Empire Justice Center 2011-12 State Legislative Priorities

Focusing on the Needs of New Yorkers Hit Hardest by the Recession

February 15, 2011

Author: Kristin Brown Lilley

New York State has long led the nation in crafting effective and responsive policies in times of crisis; our ability to lead and to foster innovation in the face of adversity is second to none.  We all agree that New York must pursue new approaches and new policies that will help our state recover from the economic recession so that we can begin to thrive once again.  To do this effectively, we will need to work together to craft a path that does not ask one segment of our society to contribute more than another.   We will need to balance government investments that engender private sector growth, drive outcomes and efficiency and provide cost savings, with holding true to our responsibility to help people in their times of need.  To do that, New York must have a strong social services safety net so that all New Yorkers can rest assured knowing that help will be there for them and for their loved ones when they really need it.  Empire Justice Center puts forth the following priorities as key components to achieving these goals.  

BUDGET PRIORITIES

1)      Revenue: Enact revenue options such as an extension of the personal income tax surcharge for the wealthy and other revenue options put forth by the Growing Together New York, A Better Choice for a New NY Campaign rather than further cuts in programs and services that help New York’s families and individuals who have been hit hardest by the recession.

2)      Access to Justice: Every day in New York State an estimated 8,846 New Yorkers go to court unrepresented in critical life matters involving housing, personal finances and employment.  New York must do more to ensure that access to justice for our low income individuals and families is not compromised.

RECOMMENDATION: Support the funding for civil legal services in the Chief Judge’s budget and maintain last year’s state funding levels.

3)      Disability Advocacy: New York’s nationally recognized Disability Advocacy Program (DAP) represents low income disabled New Yorkers in securing federally funded Social Security or SSI benefits.  DAP advocates are successful in 85% of cases: their efforts resulted in $16.8 million in federal funds repaid to state and local governments in 2008 and 2009 (reimbursements for benefits provided while waiting for a decision).   

RECOMMENDATION: Maintain base funding at last year’s reduced level of $4.76 million and federal TANF funding at $1 million.

4)      Foreclosure Prevention: The nation is approximately one third of the way through the foreclosure crisis.  Aggressive policies and funding of foreclosure prevention services have positioned New York to emerge from the crisis ahead of the curve.  Without continued funding for services New York’s great progress will falter and our families and communities will suffer.   

RECOMMENDATION: Provide $15 million for one year’s funding of the Foreclosure Prevention Program.

5)      Medicare Part D Advocacy: New York’s Managed Care Consumer Assistance Program (MCCAP) provides assistance to low income elderly and disabled New Yorkers with accessing the prescription drugs they need while at the same time saving the state money by maximizing federal Medicare Part D coverage. 

RECOMMENDATION: Maintain funding at last year’s reduced level of $1.77 million.

6)      Medicaid: The Governor is proposing $2.85 billion in reductions to Medicaid spending through the recommendations of the Medicaid Redesign Team. 

RECOMMENDATION: Avoid reductions in services for recipients.  Seek savings through innovative approaches to coordinated care for high need populations that can draw down enhanced federal funding.

LEGISLATIVE PRIORITES

Consumer Rights:

Foreclosure: One of the biggest challenges in the realm of foreclosures right now is ensuring foreclosures only be undertaken by parties with the legal right to do so.  A.11465/S.8174 would clarify any question of ownership of the mortgage at the outset, thus increasing court efficiency and reducing the likelihood of future litigation and title problems. 

RECOMMENDATION: Pass A.11465/S.8174

Employment: In the current job climate, New York must actively remove all unnecessary barriers to employment.  One of those barriers is the use of credit histories in the hiring process. Currently an estimated 60% of employers run credit checks on at least some job applicants despite no known correlation between credit reports and employability.  Credit reports are notoriously inaccurate and have been shown to disfavor racial minorities and low-income communities. 

RECOMMENDATION: Amend Human Rights Law to prohibit the use of credit history in employment decisions 

Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention:   Every year thousands of children in New York - mostly from poor, minority families - are poisoned by lead in their homes and will suffer permanent damage to their brains and nervous systems.  As a result, they are likely to have lower IQs, are more likely to be unable to pay attention in school, and are more likely to be violent or aggressive.   This irreversible damage greatly reduces their prospects of becoming productive adults.

RECOMMENDATIONS:  Address shortfalls in current federal, state and local laws by enacting the legislative recommendations suggested in the November 2010 Final Report of the Governor’s Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention of Childhood Lead Poisoning:

• Ensure that New York programs are not used to pay for or provide housing unless that housing has been inspected for lead hazards.
• Take steps to be sure that landlords cannot skirt their obligation to look for and address lead hazards. 
• Improve data reporting to help better identify, evaluate and address the lead poisoning problem to monitor the clear ethnic disparities of the children being poisoned.
• Provide an expeditious mechanism for families in housing with lead hazards to go directly to court for an order requiring safe removal of the hazards.

Improving Public Programs for Struggling New Yorkers:

Health Care: Access to healthcare is essential to the well being of all New Yorkers.  Over the course of 2011 Empire Justice Center will work to make sure New York effectively implements federal health care reform and develops the Exchange in a way that ensures that ineligible New Yorkers are able to seamlessly connect to other health care options.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Ensure that populations not included in the new eligibility rules for Medicaid  have the opportunity to benefit from the improvements in public program eligibility systems that result from federal health care reform.  
• Ensure that New York’s new eligibility rules and systems for Medicaid do not exclude currently eligible persons. 
• Ensure that New York’s Exchange(s) is as inclusive as possible, ideally including all uninsured persons in its outreach and educational missions and providing assistance with accessing Charity Care and Emergency Medicaid to those who are ultimately determined to be ineligible for public insurance and unable to afford private coverage.

Child Care: In a difficult economy it is even more critical that low income parents are able to hold onto their jobs.  Child care subsidies are often the only way low income families can afford to work.  New York’s current system of establishing parental copayments and policies creates unnecessary inequities and must be streamlined to provide efficiency, minimize confusion and avoid jeopardizing jobs or the availability of child care.   

RECOMMENDATIONS:  

• Establish a statewide process to determine a systematic approach for setting child care copayments based on a parent’s ability to pay. 
• Ensure that parents and childcare providers have adequate notice of changes in copayments. 
• Enact statewide policies on payment of subsidies for parents who work a night shift to sleep during the day, for days when a daycare provider is closed for holidays or emergencies, for when a child is absent and for parents who are between jobs or looking for work. 
• In determining eligibility for a child care subsidy, establish a rule that would not count the earnings of children under the age of 21.  

Public assistance:  Avoid discrimination against disabled New Yorkers, improve incentives and preparation for employment and remove barriers to work by enacting the following legislation: 

RECOMMENDATIONS:  

• Eliminate the 185% gross income test to allow welfare recipients who have been able to find jobs to keep their work supports until they earn up to the poverty level.  (S.1954 - 2011)
• Eliminate the 45 day waiting period for Safety Net Assistance applications to ensure that people in need have access to assistance more quickly.
  When a Social Services District seeks to recover past benefits that were provided, ensure that the amount is reduced by the amount of benefits that were earned through workfare. (A.1546/S.4544 – 2010)
• Improve the employability of people on welfare by expanding access to educational activities -including four-year college – as an option for those who would benefit.  (S.2323/A.2471 – 2011)
  Update sanction rules to ensure that that people with child care or transportation difficulties are not sanctioned and those with disabilities have not been inappropriately assigned to work. 
• Create administrative efficiencies by updating the automobile resource limit so that it is the same for all welfare recipients.  The limit has not been updated in over 33 years and having a lower limit for those who are not looking for work discriminates against poor disabled and elderly individuals who are unable to work but need transportation – particularly in rural and suburban areas of the state.  (A.2956/S.410 - 2011)