The $121 billion enacted budget provides necessary and long-overdue resources to our schools while at the same time helping communities hold the line on property taxes. It also builds on the goals advanced in Governor Eliot Spitzer’s budget to reform our state’s health care system while making significant restorations to hospitals and nursing homes. Half of the increase in spending above the governor is dedicated to meeting critical health care needs.

• eliminates the trend factor and the sick tax that severely impact the health care industry;

• addresses the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) decision that requires each child receive a sound, basic education;

• completes the Assembly’s plan to provide statewide universal pre-K;

• significantly reforms the state’s charter school program;

• expands the child care tax credit;

• continues our long-standing commitment to college opportunity programs which make the dream of a college education possible for thousands of students from working families;

• boosts funding to Restore NY Communities Initiative;

• restores New York City participation in the state’s revenue sharing program, beginning in the 2008-2009 fiscal year;

• rejects modifications to the prescription drug program;

• joins the governor in enhancing the STAR program;

• dedicates $500 million for stem cell research and provides a 15 percent increase to the Charitable Trust Foundation from the proceeds of a conversion of a not-for-profit health insurer to a for-profit entity. The Foundation supports programs that expand access to health care and improve health education and outreach;

• provides critical resources toward reducing caseloads of child protective workers;

• increases the basic public assistance grant by 10 percent over a two-year period - the first increase since January, 1990; and

• increases the number of mental-health workers in Office of Children and Families (OCFS) operated facilities to better protect children in the state’s care.

The final state budget improves overall health care and focuses on the most important issue – expanding and improving patient care. The governor sought a new direction for the future of health care in New York, and the final enacted budget makes solid progress toward that goal. The budget will increase access to health care, protect the most vulnerable patients and reform a system that needs adjustment in a measured, prudent way.

Improving the system starts with expanding health care coverage to New York’s 400,000 uninsured children. In order to provide all of New York’s children with access to affordable health care, our final budget expands eligibility for the Child Health Plus insurance program. This health care budget places the focus where it should be – keeping our families healthy. This means the income threshold for the program will increase from 250 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $82,650 for a family of four. The budget also streamlines enrollment for Medicaid and Family Health Plus, eliminating unnecessary red tape and helping 900,000 uninsured adults.

The budget restructures Medicaid and eliminates waste. Medicaid dollars should be spent on Medicaid recipients, not on fraudulent claims for unnecessary services or services never rendered. The budget will eliminate wasteful spending and fraud by identifying the problem areas and committing to new solutions that work. The budget creates a New York State False Claims Act, which provides whistleblowers with an incentive to help root out fraud. In addition, the plan strengthens the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General by adding 157 new positions –including 100 auditors – and providing new powers to the State Attorney General. These actions will save New York taxpayers billions of dollars and help restore the program to the efficient safety net it was once designed to be.

One of the Assembly’s top priorities was to help hospitals, nursing homes and health care workers. That’s why the Assembly fought to provide an additional $355.7 million ($561.6 million all funds) over the governor’s budget for hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies. Everyone at these facilities wants to work together to make sure New Yorkers have access to the best care in the nation. The state budget continues a significant portion of hospital and nursing home “trend factor,” an important inflation adjustment that helps hospitals and nursing homes cover rising medical costs. This will provide $68.5 million ($137 million all funds) to hospitals and $54.5 million ($109 million all funds) to nursing homes statewide so they can continue helping patients. In addition, the final budget eliminates the “sick tax” – a burdensome 0.35 percent tax on hospital gross receipts which amounts to $136.9 million per year.

The health care reforms in this budget will shift Medicaid dollars to hospitals and nursing homes with a higher proportion of Medicaid patients – ensuring help goes to those patients who need it most. The final budget also provides additional pharmacy reimbursements by restoring $17.3 million under Medicaid and $11.6 million under EPIC, a move that will help local pharmacies ensure ready access to needed medications.

Finally, human stem cell research offers immeasurable promise for developing new treatments and even potential cures for many debilitating diseases. Advancing stem cell research is of paramount importance. That’s why the state budget provides $600 million for this research, including $500 million from the conversion of a not-for-profit health insurer to a for-profit entity.

We’ve taken a great step forward in passing a budget that builds a stronger, more affordable health care system that puts the focus back on patients.

A three-way agreement between the Assembly, Senate and Governor has been reached to remove inmates with serious mental illness from segregated confinement and place them in residential mental health treatment units. The agreement is represented in A.9342 and A.9341, which the Assembly plans to pass later this year. Specifically, the legislation will require that state prisoners placed into segregated confinement for disciplinary purposes receive an assessment by a mental health clinician. Inmates diagnosed with serious mental illness must be removed from segregated confinement and placed in a residential mental health treatment unit. In exceptional circumstances, where an inmate’s removal from segregated confinement poses a substantial threat to safety or security, the inmate may remain in segregated confinement. A decision to keep a mentally ill inmate in segregated confinement must be reviewed by central office staff from the Office of Mental Health and the Department of Correctional Services. Inmates remaining in such confinement must receive a heightened level of mental health care including at least two hours of out-of-cell therapy per day. Inmates removed from segregated confinement and placed in treatment units must be provided at least four hours of out-of-cell therapeutic programming each day in addition to other therapeutic activities. All inmates in segregated confinement not initially diagnosed with serious mental illness must receive mental health assessments at regular intervals. Any inmates later found to suffer from serious mental illness or found to have substantially deteriorated mentally must be removed and placed in a residential mental health treatment unit. The bill also requires that all correction officers receive additional training in how to effectively and safely manage inmates with mental illness. Finally, the bill requires the New York State Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities (CQC) to monitor mental health care provided to inmates and to report on the state’s progress in complying with this legislation. The CQC is further directed to appoint an Advisory Committee on Psychiatric Correctional Care which will make recommendations to improve prison-based mental health care. (Delivered to Assembly on 7/16/07.)

Overview

• More than 7,000 inmates, or 11% of the total prison population, are assigned to the mental health caseload and/or receiving psychotropic medication.

• Slightly less than half of these inmates (3,200) have a major mental disorder and require long-term psychiatric treatment.

• Since 1991, the number of inmates with mental illness in NY prisons has grown 71%, three times the rate of the increase of the overall prison population.

SHU (Special Housing Unit)

• 23% of inmates (1,000) in SHU are on the mental health caseload and half of these have been diagnosed with a major mental disorder. It is quite alarming to know that New York’s sole psychiatric hospital for prisoners has a capacity of less than 200.

• Nearly 1/3 of prisoners in SHU had prior psychiatric hospitalization.

• The average SHU stay of inmates with mental illness is 6 times longer than SHU prisoners.

• Over 1/3 of the system’s suicides occur in SHU.

• The average stay for these mentally ill inmates is more than 3 years.

• There is no limit to the length of time a prisoner can be sentenced to SHU.

• Some mentally ill inmates are released directly from SHU back to society.

The Assembly passed a comprehensive reform plan (A.6663-A), which I sponsored, to build on the drug law reforms of 2004 and 2005. The Assembly’s Rockefeller Drug Law reform bill would expand the availability of drug treatment as a potential alternative to mandatory prison for lower-level, non-violent drug offenders; increase penalties for violent drug dealers and drug “kingpins;” and provide greater discretion to judges in fashioning sentences designed to reduce recidivism and protect the public. It also would create new crimes for possession of a firearm in the sale of drugs and for drug sales by adults to children. Under the bill, the use of drug courts would be increased with the requirement that one be created in each county. At the discretion of the judges of these courts, lower-level, non-violent defendants, who are suffering from an addiction to a controlled substance, could be diverted to Court Approved Drug Abuse Treatment (CADAT) as a potential alternative to a lengthy prison term. To crack down on the gun violence frequently present in drug-related crimes, the bill also would set a five-year minimum determinate sentence for individuals convicted of possessing a loaded firearm or disguised gun while selling or attempting to sell drugs. The Assembly recognizes that the existing law continues to be badly flawed and that further changes are needed. Therefore, my bill fulfills our commitment by providing for a more sensible, comprehensive and cost-effective approach for dealing with lower-level drug offenders and addicts. (Delivered to Senate on 4/18/07.)

The bill (A.6621/S.3039), provides the reimbursement of counseling expenses for relief workers or individuals who personally witnessed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. This bill establishes that traumatized bystanders who were within a 10-block radius of the WTC site when the attack occurred and relief workers would continue to have their counseling services reimbursed until December 31, 2007. The benefit is available without regard to the resident or financial difficulty of a claimant. The rate of reimbursement is determined by the claimant’s treating counselor or independent medical examiner and is based on a percentage of the counseling service that is related to the claimant’s injury that is a direct result of the 9/11 attack. There is no cap on the reimbursement expenses. Furthermore, to assist the families who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack, the bill would permanently eliminate the Surrogate Court’s filing fees in any matter relating to the estates or affairs of persons missing or deceased as a result of the 9/11 tragedy. Nevertheless, the bill would make permanent the payment of reasonable burial expenses for victims of the attack. (Delivered to governor on 4/6/07 and governor signed Chapter 21 on 4/17/07.)

The Healthy Schools Act (A.8698) would require the State Department of Education in consultation with the Department of Health, to establish nutritional and dietary standards for school meals as well as snacks and beverages sold by public schools, charter schools, boards of cooperative educational services and private schools that participate in the federal school lunch program. The new standards would promote a healthful diet and reflect the nutritional needs of students, according to their age and grade level. Any school districts that participate in the federal school lunch program must implement a breakfast program in their middle and high schools. In order to minimize the cost to the school districts, the state will provide $40 million to fund additional reimbursements which will provide a 15 cent increase for every free meal a school district serves. Subsequently, this will allow 35 million free meals to be served to 254,000 students across the state who currently receive meals at a reduced price.

In addition, the Healthy Schools Act would:

• require snacks and beverages that are available in schools to meet the new nutritional dietary standards with an emphasis on unsweetened fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, nut butter and seeds. Beverages would be restricted to water, milk and 100 percent fruit and vegetable juice. School meals would be required to be trans-fat free.

• mandate that food products sold by school vending machines and stores subscribe to the act’s healthy food requirements.

• require school districts to establish “School Wellness Policies” that would recommend minimum eating time periods, an additional nutritional education curriculum, opportunities to increase physical activity and the purchase of fresh and/or organic fruits and vegetables and dairy products produced by local or regional farms.

• mandate the state commissioner of the Department of Health to initiate a media campaign that promotes the positive connection between child health, physical activity and academic performance. (Delivered to Senate on 5/31/07.)

The Assembly passed A.6162, which provides for the civil commitment of New York’s worst sex offenders. This bill enacts a comprehensive program for the management of persons convicted of a felony sex offense and authorizes, when necessary, additional court-ordered conditions of supervision or further confinement after they have completed their prison terms. The bill calls for the State Attorney General to decide when to seek civil commitment of individuals who have completed a sentence for a sex offense and are determined by a state panel of mental health professionals to suffer from a mental abnormality. A jury ultimately decides whether the person should be civilly committed. If confinement is not ordered, the sex offender could be placed under civil supervision.

In addition, this bill toughens penalties for convicted sex offenders by:

• eliminating the option of parole for felony sex-offenses;

• providing long-term, post release supervision for those convicted of sex-offense felonies;

• moving five existing crimes into the “violent crime” category, including second-degree rape and fourth-degree aggravated sexual abuse; and

• creating the crime of “Sexually Motivated Felony” in cases where certain other crimes, like burglary and robbery, are committed for the sexual gratification of the perpetrator (Delivered to governor on 3/8/07 and governor signed Chapter 7 on 3/14/07.)

A.3208-A – Protects Employees with Criminal Records from Discrimination
Article 23-A of Correction Law prohibits unfair discrimination against individuals with criminal records whose convictions are unrelated to the job sought and do not constitute a threat to safety. However, the anti-discrimination protections of Article 23-A apply only to applicants for employment or occupational licenses who have criminal convictions and provides no protection to current employees or license holders who face unfair discrimination based on criminal records that predate their employment or licensure. This legislation extends the anti-discrimination protections to current employees and license holders and addresses an inconsistency in the current law which requires employers to individually consider each person with a criminal history who applies for a job but does not extend that protection to individuals who are already employed. (Delivered to governor on 7/6/2007 and governor signed Chapter 284 on 7/18/07.)

A.3286 – Allows the board of parole to grant parole for deportation from an indeterminate or a determinate sentence. This legislation reaffirms that drug offenders who are serving a determinate term of imprisonment are eligible for early parole for deportation purposes. (Delivered to governor on 7/6/07 and governor signed Chapter 239 on 7/18/07.)

A.3379-A – Protects Youthful Offenders from Unfair Discrimination in Employment
This legislation will protect persons who have a youthful offender adjudication or non-criminal violation from unfair discrimination in obtaining employment. Records of youthful offender adjudications and non-criminal violations are sealed under the law and are not supposed to be used by employers to deny employment. However, before passage of this bill, the law did not expressly bar employers from denying employment based upon these non-criminal findings. The bill corrects this oversight and will ensure that persons who receive youthful offender status or are convicted of a non-criminal violation do not suffer unfair discriminatory treatment when applying for employment. (Delivered to governor on 8/16/07 and governor signed Chapter 639 on 8/28/07.)

A.3397-B – Permanently Ends Excessive Prison Telephone Rates
For the last ten years, New York State has charged families, friends and loved ones of inmates excessively high telephone rates. Before this year, the average person receiving a collect call from a prisoner could expect to pay 630% more than if they were to receive a call from someone outside the prison system. This was an unconscionable practice. In addition, many correctional facilities are in remote locations and phone calls are often the only way that inmates can directly contact family members and loved ones. Thankfully, as part of the 2007-08 state budget, Governor Spitzer renegotiated the telephone contract and ended the commission, or “kickback”, that the state receives from the telephone carrier which drives up the cost of these calls. The Governor’s action should reduce the cost of these calls by 50% or more. This legislation makes this policy permanent and ensures that inmate telephone rates will remain reasonably priced and accessible. (Delivered to governor on 7/6/2007 and governor signed Chapter 240 on 7/18/07.)

A.4332-A – Protects Inmates from Sexual Abuse
Current law recognizes that inmates do not have the free will to consent to sexual relations with employees of the correctional facility in which they are incarcerated. Therefore, if an employee of a correctional facility engages in sexual relations with an inmate, such employee is guilty of rape. This legislation expands the definition of “employee” to include volunteers and contractors who provide direct services to inmates. This will provide greater protection to inmates and ensure that persons who violate an inmate’s right to be free from sexual abuse are held criminally liable. (Delivered to governor 7/6/07 and governor signed Chapter 335 on 7/18/07.)

A.6848 – Provides that security supervisors in the Department of Correctional Services, who are peace officers, shall annually receive $1,800 of inconvenience pay. (Delivered to governor 3/29/07 and governor signed Chapter 18 on 4/9/07.)

A.8198 – Establishes that when probation supervision is transferred from one county to another, the receiving county has jurisdiction over all aspects of the supervision. (Delivered to governor 6/22/07 and governor signed Chapter 191 on 7/3/07.)

A.8592-B – Established a probation detainer warrant pilot project. The state director of the state probation and correctional alternatives will designate four counties in which probation authorities will have the legal authority to issue temporary detainer warrants for certain high-risk probationers. (Delivered to governor 7/6/07 and governor signed Chapter 377 on 7/18/07.)

The final state budget makes a historic investment in New York’s education system, providing an unprecedented $19.3 billion with a $1.7 billion increase from last year, to help students succeed in an ever-changing global economy. Additionally, under the final state budget, New York City will receive $7.5 billion to cover all educational expenses. The Assembly has long championed an educational approach that stresses three Rs – Reform + Resources = Results, and this year’s budget is certainly the right equation for our children.

The state budget continues our effort in the Assembly to help provide every single one of our children with not just a sound, basic education – but a first-class, quality education that will help them be successful in life. Included in the budget is the governor’s new foundation education formula for predictable, stable and transparent funding – something the Assembly has insisted on for over a decade.

Education is the key to success, and that’s why the Assembly supports raising the bar in our schools. This will undoubtedly better prepare our children for higher education and to compete in the ever-changing world.

The budget requires New York City to prepare a Contract for Excellence that must include, among other initiatives, a plan to reduce average class sizes within five years in the specified grade ranges and class size reduction for low performing and overcrowded schools. Comparing the average class size in New York City to the rest of the state reveals an overwhelming disparity – a disparity we must end. The spending plan steers state aid coming to the city to comply with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling toward this important goal. No matter how experienced and dedicated the teacher, when there are too many children in a classroom, it’s inevitable that some children will slip through the cracks. This is something that we can prevent. All the research indicates that smaller classes improve student performance, and the bipartisan budget addresses this issue.

The budget provides $43.4 million more to advance the Assembly’s plan to provide statewide universal pre-K and ensure that every 4-year-old in the state has the opportunity to get a head start on school by the 2010-11 academic years. This expansion will allow more New York children to reap the lasting benefits of attending pre-K, which studies show again and again give our children an advantage in student achievement, college enrollment and future earnings.

The state budget authorizes 100 more charter schools while instituting reforms to ease the financial impact on local school districts, increase accountability, and ensure communities have a voice in where they are located. Some communities welcome charter schools as an innovative way to improve educational opportunities for their children. This budget plan will help ensure charter schools open in communities where they make sense, while protecting the students who attend our traditional public schools.

The final state budget makes a significant investment in New York’s higher education system and provides college students with the resources they need to succeed. Increases in operating aid for SUNY/CUNY and community colleges did not come at the expense of students, there will be no increase in tuition at these institutions and Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and higher education opportunity programs will continue to receive their funding. The increases in operating aid will help institutions maintain high standards and attract the best faculty. The budget provides $62 million more than the governor proposed for higher education, and $278.5 million more than last year. In addition, the state budget adds $7 million more than last year for Educational Opportunity Centers and Attain Labs to help students of all ages acquire new skills and succeed in the workforce. To help ward off tuition increases or local property tax hikes, the budget increases state support for community colleges by $150 per full-time student over last year. Statewide, SUNY community colleges will receive $8.16 million over the governor’s budget and $24.4 million over last year. CUNY community colleges will receive $3 million over the executive proposal and $9.4 million over last year. To help working families afford a college education, the budget provides a 3 percent, or $3.1 million, increase over last year in programs such as EOP, HEOP, SEEK, and Liberty Partnerships. Furthermore, the funding for the College Discovery program increased by 5 percent. This budget reflects the Legislatures’ commitment to properly funding public colleges and universities and the future of all college students.

The final state budget provides $102.2 million to New York State libraries. This funding will aid in the expansion of resources within these public facilities and will be beneficial in providing a learning environment that is conducive for children and their families. Presently, many public libraries statewide are incorporating newly advanced technology and reading programs that will aid in the development of children’s literacy skills.

Libraries were once known as ancient places to browse through dust covered books in dimmed rooms, but now they are a place for people of all ages to utilize state-of-the art computer systems for internet access and research programs, to participate in summer reading programs and attend library events. These particular library events and programs like lectures, storytelling and after-school programs will not only broaden an individual’s literacy development but encourage them to seek life long learning.

Fortunately, there are dedicated librarians that pride themselves on making the library experience more of an interactive environment that is an enjoyable place not only for kids but families. They know that libraries are a vital part of the community. The vitality of libraries will rest on the Legislature’s ability to continue to fund New York State public libraries, to ensure the continual support of literacy and critical skills development amongst children and their families. At the end of the day, the love of reading and the dedication and skills of librarians, brings excitement to all who enter into this extraordinary learning environment.