April 4, 2025
Last month, the Trump administration tried to take advantage of the Biden administration having declared an end to the COVID-19 PHE during its time in office. What followed included HHS having notified states on 3/24 that it was cancelling CMHS and SUPTR federal block grant supplemental funding, effective immediately. On 3/27 HHS sent a subsequent notice to states, informing them of their right to appeal the recissions but giving them very little time to do so.
The NYS Council has been leading the call for the creation of two Contingency Fund accounts in the SFY26 enacted state budget, to help mitigate the losses and potential closures associated with the recent crisis, but also to assist with future problems. We sent a letter to the Commissioners at OASAS and OMH before the Temporary Restraining Order was issued, urging state leaders to file an administrative appeal.
Last night a federal court judge in Rhode Island granted the plaintiffs (17 states including NYS) Injunctive Relief in the form of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that is in place until at least April 16 at which time the parties will come together for further discussion. Judge Mary S. McElroy (a Trump appointee) issued the temporary restraining order. A written ruling will follow, but the TRO was issued from the bench.
The request from the plaintiffs was to “restrain Defendants from implementing or enforcing funding terminations that were issued on or after March 24, 2025, for reasons related to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, or from issuing new funding terminations for the same or similar reasons. The restraints should be applicable to funding terminations for Plaintiff States, including their local health jurisdictions.”
Stand by for more information. We will see the written Temporary Restraining Order shortly.
Hopefully HHS will walk back the grant recission in entirety as it did when prior TROs were issued recently.
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Overtime on State Payroll Surges 11% FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 4, 2025 Twenty-three New York State employees collected over $200,000 each in overtime, according to 2024 payroll data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Nineteen of the 23 were employed by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), the agency roiled by correction officer strikes, staff shortages and inmate deaths. The data cover a period before illegal strikes erupted in February 2025 and the state fired more than 2,000 correction officers. Throughout the state payroll, the number of six-figure overtime earners rose to 610, up nearly 40 percent from 439 in 2023. More than half (332) of them were from DOCCS, almost doubling the previous year’s tally of 173. In addition, the Office of Mental Health had 111 employees that collected more than six figures in overtime pay. The top overtime recipient was Jeffrey Rorick, a corrections lieutenant at Five Points Correctional Facility, who collected $277,549 in overtime for a total pay of $405,424. Some of the other overtime leaders were: Denise Williams (Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center), who collected $267,686 in overtime for a total pay of $368,644 Annu Bosco Varghese (Creedmoor Psychiatric Center), $259,055 in overtime for a total pay of $368,272William Atwood Jr. (Elmira Correctional Facility), $256,556 in overtime for a total pay of $379,092 Total overtime pay rose 11% year-to-year, climbing to $1.35 billion in 2024 from $1.21 billion in 2023 – undoing progress made since 2022 when overtime levels reached an all-time high of $1.4 billion. The state paid out an average of $12,733 in overtime to 105,947 employees. Of those, 7,319 collected more in overtime than their annual salary, enabling some to quadruple their total pay. The data show New York’s state government payroll last year swelled from $19.4 billion to $21.0 billion (8 percent), averaging $71,288 for its 294,131 employees. The figures do not reflect the cost of state benefits, including health care and state retirement, or employer payroll taxes. Last week, the Empire Center released its 2024 edition of What They Make – the annual report on New York’s local government payrolls covering employees in county, city, town, and village governments outside New York City. Since 2008, Empire Center has made the payrolls and pensions for state and local government and school districts available and searchable on SeeThroughNY. The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family. ——————– Good morning, Attached is a list of contracts that are currently with providers for review or signature. We are sending this list to you so that you can reach out to your constituents and encourage them to continue processing their contracts. There are five tabs: Provider Review Required – These are contracts that have been created in SFS by Central Office and providers may now add their workplans and budgets. Provider Signature Required – These are completed contracts that are ready for providers to sign and return to Central Office. There are three new tabs designed to let providers know if they have expired documents. We cannot execute contracts with expired documents. Please encourage them to updated documents to their field office contacts. VRQ ExpiredWorkers Compensation Insurance ExpiredDisability Benefits Insurance Expired Questions should be addressed to the appropriate field office. We will be sending this list to you weekly, normally on Fridays. If you do not wish to receive this list, please reach out to me and I will remove your address. Please note this report is sent weekly and reflects contract status as of today. SFS is updated daily as tasks are completed. Please be advised that CBR Technical Assistance meetings will now occur on the last Friday of every month from 10am – 11am, starting on 2/28/25. These meetings are meant to be open forums for you to ask questions related to completing and submitting OMH CBRs within the Consolidated Fiscal Reporting System (CFRS). Guidance and training materials, including PowerPoint slides, a recorded training video, and a link to the technical assistance meeting, are now available on the https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/finance/cbr-training.htm web page. If you plan on attending these meetings, it is recommended you reserve the relevant time slot(s) on your calendar with the meeting link attached to that calendar item.Monthly Technical Assistance Meetings will be abbreviated if questions are not being asked during the designated sessions and meeting occurrences may be reduced in the future if a low volume of questions during these sessions is common. Please feel free to forward this information to anyone in your organization you believe would benefit. We look forward to seeing you next week, and thank you again for your continued cooperation! Sincerely, |