July 28, 2024
Following information courtesy of our government relations consultants at Reid, McNally & Savage.
———- Forwarded message ———
From: Reid McNally Savage <info@lobbywr.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 26, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Subject: RMS End of Week Update 7/26/2024
RMS End of Week Update 7/26/2024
Olympics Opening Ceremony Airs Today At 1:30pm ET
Governor Hochul Announces $22.5 Million Grant To Increase Health Care Workforce Training
This week Governor Kathy Hochul announced that 28 health care facilities statewide will receive $22.5 million in awards during the next year for training, as a part of the Governor’s $10 billion multi-year investment in health care, to help rebuild and grow the health care workforce and help strengthen the health care system. The Increasing Training Capacity in Statewide Healthcare Facilities awards were issued by the State Health Department’s Office of Healthcare Workforce Innovation, to increase training in the healthcare workforce.
“With the largest ever multi-year investment in health care, we will retain, rebuild and grow our health care workforce and ensure we deliver the highest quality health care for New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “The health of every New Yorker depends on a strong, stable and equitable health care system, and health care workers are its very foundation.”
In 2022, Governor Hochul announced a $10 billion multi-year investment in health care to rebuild and grow the health care workforce and strengthen the health care system. The need to rebuild and grow the healthcare workforce with programs designed to improve the career pipeline, expand access to health care training and education, to recruit care workers to underserved areas, and strengthen home care was a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and to the continuing and existing health care professional shortages in New York State.
State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “Thanks to Governor Hochul, this multi-year investment will help us rebuild our health workforce in New York and prepare the next generation of health care professionals. This workforce grant will increase the training capacity of health care facilities and prepare, mentor and train a steady pipeline of high-quality health care professionals.”
28 contracts have been awarded to 13 hospitals and 15 nursing homes and will provide up to $1 million per year for two years to each health care facility. Awardees may use their funding to cover various eligible expenses, such as costs related to developing training programs and curriculum and compensating staff attending training. Awardees include:
· Samaritan Hospital
· Montefiore Medical Center
· Fort Hudson Nursing Center, Inc.
· Upstate Medical University
· Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation
· St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center
· Auburn Community Hospital
· Orleans Community Health, Medina Memorial Hospital
· St. Barnabas Hospital
· The Friendly Home
· BronxCare Health System
· Jamaica Hospital Medical Center
· The Church Home of the Protestant
· Episcopal Church
· Gurwin Healthcare System
· Schofield Residence
· The Plaza Rehab & Nursing Center
· Sisters of Charity Hospital
· We Care
· Flushing Hospital Medical Center
· King Street Rehab
· Highlands at Brighton
· Loretto Health & Rehabilitation
· Monroe Community Hospital
· Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital SNF
· Chemung County Nursing Facility
· Wayne Health Care
· Rochester General Hospital
· Cayuga Health System
Workforce Innovation Center Director Dr. Carrie Roseamelia said, “As a new office, awarding these facility grants has been our priority. We are thrilled to announce the first round of grantees and help to rebuild and grow the healthcare workforce.”
The State Health Department’s Office of Healthcare Workforce Innovation supports projects that train certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, physician assistants, community health workers, home health aides, and other direct care professionals.
For questions, please contact TrainingCapacity@health.ny.gov, and find more information about Increasing Training Capacity in Statewide Healthcare Facilities here.
To view the full press release please click here.
Capitol Pressroom Interview With CEO Of The New York Council Of Nonprofits
On July 22nd Capitol Pressroom Interviewed Megan Allen, CEO of The New York Council of Nonprofits. Please find a summary of what was discussed below:
Current Issues Nonprofits Are Facing Related to State Contract Authorizations
· Nonprofits are contracted to provide legal services for community members who cannot otherwise get this assistance, childcare, domestic violence, substance abuse services, workforce development, literary services, and more.
· The neediest New Yorkers heavily rely on nonprofit services.
· The state has chosen to take back certain services in house, but it’s been pretty steady that the State seems to recognize the value nonprofits bring.
· The New York Council of Nonprofits has 3,000 members and about 45-65% receive some sort of state funding. Delays with contracts and getting payment are extremely common any given year across the many types of nonprofits.
· 30% of their members say it’s 7 months or less, but many say longer.
· Nonprofits don’t have much of a margin in their budgets, they cannot float staff while they wait for contracts to arrive. For them payroll costs and salary benefits are their biggest expense – if they are waiting many months to actually have the contract after receiving the award letter, they can’t hire someone now just to have to float their salary benefits until the contract starts and they get payment.
· Existing staff also struggle, some nonprofits have other programming to move them to in the meantime, but others have to float their salary benefits. For many nonprofits, laying employees off is not an option as they don’t want to lose their expertise and experience.
· One solution many nonprofits are doing is getting a credit line to pay for the payroll. 19-25% of their members have had to do this specifically because state grants were slow. There are additional costs related to this, however those aren’t reimbursed by the State.
S4877A, Mayer/A2740, Paulin and Other Solutions
· This legislation will help get the timing more on track and prevent those extra costs associated with a credit line.
· In the short term, the bill requires agencies that are behind on a contract to notify the nonprofit of what the likely timing is and explain why there is a hold-up. This transparency is not happening for many right now, many nonprofits have no idea what is going on with their award.
· In the long term, this will bring to light what is going on with the process and move towards solutions together.
· There is a section about identifying non-compliant state agencies in the legislation – the idea is not to shame agencies but bring people’s attention to the issue and get people talking on how to improve this process.
· There isn’t anything further nonprofits can do, they have done their part, completed the application and provided whatever was required.
· Looking towards other solutions, no-interest loans provided by the State would be helpful to nonprofits
· More staff for agencies would also be beneficial to help them with this process and during the implementation phase. Some nonprofits have reported it has been difficult to get follow-up questions answered and help after starting up.
· Every year nonprofits are waiting to hear about state funding, many wait to adopt a budget until they know what funding looks like and it can be stressful. Some nonprofits try to diversify their funding so there is less pressure.
· Many nonprofits have champions and do advocacy work, but you never know if the funding will come through even if it’s been years.
NYS Inspector General Lucy Lang Announces Key Appointments
This week New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang announced three significant appointments within her office.
Jonathan Schultz Appointed Attorney-in-Charge for DOCCS Matters
New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang has appointed Investigative Counsel Jonathan Schultz Attorney-in-Charge (AIC) for matters relating to the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). In this role Schultz will oversee all of OIG’s DOCCS related investigations, audits, and compliance initiatives, ensuring that OIG is equipped to proactively identify and address gaps and trends that impact the State’s incarcerated population and those working within its correctional facilities.
Alla Korsunskiy Promoted to Chief of Audit for the Downstate Regional Offices
Alla Korsunskiy, a forensic auditor with over 25 years of experience identifying and rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse within city and state agencies, has been promoted to Chief of Audit for the Downstate Regional Offices of the Offices of the New York State Inspector General (OIG). The Downstate Region, comprised of offices located in New York City, Hauppauge, and Suffern, houses a talented staff of forensic investigative auditors, certified fraud examiners, and accountants who support investigations and proactive reviews of entities under the jurisdiction of OIG.
Joel Mercer Named Deputy Chief of Investigations for the Western Region
New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang announced the appointment of Joel Mercer, a 27-year veteran of state and federal law enforcement, as the Deputy Chief of Investigations for the Western Region of the Offices of the Inspector General (OIG), where he will assist in supervising and managing investigative staff based in Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo.
To view the full press release please click here.
FY 2025 NYS Enacted Budget Financial Plan First Quarterly Update Released
The FY 2025 NYS Enacted Budget Financial Plan First Quarterly Update was released earlier this week. Please find below highlights from the report.
The State’s FY 2025 began on April 1, 2024, and ends on March 31, 2025. The Enacted Budget Financial Plan for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 was published on May 24, 2024. On June 5, 2024, Governor Hochul announced that the implementation of congestion pricing in Manhattan, which had been expected to go into effect on June 30, 2024, to fund a portion of the MTA’s 2020-24 Capital Plan, would be paused indefinitely. This action does not materially impact the State’s FY 2025 Financial Plan. The Division of the Budget (DOB) expects that the revenue shortfall to the MTA will be temporary and, if not resolved sooner, would be addressed as part of the FY 2026 Budget process.
State operating results through the first quarter of the fiscal year (April through June 30, 2024)were generally modest and attributable to fluctuations in timing of transactions. All Funds tax receipts, excluding Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) business tax collections, were 0.9 percent higher than forecasted mainly due to positive personal income tax (PIT) estimated and refund performance. All Funds spending was $942 million below the Enacted Budget estimates due primarily to routine timing delays of various capital construction projects, and assistance and grants spending across nearly all major functional and program areas.
The marginal receipts and timing related spending variances, coupled with minor revisions to economic indicators, do not provide an impetus for DOB to revise annual projections of receipts and disbursements. As such, the annual projections in the Financial Plan (and the general assumptions upon which they are based) remain unchanged from the FY 2025 Enacted Budget Financial Plan1 in this First Quarterly Update (the “Financial Plan”). The DOB expects to review and update its Financial Plan projections of receipts and disbursements, as needed, following the close of the second quarter.
Economic Update
The economic outlook for 2024 moderated after the strong growth performance of the U.S. economy in 2023 which reflected its resilience in the face of the Federal Reserve’s tighter monetary policy. Labor markets started to slow in 2024 following their robust performance throughout the previous two years. Wage growth also slowed further in the first half of 2024.
However, the first quarter readings of consumer price inflation were high, leading to a delay in the expected easing of monetary policy. As a result, the restraints on economic activity continued into the first half of 2024. New economic data released since the publication of the Enacted Budget suggest output and job gains in the first half of 2024 are slightly lower than initial forecasts.
U.S. Real GDP Growth
DOB’s U.S. economic outlook for the First Quarterly Update of the Financial Plan reflects a slight downward revision to the annual economic growth rate for 2024 due to weaker than expected growth in the first quarter. U.S. real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is projected to decelerate to 2.3 percent in 2024 — a 0.1 percentage point downward revision from the Enacted Budget forecast — from 2.5 percent in 2023.
However, looking ahead, the growth momentum remains steady for the second half of 2024 and into 2025. The real GDP growth rate for 2025 is revised up slightly by 0.1 percentage point to 1.9 percent in 2025. Moreover, the longer-term economic outlook remains essentially unchanged from the Enacted Budget forecast. The downward revision to the economic growth forecast for 2024 is mainly driven by more tepid consumer spending and exports throughout the year. However, better than expected monthly indicators in the second quarter suggest a somewhat stronger economic growth momentum for the rest of 2024 than in the first half of the year.
Employment and Income
United States. Labor market indicators suggest that U.S. labor demand and supply are moving into better balance, but the pace of the adjustment might be uneven and slower than previously projected. Monthly job gains of 177,300 on average in the second quarter of 2024 marked the lowest three-month average since the post-pandemic job recovery began. This suggests the moderation in wages and overall incomes is likely to continue amid falling inflation and eventually lower interest rates.
DOB’s employment outlook for 2024 and 2025 is essentially unchanged from the Enacted Budget forecast. U.S. total nonfarm employment growth is estimated to continue decelerating gradually to 1.7 percent in 2024 from 2.3 percent in 2023. Employment is forecast to grow by 1.0 percent in 2025. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1 percent as of June 2024, slightly higher than projections in the Enacted Budget economic outlook. DOB expects the U.S. unemployment rate to remain around current levels and average 4.0 percent for 2024 compared to 3.6 percent in 2023, and slightly rising to 4.2 percent in 2025.
New York State. While the U.S. labor market outlook in the First Quarterly Update of the Financial Plan remains essentially the same as the one presented in the Enacted Budget, the outlook for New York State reflects a slight improvement for 2024 based on new data available from Current Employment Statistics (CES). Employment growth has been revised up by 0.1 percentage point (corresponding to about 13,600 jobs) and is now projected to grow by 0.9 percent in 2024 following 2.2 percent growth in 2023. However, employment growth is still expected to slow down to 0.6 percent in 2025, unchanged from the Enacted Budget forecast. DOB’s long term employment projections reflect moderate economic growth and stagnant population levels in the State. Slowing global and national economic growth and elevated interest rates will continue to pose
challenges to the State’s labor markets for the remainder of the year. Despite recent large monthly job gains, New York State labor markets have been generally lagging the national economy.
Average job gains of 12,330 per month in 2023 were noticeably down from an average of 20,990 in 2022. More recently, monthly employment growth averaged 19,800 in the State through May 2024. However, the rise in employment has been concentrated in the Health Care and Social Assistance sector. In contrast, employment in the Information sector fell by 13,400 (-4.7 percent) over the last 12 months after peaking in July 2022. Since then, the industry has been losing jobs following a nationwide trend.
According to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data, the latest available data for State wages through the last quarter of 2023 have been 0.5 percentage point higher than earlier estimates. This revision, coupled with a slightly stronger employment forecast for the first quarter of 2024, has resulted in an upward adjustment of FY 2024 wage growth from 3.4 percent in the Enacted Budget forecast to 3.5 percent. Additionally, the stronger employment forecast led to an increase in wage growth projections for FY 2025 from 4.0 percent to 4.1 percent. State personal income data for the first quarter of calendar year 2024 has recently been released, showing that non-wage personal income closely aligned with DOB’s forecast, being only 0.05 percent higher than the projection in the Enacted Budget Financial Plan. Due to the upward revision in wages, the growth rate for FY 2024 personal income has been adjusted from 3.7 percent to 3.8 percent and is not expected to have a material effect on the receipts projections.
However, the growth rate for FY 2025 has been revised downward by 0.1 percentage point to 4.4 percent, consistent with the revisions to the US non-wage personal income for that year.
Inflation and Monetary Policy
The June 2024 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report suggests that the downward trend of price growth toward the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent inflation target resumed in the second quarter of 2024 after a temporary interruption in the first quarter. The 12-month change in the headline CPI dropped to 3.0 percent in June from 3.5 percent in March. This was the lowest reading since March 2021. Accordingly, DOB revised down CPI inflation to 3.1 percent in 2024 and 2.4 percent in 2025, both of which are 0.1 percentage point below the Enacted Budget forecast.
Considering an improving inflation outlook and a cooling labor market, DOB expects the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to start cutting rates in September 2024 (instead of July) with two rate cuts in 2024. Given longer term projections of the economy and interest rates, rate cuts are expected to end somewhat earlier than expected in 2027.
This results in an upward revision to the projected path of the Federal funds rate between 2024 and 2028. In the meantime, longer-term interest rates were lower than expected, suggesting financial conditions may boost economic growth in 2024.
The full report is linked here.
NYS COVID-19 Monitoring Dashboard
Below we have included the link to the State’s Testing Tracker which includes the State’s overall testing status–by clicking on the link above you can view the testing results by county. This data is current through July 25, 2024.
Use this link to view the State’s updated COVID-19 Hub.
NYS COVID-19 Fatalities Tracker
Below we have included the Fatalities Tracker with the webpage where updated numbers can be found throughout the week linked here.
Helpful Links and Resources
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Department of Financial Services information and resources
New York COVID-19 Vaccine Information Page
Department of Health
https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/home
COVID-19 Guidance for Medicaid Providers
Office of Mental Health
https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/covid-19-resources.html
OPWDD
https://opwdd.ny.gov/coronavirus-guidance
State Education Department
http://www.op.nysed.gov/COVID-19.html
NYS Department of Labor