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Empire Justice Center's Legislative Agenda 2009-2011
Empire Justice Center's Legislative Agenda 2009-2011
January 16, 2010
The Summer issue of the Legal Services Journal highlighted many legislative initiatives for 2009-2011 and provided a “Legislative Scorecard” on those initiatives with detailed articles on a broad array of issue areas. This article will review those initiatives and add to the Legislative Scorecard as we move into the New Year.
Budget Related Items:
Restore New York’s Eroded Investment in the Disability Advocacy Program (DAP) to a total of $6.74 million, including $1 million in TANF funding. Each dollar invested generates two to three dollars in savings for the state by securing federal SSI benefits for low-income disabled New Yorkers and pays state and local governments back for any welfare benefits received while recipients waited for approval.
Work Defensively to Ensure that the State Fiscal Crisis Does Not Result in a Reduction of Critical Services for the poor, low-income and out of work New Yorkers when they are in need of assistance. This includes public and disability assistance, health and pharmaceutical coverage, housing and other essential programs and services.
Maintain and Improve Access to Child Care Across New York. Enact legislation that removes unjustifiable geographic disparities in the cost and availability of child care subsidies and improves transparency when policies vary by social service district. Immediately enact a 12% of household income cap on child care co-payments to ensure quality child care remains affordable.
Maintain Improvements Made to Medicaid Family Health Plus and Child Health Plus. Implement federal health care reform in a manner that will ensure enhanced access to quality health care services for low-income New Yorkers.
Ensure Assistance is Available to Lower Income Homeowners Facing Foreclosure. Continue funding for legal services and housing counseling programs to serve homeowners in default on their mortgages.
Enact Equitable Ways to Raise State Revenues while protecting low-income New Yorkers from being taxed disproportionately and ensure that the programs and services they need are not reduced at a time when they become even more critical. Enact the recommendations of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness and the Fiscal Policy Institute.
Funding for Civil Legal Services
- Support the Unified Court System’s request to Provide $15 million to IOLA Fund to avoid substantial funding reduction for core service providers.
- Maintain 2009-10 funding levels in 2010-11 state budget
- Identify and establish permanent state funding streams to close the justice gap and move toward a commitment to meet the demand for civil legal services in New York State
- Create an institutional “home” within government to administer state funding for the delivery of general civil legal services.
Non-Budget Items:
Stop New York’s Low-Income and Minority Children from being poisoned by lead. Work with state and local coalitions to develop and implement comprehensive cross-agency approaches such as those recommended in the state’s Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention of Lead Poisoning Report. This includes maintaining the state’s commitment to local primary prevention programs and improving coordination of health, code-enforcement and social services programs, working to encourage the use of the courts as an effective resource and ensuring that, at a minimum, state funds are not used to pay for housing that is not lead safe.
Increase Access to Education and Training for Public Assistance Recipients. In a period of job instability and increasing unemployment, strengthen New York’s work force by expanding access to education and job training for those on public assistance.
Require New York State to Provide Services to All New Yorkers Equally, regardless of what language the recipient speaks.
Ensure that all New Yorkers Have Access to Quality, Equitable Homeowner’s Insurance Products, by requiring homeowners’ insurance companies to disclose information about cost and types of policies written based on geographic location.
Protect Consumer Finances in a Period of Economic Hardship. Curb the filing of abusive debt collection lawsuits against low and moderate income New Yorkers by making debt collection agencies subject to licensing and bonding provisions and passing the Consumer Credit Fairness Act.
For more information contact: Kristin Brown Lilley, Director of Legislative Advocacy 518-462-6831 ext. 107.
