parity proposal so we would expand telehealth
20 with a few bills of mine. We enacted Fair Pay
21 for Home Care to establish home care worker pay.
22 We did all of these things as -- and
23 this, Mr. President, is because this is what our
24 belief is as to how important taking these steps
25 forward, to make sure that we can have the
1369
1 disinvestment and the austerity that we've had
2 for the last decade go back. We want to make
3 sure that we take many steps in the opposite
4 direction. We're doing that today.
5 I'm incredibly happy to vote in the
6 affirmative for this. And that's a minute and
7 32 seconds, Mr. President. Thank you.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
9 Rivera to be recorded in the affirmative.
10 Senator Harckham to explain his
11 vote.
12 SENATOR HARCKHAM: Thank you very
13 much, Mr. President.
14 New Yorkers all over the state are
15 hurting. And there's a lot of conversation about
16 what this budget does for ordinary New Yorkers.
17 And I would just take a minute to have a slightly
18 different take on one of my colleagues from
19 across the aisle, who said this budget had
20 nothing for hardworking New Yorkers.
21 I would suggest the opposite. This
22 budget is all about hardworking New Yorkers,
23 starting with record education funding to lift
24 our children up and hold the line on property
25 taxes. Continuing to expand pre-K outside of
1370
1 New York City. Record increases in childcare so
2 that folks can go back to work. You ask people
3 in businesses the number-one reason why jobs are
4 open right now, it's because folks cannot afford
5 safe, affordable childcare.
6 And then you put in what we're doing
7 for small businesses, continuing the grant
8 program, the small business tax cut. Let's look
9 at the middle-class tax cut. Let's look at the
10 property tax relief that we just spoke about on
11 the floor.
12 So there are many, many things here
13 that I think are very favorable to invest in our
14 families as we come out of the recovery.
15 Finally I want to point to one other
16 thing. Let's talk about OASAS, which I oversee
17 on the Committee of Alcoholism and Substance
18 Abuse. What other agency do we ever remember in
19 this chamber getting a 50 percent increase in
20 their budget during the budget cycle? Which is
21 amazing.
22 But it's one thing to put money into
23 the budget, but if the system is not working for
24 people, we have to change it. And that's why I'm
25 glad colleagues have put in the merger of OASAS
1371
1 and OMH, because 70 percent of people who present
2 with a substance use disorder also have an
3 underlying mental issue that they are
4 self-medicating for.
5 So there are so many good things in
6 this budget. I appreciate colleagues, the
7 Majority Leader and our staff, Senator Krueger
8 for her performance here today on the floor. I
9 vote aye.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
11 Harckham to be recorded in the affirmative.
12 Senator Ramos to explain her vote.
13 SENATOR RAMOS: Thank you,
14 Mr. President. And good afternoon, everyone.
15 I rise to explain my vote in the
16 affirmative. I'm so proud to see us take
17 tremendous steps away from the Executive proposal
18 and actually stand up for working-class
19 New Yorkers.
20 As the chair of the Labor Committee,
21 I especially want to tout the $50 million in
22 workforce training that we're facilitating, and
23 also $22.5 million to Cornell in order to focus
24 on the Climate Jobs Institute and a cannabis
25 workforce initiative.
1372
1 We also managed to get prevailing
2 wage into the Environmental Bond Act, which is
3 great.
4 I also am happy to see that we were
5 able to build on the Farmworker Fair Labor
6 Practices Act that I passed in 2019. We're
7 solidifying the path for them to reach a 40-hour
8 work week with guaranteed overtime after that,
9 and some improvements to PERB in order to help
10 create more unions like we've been able to win at
11 Pindar Vineyards in Suffolk County.
12 I also want to of course talk a
13 little bit about childcare. As a mom, I made
14 this a priority of mine during this budget cycle.
15 And so much of the work that you and I have done,
16 President, on this bill actually has made it into
17 this budget. We're finally eliminating the work
18 requirement for New Yorkers to be able to qualify
19 for childcare, including for our undocumented
20 neighbors. And we're covering children five and
21 below as we continue to roll out universal pre-K
22 without a gap in between 4-and-5-year-olds, which
23 is really important in keeping kids safe, of
24 course helping parents return back into the
25 workforce, and helping our childcare providers.
1373
1 Which I still think we should have created a wage
2 floor for them, and that's something we're going
3 to continue to fight for.
4 But all that being said, I believe
5 that as we talk about a just recovery for all,
6 really as communities of color and especially
7 women of color, we know what it's like to get one
8 bite at the apple and still leave so many needs
9 unmet. So with no solutions for excluded workers
10 and no guarantee for a living wage for childcare
11 workers, it actually does leave a lot of work for
12 us to do.
13 But I want to thank our Majority
14 Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, all of the
15 advocates, my staff, central staff, and everybody
16 that has worked on this document.
17 I'm very proud to vote in the
18 affirmative. Thank you.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
20 Ramos to be recorded in the affirmative.
21 Senator Ryan to explain his vote.
22 SENATOR RYAN: Thank you,
23 Mr. President. Good afternoon.
24 As we rebuild our economy
25 post-pandemic, we are passing our one-house
1374
1 budget resolution today that makes investment in
2 the people of the State of New York. Lots of
3 good news for the people. Three billion dollars
4 in childcare -- historic investment.
5 One-point-four billion dollars to keep helping
6 landlords and renters. And as we accelerate our
7 middle-class tax cuts, we're going to put more
8 money into people's pockets. The budget takes
9 action to lower the cost of living for
10 New Yorkers during this difficult economic time.
11 As chair of the Libraries Committee,
12 I'm excited to say our budget increases funding
13 for our Library Construction Fund to $45 million.
14 That's money that will hit the street and hit our
15 communities quickly. It will also allow
16 libraries across New York State to get going on
17 these capital projects that have been backed up.
18 And with the dire situation we're
19 seeing around the world right now, very thankful
20 to see a $7 million increase in money to help
21 refugees resettle in America. We hope for peace
22 in the world, but we're often let down by that.
23 And when people are displaced, the people of
24 New York State will be ready to help those
25 displaced.
1375
1 We made a big investment in
2 broadband. We included in the budget my
3 legislation called the WIRED Broadband Act. It's
4 a good piece of legislation. It's a
5 comprehensive plan to utilize federal and state
6 funding in a manner that's both efficient and
7 transparent and will deliver a product that we
8 can be proud of to the people of New York State.
9 The proposal includes labor
10 standards that will ensure the creation of
11 good-paying jobs in the fiber and broadband
12 development fields. It includes prevailing wage,
13 MWBE requirements, and other critical safeguards.
14 And as we connect more people to
15 broadband, we must do it in a responsible way
16 that creates good-paying jobs.
17 And I'd be remiss if I didn't thank
18 the leader for her help throughout this process,
19 and to compliment Senator Krueger for the many
20 hours that she spent on marathon Zoom calls to
21 put together this budget. I really couldn't
22 believe how you stuck to all those hearings. And
23 of course to our staff, who works tirelessly
24 throughout the year, especially during budget
25 season.
1376
1 Thank you very much.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
3 Ryan to be recorded in the affirmative.
4 Senator Liu to explain his vote.
5 SENATOR LIU: Mr. President, I am
6 so proud to be part of this Senate resolution
7 about this budget.
8 You know, last year for the very
9 first time we fulfilled a court mandate to fully
10 fund school aid for our primary and secondary
11 schools throughout the State of New York, an
12 historic three-year arrangement that we are
13 making good on the second year thereof. And next
14 year I fully expect that we will continue to
15 follow through also, following through on a
16 commitment to expand prekindergarten statewide.
17 This year we expand on that
18 commitment to education and our state's future by
19 investing a historic $1.1 billion for public
20 universities in the State of New York, split
21 between SUNY and CUNY. This money will provide,
22 at long last, sufficient funding to recruit and
23 retain a significant number of new full-time
24 faculty members for our public universities;
25 increase the pay for adjunct professors, who we
1377
1 rely upon immensely; and perhaps most
2 importantly, eliminate these ridiculous fees that
3 our students have had to suffer under for many
4 years, as well as beginning to reduce the tuition
5 that they are forced to pay.
6 As we know, for many years now, at
7 least two decades, the state has reduced its
8 share of operating aid for our public
9 universities, relying more and more on student
10 tuition. We need to start reversing that now.
11 And one other note, you know, just
12 over the weekend a woman, a 67-year-old woman in
13 Yonkers was pummeled 125 times, punched by a
14 perpetrator who called her an Asian witch, but
15 with a B., and spat on her and descended on her
16 like who knows.
17 This is yet another instance of
18 anti-Asian hate. I'm so proud that this Senate
19 is supporting the AAPI Equity Budget that will
20 finally provide that kind of support to the
21 growing Asian American Pacific Islander community
22 we have throughout the State of New York so that
23 people in our community will not be as vulnerable
24 as they have been.
25 Granted, this is just a Senate
1378
1 budget resolution. I look forward to fighting
2 for it in the final budget.
3 Thank you, Mr. President.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
5 Liu to be recorded in the affirmative.
6 Senator Brisport to explain his
7 vote.
8 SENATOR BRISPORT: Thank you,
9 Mr. President. And thank you to my colleagues,
10 to the Senate central staff, and especially to
11 our leader for all their work and diligence in
12 drafting this budget resolution.
13 Colleagues, as our state continues
14 to have the highest wealth inequality in the
15 nation, a great many of our constituents are
16 wondering how they will keep their heads above
17 water. I am frustrated that this resolution
18 raises no additional revenue from the ultra-rich,
19 who should be required to contribute their fair
20 share towards addressing these dark and difficult
21 times.
22 I am nevertheless heartened by some
23 truly crucial measures we have been fighting for
24 here, including fair pay for home care workers, a
25 New Deal for CUNY, as well as the elimination of
1379
1 the 421-a boondoggle for wealthy developers.
2 As the chair of the Committee on
3 Children and Families, I have been especially
4 focused on the childcare crisis facing New York.
5 For ten weeks I toured our state, listening to
6 parents and childcare providers share input on
7 the situation, and many of you joined me.
8 With remarkable consistency, what we
9 heard was this. In every corner of our state --
10 in rural farming communities, in suburban
11 townships, in dense cities -- the childcare
12 industry is collapsing. Chronic underfunding and
13 reliance upon the unpaid and underpaid labor of
14 childcare providers, especially black women and
15 women of color, has led us to this crisis.
16 As one childcare educator said:
17 When you take something for granted long enough,
18 it will soon disappear. That is exactly what's
19 happening, and it's happening fast.
20 I believe this resolution could go
21 further in addressing this crisis. However, I am
22 proud that it devotes billions of badly needed
23 dollars toward childcare and that it starts us on
24 the process of finally building a universal
25 childcare system. If we are to stop the rapid
1380
1 collapse of the childcare sector upon which our
2 entire economy rests, we cannot allow the
3 Governor to remove or delay even one dollar of
4 this funding in the final budget.
5 I thank the leader for including it
6 and urge her to protect every last dollar of it
7 as though our families, our economy and the very
8 future of our state depend on it, because they
9 most certainly do.
10 I vote aye on this resolution.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
12 Brisport to be recorded in the affirmative.
13 Senator Mayer to explain her veto.
14 SENATOR MAYER: Thank you,
15 Mr. President.
16 I proudly vote aye on this
17 resolution, and I want to thank Majority Leader
18 Stewart-Cousins and Senator Krueger for her
19 leadership.
20 You know, as the chair of Education,
21 I've been around the state and spoken to
22 superintendents upstate, downstate, and of course
23 the City of New York, our suburban communities,
24 our rural communities and our urban communities
25 outside New York City. And universally, there
1381
1 are two takeaways. One, they're incredibly
2 grateful that we started the commitment to full
3 funding of Foundation Aid and that we are
4 continuing. And two, they're terribly worried
5 about their students as they return to school
6 after the challenges of COVID.
7 And to the credit of my colleagues,
8 we are addressing both of those things. We are
9 in the second year of our commitment to fully
10 funding Foundation Aid. We are building on our
11 commitment to universal pre-K outside New York
12 City. We are investing in career and technical
13 education. We are ensuring that our special ed
14 schools get the money that they deserve. They
15 are basically public schools in different
16 settings. They are entitled to the money of our
17 public schools.
18 But most important, we are
19 recognizing that the mental health, the social
20 and emotional health of our children must be
21 addressed as they recover from COVID, and we are
22 investing in it in a creative and bold way.
23 I also want to say that we are
24 dealing with climate change in the school context
25 by acknowledging the need to move to EV vehicles
1382
1 for our schools, but working with the
2 stakeholders to make it work.
3 And coupled with our investment in
4 childcare and an investment in higher ed, in SUNY
5 and CUNY, we are recognizing the state's
6 obligation, from infancy to graduation and
7 beyond, that education is the power to give every
8 child the opportunity to achieve their dreams and
9 their ambitions. When we see what is happening
10 in the rest of the world, we cannot forget the
11 power of our democracy and the power of education
12 to transform a life into independence and
13 self-determination.
14 For that reason, I vote aye.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
16 Mayer to be recorded in the affirmative.
17 Senator Oberacker to explain his
18 vote.
19 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you,
20 Mr. President.
21 Governor Hochul's proposed budget
22 included record spending, but that was a bargain
23 compared to the plan being advanced by the Senate
24 Majority that adds another 9 billion, inflating
25 overall state spending to a nearly $225 billion
1383
1 budget.
2 There are positives in this budget
3 that will pay immediate dividends across the
4 state that I can support: Repeal of the fiber
5 optic right-of-way tax that is stifling broadband
6 expansion; additional funding for CHIPS to help
7 fund local roads and improvements; and the
8 accelerated phase-in of the middle-class tax cut.
9 However, the overall amount of the
10 spending is unsustainable, and tax hikes are
11 inevitable. The budget blows through reserve
12 funds at an unsustainable rate and will leave our
13 state in a highly precarious financial position
14 going forward. This is the very definition of an
15 election year budget, and it is not fiscally
16 responsible.
17 New York City is losing population
18 at a record rate, and if Albany fails to make
19 major changes to this out-of-control spending
20 plan, more people will be on their way out.
21 Because no one, no one wants to be here when that
22 bill comes due.
23 And for that reason, Mr. President,
24 I am voting in the negative. Thank you.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
1384
1 Oberacker to be recorded in the negative.
2 Senator Weik to explain her vote.
3 SENATOR WEIK: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 In reading this one-house
6 resolution, it is disappointing to me that the
7 bill does not include language to address any of
8 the changes to bail reform law. It does nothing
9 to address the changes to discovery reform law.
10 This proposal does nothing to provide judges with
11 discretion when it comes to setting bail for
12 dangerous defendants, a proposal several of my
13 colleagues and New York City Mayor Adams all
14 advocated for.
15 And finally, I can only hope that
16 the final budget -- excuse me. This proposal
17 does nothing to collect data to study the impact
18 of bail reform on public safety.
19 And finally, I can only hope that
20 the final budget will include changes to bail
21 reform and discovery laws as we saw were so
22 important to New Yorkers in last November's
23 election when they vehemently expressed their
24 disgust that they are not being protected and
25 that they have no rights and that criminals are
1385
1 being put before victims.
2 And for that reason, I vote in the
3 negative.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
5 Weik to be recorded in the negative.
6 Senator Brouk to explain her vote.
7 SENATOR BROUK: Thank you,
8 Mr. President.
9 This budget resolution invests in
10 our future, in our families and working people
11 and in care for our most vulnerable residents.
12 In speaking with the residents of my
13 district in the Rochester area, I hear the same
14 stories whether they live in a city, in the
15 suburbs, or in a more rural part of upstate.
16 People are looking for certainty. They're
17 looking for support. They're looking for hope.
18 This budget resolution invests in
19 hope for our future. We're making historic
20 investments in childcare because as a society we
21 have finally acknowledged that quality, reliable
22 childcare is economic development and that no
23 state can thrive without it. In Monroe County we
24 have thousands of job openings that can't be
25 filled until parents have a safe, reliable and
1386
1 affordable place to send their children. Today,
2 this resolution creates that for them.
3 The Senate budget also invests in
4 older children, through expansion of our career
5 and technical education programs. These CTE
6 programs provide academic and technical
7 instruction that will prepare our young people
8 for real-world jobs right here in New York State.
9 This budget expands funding so that we can
10 recruit and retain quality instructors and so
11 that no longer will students have months-long
12 waitlists to join these programs.
13 And finally, not to be forgotten,
14 once again this Senate has kept its promise to
15 equitably fund public schools by continuing to
16 invest in Foundation Aid.
17 This budget resolution does so much
18 to support New Yorkers in need. And as chair of
19 the Senate Committee on Mental Health, I'd be
20 remiss to not mention the historic investments we
21 are making to support New Yorkers' mental health
22 needs. For too long, under the leadership of a
23 previous administration, New York dismantled its
24 mental health care system. We closed inpatient
25 treatment beds. We failed to invest in
1387
1 community-based programs. And we systematically
2 underpaid our workers.
3 Today we reverse that course. I'm
4 proud that this budget includes a historic
5 $22 million increase to restore 200 inpatient
6 mental health beds. And that after decades of
7 minuscule investment, this Senate gives mental
8 health workers not one but two years of
9 cost-of-living increases of 5.4 percent each
10 year.
11 I want to again thank you -- thank
12 all of the advocates, the staff, and especially
13 our Senate leadership for their tireless work in
14 getting us to this place, and I look forward to
15 making sure as much as possible of this
16 resolution is enacted in our final budget.
17 And I vote aye. Thank you.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
19 Brouk to be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Senator May to explain her vote.
21 SENATOR MAY: Thank you,
22 Mr. President.
23 I am beaming because Fair Pay for
24 Home Care is in the Senate one-house budget. I
25 am so grateful to the Majority Leader for being
1388
1 an early and consistent champion and to my
2 colleagues for recognizing just how crucial it is
3 to support home care workers.
4 Shout out, too, to the Caring
5 Majority, AARP, 1199, and all the tireless and
6 creative advocates who have made sure everyone
7 knows we need a robust home care system to keep
8 older and disabled New Yorkers healthy and safe
9 at home. And that it's a good use of taxpayer
10 dollars with a very high return on investment.
11 But especially I want to thank the
12 home care workers themselves, who have been doing
13 the work for years out of dedication and love,
14 even though they struggle to pay the rent, buy
15 gas, and put food on the table. To the family
16 members who have given up your jobs to care for a
17 loved one, our one-house supports home care but
18 it also supports a tax credit to recognize your
19 sacrifices.
20 Let me finish with a special
21 appreciation of my constituents Michelle Spady
22 and Sally Johnston. Without Michelle, Sally
23 wouldn't be able to get out of bed and into her
24 wheelchair each day, let alone have baths,
25 healthy meals, or fresh air. Michelle is there
1389
1 for Sally, through snow and rain, no matter what
2 issues she might face in her own life.
3 With this one-house resolution, the
4 Senate resoundingly says: To you, Sally, you
5 deserve adequate care in your home. And you,
6 Michelle, deserve the dignity of a living wage.
7 I proudly vote aye.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
9 May to be recorded in the affirmative.
10 Senator Skoufis to explain his vote.
11 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Thank you very
12 much, Mr. President.
13 And I also want to extend my
14 gratitude to the Majority Leader as well as
15 Senator Krueger for getting us to this point.
16 Heading into this process, I felt
17 strongly that this needs to be a budget that
18 addressed the kitchen-table issues that our
19 families across New York State have been facing.
20 And at a time when paychecks are not going as far
21 as they used to, at a time when people are paying
22 more at the gas pump, at a time when we're coming
23 out of a pandemic, at a time when kids are
24 getting back into the classroom after virtual
25 learning the past couple of years, this was our
1390
1 time as legislators to put together a budget that
2 addressed those core issues.
3 And we've done that. And so if
4 you're interested in a budget that cuts property
5 taxes for middle-class families, this is your
6 budget. If you're interested in a budget that
7 cuts income tax rates for our middle-class
8 families, this is your budget. If you're a small
9 business owner looking for some relief, this is a
10 budget that cuts small business taxes. If you're
11 one of the millions of New Yorkers who's paying
12 through the nose at the pump, this budget
13 provides relief through a gas tax holiday.
14 If you're one of the many, many New
15 Yorkers who looks at the subsidies and the
16 giveaways that are thrown around to the tune of
17 billions of dollars every year, while you are
18 working day and night to pay your bills, finally,
19 this one-house budget addresses that, and we will
20 audit every tax incentive that flows through ESD
21 that has, to date, been held unaccountable.
22 If you are one of the millions of
23 New Yorkers who's been looking on -- wonderful
24 UPK program, where's mine? -- this budget
25 addresses that too with a dramatic expansion of
1391
1 universal pre-K throughout New York State.
2 As my good colleague and friend just
3 noted, a dramatic investment in home care, a
4 dramatic investment in childcare. Finally --
5 this has been a pet issue of mine -- finally,
6 this one-house budget takes a hard look at and
7 addresses the FIT, the Fashion Institute of
8 Technology issue that's been ripping off the
9 suburbs for decades now.
10 (Laughter; applause.)
11 SENATOR SKOUFIS: And I also want
12 to thank Senator Serrano and the leadership for a
13 significant investment in our parks' capital
14 line, which is crucially important to getting a
15 number of Hudson Valley improvements and projects
16 across the finish line this year.
17 I vote aye because this is a
18 one-house budget that is put on the kitchen
19 tables of every single middle-class and
20 working-class family in the state. And I thank
21 my colleagues and leadership for helping get that
22 done.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
24 Skoufis to be recorded in the affirmative.
25 Senator Boyle to explain his vote.
1392
1 SENATOR BOYLE: Thank you,
2 Mr. President, to explain my vote.
3 Senator Skoufis, I agree with the
4 FIT provision, but that's about it in this bill.
5 New York State is the fourth-largest
6 state by population. California is like another
7 country, and Texas and Florida and then New York,
8 obviously. This budget proposal by the Majority
9 is larger than the state budgets of Texas and
10 Florida combined. To put it in some perspective,
11 this spends approximately or proposes 225
12 billion. I was elected in 1994 to the Assembly.
13 The State Budget that year was $32 billion.
14 In one political lifetime, we're
15 talking more than $200 billion -- way, way beyond
16 the rate of inflation, I can tell you that much.
17 Because we're spending this much,
18 we're taxing this much. People are fleeing our
19 state. That's why Texas, California and Florida
20 have more people than we do, because a lot of the
21 residents are leaving, moving there. We cannot
22 afford this rate of spending.
23 I vote in the negative.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
25 Boyle to be recorded in the negative.
1393
1 Senator Hinchey to explain her vote.
2 SENATOR HINCHEY: Thank you,
3 Mr. President.
4 As one of the Senators representing
5 upstate communities and upstate areas, I am
6 incredibly proud that this budget resolution
7 brings real equity to our upstate areas, from
8 historic investments in rural and upstate
9 housing, including the development of small
10 rental units -- something that we don't talk
11 about and has not been funded, I don't think
12 ever, in the history of our budgets -- to
13 expanding pre-K across our entire state. To arts
14 funding outside of New York City, to modernizing
15 our EMS services, which are crucial lifelines to
16 the communities in our rural areas, to expanding
17 fair pay -- or securing Fair Pay for Home Care.
18 Most of our communities in upstate New York do
19 not have access to home care workers because of
20 the low pay that they are given.
21 To record road funding and road
22 infrastructure, to broadband funding, including
23 my legislation to repeal the right-of-way fee, to
24 historic SUNY funding so that students in upstate
25 areas and upstate colleges get real equity in
1394
1 education. To also property tax relief for
2 homeowners and working families and middle-class
3 families across our state.
4 This is a budget that we can all be
5 proud of, because every person, no matter where
6 you live across New York State, is going to see
7 real, tangible impacts that will better their
8 lives for the future.
9 I want to thank the Majority Leader,
10 I want to thank Senator Krueger, all of the
11 staff, and everyone who has had a hand in
12 creating this budget resolution, sending a full
13 signal that no matter where you live, if you live
14 in New York City, if you live in rural
15 communities or you live in suburban communities,
16 this is a budget resolution that speaks to you.
17 For that, I vote aye. Thank you.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
19 Hinchey to be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Senator Borrello to explain his
21 vote.
22 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 Two minutes is a short time to
25 discuss something as large as this one-house
1395
1 budget, but I'll give it a shot here.
2 You know, there's good things and
3 bad things, quite frankly, in this one-house
4 budget. Good things like repealing -- finally
5 repealing the tax on fiber optic cable that the
6 Majority put in place two years ago and has
7 killed projects across New York State and really
8 set us back more than two years in rural
9 broadband. It's eerily similar not only to the
10 legislation of Senator Hinchey, which I also
11 cosponsored, but the bill that I've had in place
12 with Senator Helming for well over a year. So we
13 should have done this a long time ago. So good
14 and bad.
15 We had an interesting addition of
16 quarterly disbursements of an overtime tax credit
17 for our farmers. But the problem is we actually
18 don't even know what this program is going to be,
19 what it's going to require. So the good part is,
20 yes, quarterly would be great. The bad part is
21 we have no idea what strings will be attached to
22 that.
23 And finally, we are continuing to
24 ignore the $9.3 billion deficit that we have in
25 our Unemployment Insurance Fund. Thirty-two
1396
1 other states, 32 other states have committed
2 their federal funds to filling that hole, and we
3 are just continuing to kick that can down the
4 road, unfortunately. So we're ignoring 9 billion
5 we owe and spending 9 billion more. That's an
6 $18 billion swing in this one-house budget, as
7 far as I'm concerned.
8 But what really is happening here is
9 that we are exhausting all the federal money,
10 that one-shot money, and in essence creating
11 recurring programs. Those bills are going to
12 come due.
13 And while I would love to sit here
14 and vote one at a time on all the things I think
15 are good and bad in this one-house budget, I only
16 get one vote. And therefore the responsible vote
17 is to vote no.
18 Thank you, Mr. President.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
20 Borrello to be recorded in the negative.
21 Senator Rath to explain his vote.
22 SENATOR RATH: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 I have grave concerns with this
25 budget resolution today. The overspending
1397
1 continues in New York State to the tune of
2 23 percent this year. We actually were here last
3 year as well, and I had the same concerns. This
4 type of out-of-control spending is totally
5 unsustainable.
6 To be honest with you -- and to be
7 honest with all of my colleagues -- I don't think
8 spending is ever going to be cut from the
9 New York State budget. So at the rate at which
10 we are spending money in our state, I think
11 New Yorkers can expect a steep increase in taxes
12 at some point in the future.
13 This year the state is fortunate to
14 have a great deal of one-time revenues --
15 one-time revenues that are not being
16 appropriately spent or effectively spent across
17 our state. Instead of these one-time revenues
18 being spent on investments, they're being spent
19 on recurring expenses, recurring expenses, and
20 that's something that is fiscally irresponsible.
21 We should be using these revenues to
22 address key issues in New York State and make
23 critical infrastructure investments. Things like
24 rural broadband, which affects dozens and dozens
25 of districts across New York State.
1398
1 Despite this increase, this massive
2 increase in spending year over year, many upstate
3 initiatives are simply forgotten or passed over.
4 With so much new spending, it is hard to imagine
5 that there is so little being done in this budget
6 to lower residents' costs. In fact, I would
7 argue that many of the policies outlined in
8 today's proposal will actually increase energy
9 costs as well as other costs on the residents and
10 the businesses of our great state. I have said
11 this many times: New York has an affordability
12 crisis. And this budget does nothing to remedy
13 that affordability crisis.
14 In closing, it was said earlier
15 today that this one-house proposal was crafted
16 with hope and intelligence. Although that sounds
17 very nice, New Yorkers need a proposal that is
18 crafted with confidence and vision, confidence
19 and vision for the people of the State of
20 New York. That's what they need out of the
21 State Senate and out of the State Legislature.
22 For these reasons, I'll be voting in
23 the negative. Thank you, Mr. President.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
25 Rath to be recorded in the negative.
1399
1 Senator Stavisky to explain her
2 vote.
3 SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 And first, obviously we have to
6 thank our Majority Leader, Senator
7 Stewart-Cousins, and Senator Krueger for leading
8 us and answering the questions and being our
9 representative at the hearings.
10 In 2011 I was sitting on the other
11 side, and the state provided 46 percent of the
12 cost of higher education -- 46 percent. Last
13 year, it was 32 percent. And this budget finally
14 reverses that trend. It took 10 years,
15 11 years -- it's really taken a lot longer -- but
16 there's been a deliberate disinvestment and
17 underfunding of higher education. And this
18 budget reverses that trend.
19 For example, we're providing funding
20 for CUNY and SUNY, for the community colleges,
21 for the Opportunity programs. For those of you
22 who represent independent colleges, we're
23 providing Bundy Aid, which goes for scholarships,
24 and capital construction, HECap construction
25 money.
1400
1 We're closing the TAP gap. Last
2 year we said we'll do it in four years. This
3 year we're closing it totally. We are closing
4 the TAP gap, we're increasing the operating aid,
5 and we are trying to help the SUNY hospitals
6 because they have serious, serious problems. We
7 are paying -- we are paying the debt on their
8 loans. Every other state agency has their debt
9 paid for them. The 67 million that we're
10 investing here will help the SUNY hospitals
11 thrive.
12 And this is a budget that I think we
13 can be proud of. Proud. It's a budget that is
14 fair, it applies justice for all. So,
15 Mr. President, welcome back to our home, and I
16 vote aye.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
18 Stavisky to be recorded in the affirmative.
19 Senator Jackson to explain his vote.
20 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 My colleagues, I rise in support of
23 the one-house resolution.
24 And let me tell you what -- the most
25 important thing for myself and my constituents.
1401
1 Their safety and security is number one. And I
2 say to you, addressing gun violence in our state
3 and our municipalities is extremely important to
4 me and everyone else that I know.
5 Dealing with the mental health
6 issues. We see it all in the paper, hear it on
7 the radio, on the news. Absolutely must get it
8 under control.
9 But I thank the leadership in this
10 house for bringing forward the continuation of
11 Foundation Aid for all schools -- not only New
12 York City, but the entire State of New York.
13 Childcare for all. That is universal, and we
14 need to have it.
15 And we're dealing with the whole
16 issue of healthcare. CUNY, SUNY. Come on, you
17 know what it is. Turn on the TAP to make sure,
18 as Toby Stavisky mentioned. We talked about
19 addressing climate justice. We can't wait for
20 2050. We must deal with that now. And Fair Pay
21 for Home Care. I'll say it loud and clear,
22 because that's how important it is. People are
23 screaming for this.
24 And not only that, but we talk about
25 $5 million for PERB, the Public Employment
1402
1 Relations Board, in order to deal with the 1950
2 you have to file in paper instead of filing on
3 the Internet. Come on, this is 2020 {sic}, not
4 1950. We need to address the issues of the
5 farmworkers and filing of papers and have people
6 and professionals there that can speak in the
7 primary language that most of the farmworkers
8 speak, in Spanish. Broadband and so much more.
9 And let me just say we can't wait.
10 The time is now. I thank everyone for being
11 involved with this, from the leadership on down,
12 hearing my colleagues on the other side of the
13 aisle, hearing my colleagues here. But there's a
14 lot more that we have to do, and this is it right
15 now.
16 Thank you. I vote aye,
17 Mr. President.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
19 Jackson to be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Senator Reichlin-Melnick to explain
21 his vote.
22 SENATOR REICHLIN-MELNICK: Thank
23 you, Mr. President.
24 You know, budgets are an expression
25 of priorities. And this budget expresses the
1403
1 clear priority of the Senate that the State of
2 New York needs to be a place that works for
3 everybody and not just those who are wealthy or
4 well-connected.
5 So I'm proud to vote aye on this
6 budget, and I want to thank the leader and
7 Senator Krueger and all of the staff who put
8 their time and effort into working to make this a
9 budget that we can all be proud of, because this
10 is a budget that will work for regular
11 New Yorkers.
12 We're finally fulfilling our
13 commitment to fund our education systems, from
14 pre-K through K-12 education, with a phase-in of
15 Foundation Aid, all the way up to our colleges
16 and our community colleges. That is so important
17 as we try to build a state that's going to work
18 for everybody.
19 It's also a budget that delivers
20 real property tax relief to millions of
21 New Yorkers through a $2.2 billion investment
22 into property tax relief this year, on top of the
23 circuit-breaker program that we've already got
24 from last year's budget. And it brings back
25 income tax relief, accelerates that relief.
1404
1 Because at a time when New Yorkers are facing
2 ever-escalating costs because of inflation, we
3 know we need to take action.
4 That's why the budget also includes
5 a partial suspension of the gas tax from May 1st
6 to December 31st. Because we know that people
7 are feeling the pain at the pump, and the ones
8 who can least afford to pay that are the working
9 New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet.
10 And so we are taking action on that.
11 And at the same time, we're looking
12 to our future. We're raising the Environmental
13 Bond Act proposed by the Governor up to
14 $6 billion, because we know that if we don't take
15 action on climate change now and spend that
16 money, we're going to be paying far more down the
17 line as the costs mount from that. And so of
18 that $6 billion, 4 billion of it is set aside to
19 help combat the imminent dangers from climate
20 change.
21 So we're proud of those investments,
22 and we're proud of investments in the
23 bread-and-butter stuff that we're doing for our
24 local governments. Increasing AIM funding for
25 local governments for the first time in so long,
1405
1 that's going to help our communities, it's going
2 to help our taxpayers, who are going to see some
3 of the burden taken off local taxpayers now that
4 the state is stepping up its support.
5 So for all of these reasons,
6 Mr. President, I am proud to support this budget
7 and thank the Majority Leader for putting it
8 forward.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
10 Reichlin-Melnick to be recorded in the
11 affirmative.
12 Senator Hoylman to explain his vote.
13 SENATOR HOYLMAN: Thank you,
14 Mr. President.
15 I rise in support of the Senate
16 one-house resolution on the budget.
17 First, like my colleagues, I want to
18 thank Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins for setting
19 forth the priorities here, and of course
20 Senator Krueger for her thoughtful and focused
21 defense of this budget resolution.
22 You know, I want to make two points.
23 One is that budgets are also moral documents.
24 And I think this one-house resolution reflects
25 the moral imperative we have as public officials
1406
1 to really look after those who need help the
2 most -- the very young, our seniors, immigrants,
3 the homeless. And the budget does that with all
4 the investments that you've heard today.
5 Secondly, I want to thank the
6 advocates, the hundreds of advocates,
7 Mr. President, who met us -- not in person
8 always, but sometimes on Zoom -- to make their
9 priorities clear. I think this exercise is so
10 emblematic of what representative democracy is
11 about. And I want to thank my colleagues for
12 hearing so many voices even at the last minute,
13 to make sure that their important needs were
14 reflected in this Senate one-house.
15 So, Mr. President, I couldn't be
16 more proud to vote aye.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
18 Hoylman to be recorded in the affirmative.
19 Senator Gounardes to explain his
20 vote.
21 SENATOR GOUNARDES: Thank you,
22 Mr. President.
23 I know we've heard from lots of our
24 colleagues this afternoon about how proud they
25 are about this one-house resolution and how bold
1407
1 and transformative it will be for the lives of
2 New Yorkers.
3 And I want to add my voice to that
4 chorus, because what we are doing in this
5 document truly is incredible. I mean, we could
6 spend days unpacking this resolution and talking
7 about all the great things in there. But what I
8 want to focus on is the transformative
9 investments into CUNY and SUNY that we are
10 making.
11 You know, we have been talking for a
12 long time about the need to reverse decades of
13 divestment and defunding of our public
14 institutions of higher education, and this budget
15 is going to really reverse those trends and give
16 CUNY and SUNY the new deal that they so
17 desperately deserve.
18 I mean, over the last decade a 20
19 percent cut in state support for these
20 institutions. We've heard from students who have
21 to choose between paying for textbooks or putting
22 a meal on their table. This will help stop that
23 trend from happening.
24 I'm also incredibly excited about
25 our bold childcare proposal. As the father of a
1408
1 14-month-old, I know firsthand the impact that
2 having quality, affordable childcare has had on
3 my family, and I know the impact this will have
4 on millions of families across this state. Truly
5 a remarkable thing that we can be advancing in
6 this one-house budget resolution. And I know
7 that all of my colleagues are going to be joining
8 together to fight to make sure that that makes it
9 into our final enacted budget.
10 I can go on and on, Mr. President,
11 but I just want to say that this is a great
12 document, it's a great statement of our values,
13 and it's a great day for New York if we can
14 advance this through to the final budget.
15 Thank you.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
17 Gounardes to be recorded in the affirmative.
18 Senator Cooney to explain his vote.
19 SENATOR COONEY: Thank you,
20 Mr. President. I appreciate it.
21 So many wonderful things have been
22 said by my colleagues today, and I can't recount
23 all of them, but I want to emphasize something on
24 behalf of the many cities, towns and villages
25 outside of the great City of New York, and that
1409
1 is our historic and record investment by
2 increasing the aid to municipalities, or
3 unrestricted operating aid, by $210 million for
4 the first time since 2009.
5 What does that do? Well, as someone
6 who came from local government -- and I know many
7 of my colleagues also started their careers in
8 public service in local government -- what this
9 means is that city halls across New York State
10 can focus on things like keeping libraries open a
11 little bit longer, making sure that we have
12 summer jobs for youth across New York State,
13 making sure that our local law enforcement
14 officers and EMS groups have operating dollars to
15 keep us safe. Making sure that this summer we're
16 going to have a wonderful summer with time in the
17 pool and lifeguards to take care of our youngest
18 swimmers.
19 That's what this investment does.
20 It invests in the quality of life that we have in
21 cities across New York State. And we've gone
22 without for 13 years. But this Senate says that
23 stops now.
24 Now, this is a one-time investment
25 in these cities, so we need to think bigger, we
1410
1 need to think creatively going forward. But I
2 want to thank our Majority Leader, I want to
3 thank our masterful Senate Finance chair, Liz
4 Krueger, to make sure that these conversations
5 continue moving forward. And I look forward to
6 being part of those conversations.
7 Thank you. I vote in the
8 affirmative.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
10 Cooney to be recorded in the affirmative.
11 Senator Kavanagh to explain his
12 vote.
13 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Thank you,
14 Mr. President. I also rise in support of this
15 resolution.
16 I join my colleagues in thanking our
17 leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, our great Finance
18 chair, Liz Krueger, and especially all of the
19 staff who've labored long and hard over this
20 document for the past more than a month now.
21 I join my colleagues in recognizing
22 the many wonderful achievements of this
23 resolution, and also those who have said that we
24 need to work hard in the next few weeks to make
25 sure that these achievements are delivered in the
1411
1 enacted budget.
2 I'm especially pleased that we're
3 following through on our commitments on K through
4 12 education from last year and continuing to
5 meet our obligations to do that equitably with
6 lots of state funding. I'm very proud to see
7 that we're funding the New Deal for both SUNY and
8 CUNY, including the Borough of Manhattan
9 Community College in my district.
10 Very great to see that we're doing
11 $625 million for Fair Pay for Home Care,
12 including a base wage for home care workers. And
13 very proud that we're including, for the first
14 time, healthcare for people, primary healthcare
15 for people who have been excluded from existing
16 programs because of their immigration status.
17 And of course $6 billion in the
18 Environmental Bond Act, and the All-Electric
19 Building Act, which is a bill that I've put
20 forward, are also included here and are great
21 steps forward.
22 I just want to note there hasn't
23 been a lot of talk about housing today. And as
24 the Housing chair I'd be remiss if I didn't note
25 that this budget really is historic from the
1412
1 perspective of housing. We started with a really
2 transformative proposal from the Governor of a
3 $4.7 billion capital plan, and we are improving
4 upon it in the way that Senator Hinchey talked
5 about before, some great investments in rural and
6 small town and village programs that would really
7 help house folks there.
8 We are following through on our now
9 two-year-long effort to blunt the impact of the
10 COVID-19 pandemic with a billion dollars to
11 backstop the Emergency Rental Assistance Program,
12 with $250 million for the Landlord Rental
13 Assistance Program and with $500 million in new
14 money for the Homeowners Assistance Program.
15 We are also funding for the first
16 time a brand-new program looking forward, the
17 Housing Access Voucher Program, which will
18 ultimately be the most effective way we can end
19 homelessness, which ought to be our goal, and
20 make sure that we're keeping people in good,
21 safe, permanent housing.
22 We've got funding for code
23 compliance, we've got funding for a brand-new
24 Community Land Trust Acquisition fund. The list
25 goes on.
1413
1 But again, I am very proud that
2 we're taking this step forward. This is arguably
3 the best budget that this state has put forward
4 for housing in decades, and I'm very honored to
5 support it today. Thank you.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
7 Kavanagh to be recorded in the affirmative.
8 Senator Gianaris to explain his
9 vote.
10 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
11 Mr. President.
12 I am proud to stand up and support
13 this budget proposal which fulfills the promise
14 of New York values. Universal childcare, the New
15 Deal for CUNY and SUNY, pre-K that's expanded
16 across the state, continuing increased funding
17 for our schools. Healthcare coverage for all.
18 More protections for our tenants in this state.
19 Make no mistake, this is a budget
20 that is a love letter to the working people of
21 this state, who have been suffering for years due
22 to disinvestment and lack of investment in the
23 important priorities that they need.
24 And as we sit here encouraging
25 people to get back to work, encouraging people to
1414
1 get back to their offices after the pandemic,
2 providing the support people need to make that
3 happen is going to benefit all of this state.
4 And to my colleagues on the other
5 side of the aisle who are against this, I would
6 simply ask, What are they voting against? They
7 don't even have the usual canard that we're
8 raising taxes on too many people because we're
9 not raising taxes in this budget. Never mind
10 that those who have profited greatly during the
11 pandemic should be asked to pay more. We have
12 the money where that's not even called for in
13 this budget right now.
14 And so those who are against
15 universal childcare, more money for our
16 institutions of both lower and higher education,
17 greater healthcare coverage for the people we
18 represent -- what exactly are you voting against?
19 I proudly support this proposal. I
20 thank Leader Stewart-Cousins, I thank our Finance
21 chair, Senator Krueger, and all my colleagues who
22 participated in crafting what is a tremendous
23 proposal, one of the best budget proposals I've
24 seen in all my years in the Senate.
25 I proudly vote in the affirmative,
1415
1 Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
3 Gianaris to be recorded in the affirmative.
4 Senator Krueger to explain her vote.
5 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you,
6 Mr. President.
7 So I did talk quite a bit about this
8 resolution today, but I'm really standing up to
9 say thank you to all my colleagues, because this
10 resolution grows out of weeks and weeks of budget
11 hearings, where we sat and we listened to the
12 people of New York State and we heard what they
13 were telling us and what we needed to do for
14 them, and then weeks and weeks of work with my
15 chairs and with working groups and with the
16 staff, trying to fine-tune what was realistic
17 that we could do, what was aspirational that we
18 might not accomplish in Year 1, but that we
19 needed to shift the focus of how we were spending
20 our money in New York State.
21 And so I am incredibly proud of this
22 piece of work, which is the beginning, the
23 beginning bell for three-way negotiations for a
24 final budget, but is also a reflection of the
25 goals and the hopes and the dreams of 20 million
1416
1 New Yorkers who tried to contact us to let us
2 know what they needed.
3 And I've also been here for 20 years
4 now, Mr. President, and I watched when I came in
5 and George Pataki was the governor, and we would
6 have budgets that we couldn't possibly afford but
7 the Republicans had a philosophy of borrow and
8 spend, borrow and spend. And then Democrats came
9 back into power, and we were accused of taxing
10 and spending. But if you tax and spend, at least
11 you're paying for what you're buying, as opposed
12 to leaving it to the next generation.
13 So I don't mind when they tell me
14 I'm a tax-and-spend Democrat because I'd rather
15 tax and pay for it than borrow and leave it to
16 the next generations to deal with it.
17 And then we ended up in periods
18 where we just had borrowed so much from previous
19 years that we had to reduce our budgets to levels
20 that were really unsustainable to meet the needs
21 of New Yorkers.
22 So it does appear to be big jumps
23 this year. But I'm telling you, we have the
24 money to do it. And we're not stealing from our
25 reserves, we're actually increasing our reserves
1417
1 at the same time as we are increasing our
2 spending. And we're cutting taxes, as was
3 discussed on the floor today -- property taxes,
4 income taxes, gas taxes -- while we're making
5 investments in the people of New York who need
6 our help the most.
7 And you know what, Mr. President?
8 That will be returned to us tenfold by a future
9 that New York can be proud of, a future that your
10 beautiful daughters can participate in as they
11 grow up to be adults and become taxpayers in our
12 society, and a state where people will want to
13 come and stay and start businesses and do
14 business.
15 So I'm very proud of what this
16 resolution represents, and I am so honored that
17 our leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, gave me the
18 position of Finance chair so that I could try to
19 work to pull it all together for all of us.
20 Thank you, Mr. President.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
22 Krueger to be recorded in the affirmative.
23 Majority Leader Andrea
24 Stewart-Cousins to close.
25 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank you
1418
1 so much, Mr. President.
2 And I was just listening to our
3 great Finance chair, Senator Krueger, saying how
4 pleased she was that she has this responsibility.
5 That's not what she says.
6 (Laughter.)
7 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: A little
8 moment of truth here.
9 (Laughter.)
10 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: But --
11 but because at the end of all of what we do, we
12 are able to stand here because of the work that
13 you do, Senator Krueger and your great staff;
14 because of the work that my deputy, Senator
15 Gianaris, continues to do; an incredible
16 conference that is working for New York every
17 single day. Because of that work, because of our
18 staff, because of Shontell Smith and Eric Katz
19 and counsel and David Friedfel and the Finance
20 staff, because of Loren and External Affairs and
21 Murphy and Communications -- because of all of us
22 who understand that we stand here on behalf of
23 the people of New York, and even the moments that
24 it takes to get through this -- and certainly to
25 my colleagues on the other side as well, for the
1419
1 staff and the work that they do -- the time that
2 it takes to get to this moment where we can say
3 we have a one-house budget that reflects the
4 priorities of this entire state, is well worth
5 it.
6 I want to thank the Governor as
7 well, because we started from a place that we
8 don't normally start from. And while we're going
9 back and forth about what's happening in this
10 budget, the fact of the matter is that we started
11 from a place that honored what we learned from
12 what we've been dealing with in the past two
13 years with this pandemic. We all understood --
14 and that's what we understood last year and the
15 year before -- where the breakage was in our
16 compact as government to the people that we
17 serve. It was exacerbated by a pandemic that
18 left us socially isolated, emotionally fragile,
19 economically encumbered. And we got a chance to
20 look firsthand at where the fissures were and
21 what could we do.
22 And we began that repair work, and
23 we began it going from our pre-K investment to
24 our Foundation Aid investment to our investment
25 in our environment to investment in higher
1420
1 education, we did transportation, we did housing,
2 we continued to look at the infrastructure of the
3 people. So that when we do come back to a place
4 where we can get back to our jobs and get back to
5 our work, we're not still suffering from the same
6 uncertainties that we know exist.
7 So that's why we invested record
8 amounts in childcare in this one-house budget.
9 And that's why we decided that we would indeed
10 expedite the middle-class tax credits, that we
11 would find our way to making sure that those who
12 are caring for our most vulnerable are actually
13 compensated properly, our home care workers. We
14 wanted to make sure that as we are addressing
15 what has happened in our communities all over
16 this state, that we find a way to make sure that
17 people have what they need, and that includes
18 this mental health investment that we know has to
19 happen. I mean, people are talking about a rise
20 in crime in so many communities, including
21 Westchester. There actually has been a decline
22 in crime. But the fact of the matter is that any
23 crime is too much.
24 But we have to take a look at what
25 we can do to make sure that we are addressing the
1421
1 needs properly, and that's why we've gone in with
2 mental health -- again, ensuring mental health,
3 giving proper beds, recreating more sustainable
4 supportive housing, looking at how we deal with
5 after-school, community school, investing in gun
6 violence prevention programs. We are hitting so
7 many of the things that we know will make
8 New York stronger and more economically viable
9 and be able to support every single person in
10 New York.
11 When we talk about our small
12 businesses, when we talk about looking at abating
13 taxes, even at the gas pump, we are continuing to
14 make New York a better place to be.
15 So this is -- and I heard somebody
16 say this is aspirational, yes. But it's
17 aspirational not for us. It's not aspirational
18 for the people who have worked so hard to make
19 sure that people's needs are met. It's
20 aspirational for the people of New York State,
21 because they want to make sure that as their
22 taxes are down, as their communities are made
23 safer, that we are doing and addressing what they
24 need not only now, but in the future.
25 And yes, it's going to take more
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1 money. But the fact of the matter is we've
2 disinvested in our hospitals, we've disinvested
3 in our transportation system, we've disinvested
4 in our roads, we've disinvested in education,
5 we've disinvested in our children, we've
6 disinvested in the supports that people need when
7 things get rough in their lives. We've
8 disinvested for decades.
9 And so today we stand and we say we
10 are reinvesting in the people of New York. We
11 are reinvesting in a future. We are reinvesting
12 in an ideal that New York will continue to be
13 progressive, it will continue to be pragmatic, it
14 will continue to lead the way, not only in this
15 recovery but in advancing what we as government
16 can do with our people and for our people.
17 I vote aye.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Majority
19 Leader Stewart-Cousins to be recorded in the
20 affirmative.
21 Announce the results.
22 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
23 Senate Resolution 2081, those Senators voting in
24 the negative are Senators Akshar, Borrello,
25 Boyle, Gallivan, Griffo, Helming, Jordan, Lanza,
1423
1 Martucci, Mattera, Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt,
2 Palumbo, Rath, Ritchie, Serino, Stec, Tedisco and
3 Weik.
4 Ayes, 43. Nays, 20.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
6 resolution is adopted.
7 Senator Gianaris.
8 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
9 if we could briefly return back to motions and
10 resolutions.
11 On behalf of Senator Savino, on
12 page 39 I offer the following amendments to
13 Calendar 657, Senate Print 5768, and ask that
14 said bill retain its place on Third Reading
15 Calendar.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
17 amendments are received, and the bill retains its
18 place on the Third Reading Calendar.
19 SENATOR GIANARIS: Is there any
20 further business at the desk?
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: There is
22 no further business at the desk.
23 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to adjourn
24 until tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15th, at
25 11:00 a.m.
1424
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: On
2 motion, the Senate stands adjourned until
3 Tuesday, March 15th, at 11:00 a.m.
4 (Whereupon, the Senate adjourned at
5 5:37 p.m.)
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