|
Today, Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature passed a final enacted budget for FY2025-26. will contain a 2.6% targeted inflationary increase (TII), unrestricted in usage and application. We have been advocating with our NYDA partners for a 7.8% Medicaid rate increase to compensate for the gap between increases and inflation over the past few years. This outcome falls short of our hopes, especially following the Governor’s original proposal of 2.1% several months ago, and the larger increases proposed in the legislative budgets.
However, immediately prior to this budget cycle, the state made significant investments in nonprofit service providers through rate rebasing. When we consider the 2.6% TII in conjunction with the rebasing investment, we realized an almost 15% average rate increase for our largest programs in this past year.
The 2.6% increase represents a $144M state share investment in OPWDD voluntary services. Coupled with the rate investment made in late 2024, the state has invested approximately $1B in the OPWDD nonprofit service system over the past year, not including last year’s cost of living adjustment. While we were advocating for more during this session, we feel that these combined investments are a good outcome - especially considering the current federal climate.
A full summary of the NYS Budget items that pertain to our field can be found here. These include a $75M investment in the Institute for Basic Research, a $25M investment in regional disability clinics, expanded tax credits for employment of people with disabilities, and the Preferred Source Program being made permanent.
The significant investments made in our system this year demonstrate the impact of our advocacy, but we need to continue those efforts to make up for the 10 years when we received no increases, and to ensure sustained investment in the supports and services New Yorkers with disabilities rely on.
Thank you for your advocacy, whether you attended rallies, sent letters, made phone calls, visited your legislators, wrote to your local papers, or shared our message on social media, it has made a difference.
Our advocacy would not be successful without all of you.
We are stronger together.
| 
