New York State SmartTranscripts:

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Good morning, everyone. First, happy New Year. Thank you all for being here, to our first meeting of the Social Services Committee. As I like to say, it is the best committee that anyone can be a part of because it's a committee where we we are trying to make sure we enhance the lives of the constituency that whom we serve. So before I start, we do have a forum based on the members in person and the voting sheets that we have on hand. So thank you all for that. So I am going to start. I am Senator Roxanne Persaud. As you all know, I'm the chairperson of the committee. Good morning again. We are joined by a number of staff members here and as it's our first meeting, I want to make sure everyone of you knows who the staff members are. So, first, we have Dennis Weekly, our committee director. We have Lauren Walsh, our legislative director, Tyler Simmons, who is our fellow. He's the one giving you the forms and then we have a number of staff here. Everyone sees all of the stuff. I'm not gonna say everybody's name. Just stand up so everybody can see you. I want you to all stand up so they can see you. Come on. Make sure. I want you guys to see the fabulous staff that we have here who helps us with all of the things that we have that we need to do. As I said before, this is a committee where we are working diligently to ensure that we're enhancing the lives of New Yorkers. And then so thank you very much everyone. Thank you. And then we have our our ranker, Senator Murray. He was here on time. He wanted me to make sure I knew that. Senator White. Senator White. Yes. They wanted to make sure I knew that. I was the first one here. Senator Kavanagh. Senator Kavanagh, you know, he thinks I was mean. I was mean this morning saying, make sure you're up here, you know? Oh, okay. And he's so you're here. So, thank you all for being here. So, during the 2025 legislative session, we had 87 bills that were referred to us. We had five meetings. 31 of those bills were reported. 25 committee bills passed the senate and five ultimately passed both houses. And two were signed and three were vetoed and we're going to continue working on that. Also in 2025, the committee hosted two stakeholder workshops, engagement meetings, and co chaired one public hearing with the committee in housing and aging. We heard from witnesses about rental assistance. It's something that we understand in this committee. It's you know that we need to work on. And we talked about also the need for expanding it and ensuring that we assist those in need and so there that we prevent eviction. We know if we prevent eviction, we prevent homelessness and we have a serious homelessness problem across our state that we we intend to continue working on and you know, I wanna say thank you to the members of this committee who have been committed to working on that with me. I I know Senator Murray, you know, he sends me notes all the time. He wants to make sure, you know, and I appreciate that that he's committed to working with us on that. We also had a youth engagement meeting where we spoke about with youth about employment and the barriers that they are facing to you know moving ahead. So we're going to continue working with that. We did the human trafficking in the transportation sector. Something that we are going to continue working on. And in a few months we are going to have the a display here so that people can see what really occurs in the human trafficking space when it comes to the trucking industry. So we want all of you to be aware of that. The information will be posted and we want you to participate in that so that you can go back to your respective communities and talk about that. Human trafficking is a serious issue and we continue to work on that. Our our annual report for last year is going to be available soon on the Senate's website and each member will also receive a copy in their offices. So, with that being said, I will ask Senator Murray as our ranker if he has anything that he wishes to say.

[Senator Dean Murray (Ranking Member)]: Yes, actually. I wanna, first off, I wanna thank our chairwoman for as you read off the list of things you do and and this committee does, I think it's very telling how active the committee is because of you and your staff to keep us informed, keep the information flowing, because this year is going to be a a contentious year. It's a lot of question marks regarding the federal government. What kind of help will we be getting, if any? I think we'll have our disagreements on on certain things. I know a lot are worried about accountability and and, you know, we talk about the fraud and the waste and all this. But we have to also talk about the fact that, as you said, this is a committee that helps people. And there are New Yorkers who need help. It is our job to make sure we do all we can to make sure they get it. But we have to make sure it's also done in a responsible way. So there isn't the more freight, fraud, waste and abuse. So as I said, it's going to be an interesting year, a challenging year, but I think we can make it a very good year for New Yorkers by working together to come up with solutions.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: I'm really looking forward to it.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Well, thank you very much. Senator Kavanagh, Senator Weikh, anyone want to say a few words?

[Senator Brian Kavanagh (Member)]: Just very briefly, I guess, if I may. First of I all, would I want to begin just by thanking you for your partnership on the thing you mentioned already, the our efforts to ensure that there's rental assistance available. You know, the hearing we did last year jointly with housing, which I chair and this great committee and aging really was sort of a critical step. We did manage to enact the housing access voucher program last year, which has been about half a decade in the making. And I think it's fair to say a lot of us will be working this year to ensure that the budget includes additional funding for that critical program, which is basically a Section eight style rental assistance program for funded by New York State. Also made have made progress in the last couple of years on ensuring there's funding available when people are facing eviction on an emergency basis. So the Shelter Reavers Eviction for Installment Act is something that the executive has embraced and has been rolling out. And again, that's that's something that goes through HDA and it really is a very efficient way to ensure that people don't experience homelessness at the moment someone is facing eviction because they are short, maybe just a few months rent stepping in and paying that rent and keeping them in their homes is something we've had a lot of success doing in New York City, but is something that has been less prevalent in

[Paul Brady (Executive Director, New York Public Welfare Association)]: the rest

[Senator Brian Kavanagh (Member)]: of the state. So that's a we know again that was funded last year at $10,000,000 That's actually a significant fraction of the need, but we'll be looking for for more this year. So again, thank you for your leadership on these issues, and I look forward to working with you and everyone on the committee on those issues.

[Senator Alexis Weik (Member)]: You. Yeah. I mean, great points have been brought up. Checks and balances are vital to make sure that the money that gets allocated for these programs are in place. But more than that, I feel like a lot of these bills are never considered within the budget. And that's a big burden to put on localities. And so I hope that this year, a lot of the bills that we entertain, that we research and and vote on and take the time to consider that they're actually considered within the budget and they're funded so that they actually stand a a chance to to have a life in our states that they can support the individuals who these bills are drawn for.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Oh, thank you all very much, Adena. As we will continue to fight for that too because again, it's about the 50 New Yorkers. So, the more we get in in the budget, you know, the better off we'll be. So again, thank you all very much and before we begin today's business, we have two special guests. I know Senator Murray was on a meeting with us, you know, and it's so we're seeing them in person now but they are they represent the New York State Association of Counties and New York Public Welfare Association. And so it's Paul Brady who's the executive director of New York Public Welfare Association. And Dave Lucas, director of finance and integrative affairs, New York State Association of Counties. These gentlemen will just give us an insight as to what they do and some of the things they're fighting for and that they are working with us on. So I will start with Paul.

[Paul Brady (Executive Director, New York Public Welfare Association)]: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I appreciate everybody's time this morning. For those of you that don't know who I am, the chairperson has mentioned, I'm Paul Brady. I'm the executive director of the New York Public Welfare Association. We represent all of the social service districts throughout the state of New York. I myself, I've been the executive director of the association for three years now. But prior to that, I spent thirty eight years working in social service districts throughout the state. We, as I mentioned, are representing, the smallest, Hamilton County to New York City and pretty much everything in between. We do a lot of advocacy on behalf of the district's technical assistance, assisting, with legislation policy. We do a lot of work with OTDA and, and OCFS. You know, some of the things that we're focused on right now is obviously the withholding letter from HHS and the implications that that can potentially have to the social service districts. It primarily revolves around TANF funding, which is cash assistance. It's also child welfare funding that is tied up in that housing goes along with TANF allocations. Then you have the child care block grant, which is very important to districts. You know, I I think that you've probably heard that, you know, some districts are in a circumstance where they're expanding the allocation that they have as as part of the state budget, but some of that money is actually federally funded. So we're paying very close attention to that. And then to a lesser degree is the social services block grant, which is about $93,000,000. But that that funds adult protective domestic violence services as well as some child welfare. That's a that's kind of an immediate issue because we know that we've got a temporary restraining order that will be expiring at some point later this week, and we're hoping that the attorney general's office is gonna be successful with that litigation. That's not gonna be an ongoing concern. That said, we have h r one that we are dealing with, and we know that, obviously, it's been passed. It has implications to to the districts. It has implications to the clientele that we serve. You know, we're concerned about the workload requirements, you know, not only on the clients, but also on staffing. And Dave is going to talk a little bit about that when we get to his part of the presentation. But there's been obviously a shift on administrative expenses related to snap. It hits in the fourth quarter of this calendar year, the first quarter of the federal fiscal year. It's $168,000,000 to local districts. And that's had some impact in terms of county budgets for this fiscal year. You know, as as counties are going through the process of developing their budgets last year for '26, knowing that they've got this additional expense for the quarter, there were basically basically some staffing issues. If you had vacancies, those vacancies got swept. So it's got implications for for the workforce. When you have implications related to the workforce, you have to look at how do we deal with that. Do we you know, are there ways to be able to use technology to be able to optimize, you know, the work that still remains to be done? And then you've got issues related to, you know, just the recipients and their ability to be able to be engaged in the workforce, because that's going to be it's a requirement for SNAP. It's going to be a requirement for the Medicaid program. And then, you know, we have our ongoing issues that we're dealing with. Housing is huge. And I'm sure you probably heard that, you know, in your localities. You know, the numbers of homeless are unprecedented in just about every district right now. Obviously, we're advocating for, you know, consideration of the shelter allowance as it currently stands. You know, senator Kavanagh has mentioned, you know, RSP, the rental supplement program, the shelter arrears eviction forestallment program. You know, all of those programs have been extremely helpful. And, you know, we're certainly, very supportive of that, but we would really like to see something happen with, the shelter allowances. You know, we don't think that they're you know, they have not been adjusted in many, many years, and they're not adequate for for people to be able to secure any sort of a rental. On top of that, you know, we're looking at our safety net population, which drives a lot of the homeless. The safety net are the singles, the childless couples. And, obviously, the percentage there is split between the counties and the state. 71% of the counties, 29% of the state. And we'd like to see that be restored to where it had been historically, which was 5050. So that's those are those are some issues that we're paying very close attention to and advocating on behalf of us. That's

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: up to

[Paul Brady (Executive Director, New York Public Welfare Association)]: the New York Public Law Offer Association.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Thank you. Now, Dave.

[Dave Lucas (Director of Finance and Government Affairs, NYSAC)]: Thank you. I'm Dave Lucas. I'm the director of finance and our government affairs at NYSAC. I've been at NISAAC for about fifteen years after doing stints in DC, working for governor Pataki and also for governor Schwarzenegger. Washington is a different place than when I was there during the 2005. A lot of what's going to be happening, I think, for this committee this year and in the budget is dealing with the HR1 and the federal response. Paul's hit on a lot of the high notes. You know, the counties are taking a do no do no harm approach to this budget. We know it's an election year and some of the federal stuff takes a little bit of time to happen. We're pushing we're working with our affiliate nationally which is NACO and NGA and other groups. One of the things we're trying to do and we would encourage the legislature here and the governor's office and we do meet regularly with the governor's DC office on on these issues when we're down there. But it's to do a delay on the snap implementation. There's different deadlines for different states depending on where their error rate is, and this was really done in the senate to make sure they could pass the bill in the in the senate. So some states were granted a longer lead time to prepare. We think all states should have the same deadlines when it comes to preparing for this, and there is a proposal to push it to 2030. And we support that because there's a lot of work to do on the ground, Paul mentioned, from a staffing perspective. We are having an extremely difficult time across county government, regardless of the social services program or corrections or whatever. We're having a very hard time hiring people. Our salaries is one of the biggest drivers right now at the local level, especially at the county level. I know other local governments are having the same issues. We're poaching from each other. Some towns pay more in some counties, and we're seeing our highway department staff going over to the town because the town can pay a little bit better for a position. So the last two years the comptroller has finally acknowledged and this has been built into the pension payments that we're making and they've boosted the salary baseline to 5%. We haven't been close to that in twenty years. The average is usually 2% to 3% is what's factored in. To attract workers, we're having to pay a lot more. Training is gonna be a big issue going forward for the implementation of HR one on SNAP and the Medicaid and the work requirements. They're not totally different work requirements than what we have today. It's just the population we're doing the work for is gonna be enormously bigger. And you got to sit down with these people face to face sometimes, so that requires a lot of staff. We want to use technology resources when we can. We've had some counties using some online things now, some AI things for public assistance eligibility and determination and to improve timelines as meeting the standard and getting the cases through. Some counties have gone from 48% to 98% efficiency in meeting all the deadlines on their public assistance cases. SNAP and Medicaid are going be a little different, different parameters there, but we're hoping some of the technology can help because we are having issues enrolling, getting new staff in. On the staffing front, you know, we're pushing for an increase in retiree earnings cap from 35 to 50 ks. We're thinking maybe some people would stay a little bit longer to help train the next workforce. We think the state's gonna need to help out in this approach as well and maybe doing some subsidizing of education for certain fields, especially in the social services area, maybe debt assistance, something of that matter. I think the legislature is very creative in that. Know, during COVID, we did temporary bonuses for nursing staff. I think we're reaching a point with HR one is to bring in enough people to do this work. We may have to look at some of those types of incentives going forward. The other issue too is we've seen some tightening in county budgets. For the first time in over a decade, we have 10 counties going over the property tax cap in 2026. We haven't seen numbers like that since 2014 when the cap was first implemented the first couple of years. And a lot of it's got to do with, you know, the COVID money has run out. Counties received the share of the enhanced FMAP under the affordable care act, which the state has decided to keep for themselves. That happened a couple of years ago. That was done administratively by governor Hochul. That was $600,000,000 that's no longer available to counties in New York City on an annual basis. And there's been some other cost shifts that are tightened. And I had mentioned the salary needs, pension costs, and health insurance has gone up quite a bit. Those are kind of base things on a county budget that tend not to go down once they go up. So counties are prepping. They're also prepping because they know they're going to have to hire more staff to implement the federal stuff. Those are the key things we're looking at. But we're always available if folks have questions going forward.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Well, thank you both very much for giving us that overview. You know, I know you guys are going to stick around. So, my colleagues, if they have a questions to ask you, they will do so once we're finished with the bills but again, thank you. I know, you know, we had a very good conversation couple weeks ago and so hence,

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: we

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: ask you to come to this meeting. So again, thank you very much. We've been joined by Senator Cleare. So, thank you for being here, Senator Cleare. Would you like to say anything before we get into the bills? Thank you very much. So, now, we have seven bills in our agenda and all but one of these bills going to the finance committee. So, Dennis will read.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Okay. Senate Bill one eighty D by Senator Persaud. This is going to finance an act to amend the social services law in relation to increasing the amount certain individuals are eligible for when receiving enhanced residential care.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Is there any question?

[Senator Alexis Weik (Member)]: Move the bill.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Bill is moved by senator Weikh, second by senator Clare. All in favor? Aye. Saying aye. Any without rec? No. No? The bill is moved.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Senate bill one eighty two by senator Persaud to be reported to finance an act to amend the social services law in relation to increasing the federal poverty level requirement for recipients of social services where concerns the one time disregard of income following job entry for up to six consecutive months.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Any questions? We have a motion. Motion by Senator Clare, second by Senator De Kavanagh. All in favor? Aye. Any abstentions? Without wreck? Sorry. I'm without wreck. Senator Weikh without wreck. The bill is reported. Senate

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: bill one eighty four by senator Persaud to be reported to finance an act to amend the social services law in relation to establishing a full year full year youth and young adult employment immersion program.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Any questions? Yes. Yes.

[Senator Dean Murray (Ranking Member)]: So I had this concern last year too and that's the funding. Where's where is the funding for the full year coming from? I know we we had 50,000,000 in federal funding for the summer youth program, but I don't see anything identified as to where the funding would come from to expand this to full year.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: So, we're looking at the general funds to get to, as you know, I've said, we need a billion dollars to cover. Yes. Yeah. It's important. So, that's why we're fighting to have the funding included. We must find creative ways to ensure that our youth are engaged and and so training them and so but we're looking to put it towards general fund to to get the funding.

[Senator Dean Murray (Ranking Member)]: Is there a way to identify exactly when it can't be 50,000,000 to a billion? No, no,

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: no, I don't. What would be what what we're talking about phasing it in? Yes.

[Senator Dean Murray (Ranking Member)]: What the the overall cost would be? Can we find that out? Yeah. To explain. Yes. Yeah. Alright. Thank you.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: May I have a motion? Motion by senator Kavanagh, second senator Cleare. All in favor?

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Aye. Aye.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Any with outright? Without right. Without right. Senator Murray and senator White without right. And the bill is reported.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Senate bill fourteen sixty five by senator Serrano to be reported to finance an act to amend the social services law in relation to implementing an electronic benefit transfer system.

[Senator Dean Murray (Ranking Member)]: Murray's favorite. If I could just make a statement about time now, I'm glad the governor recognized it and is is saying she's going to do it. I hope it's true, and I hope we see this come through because the amount of money we've lost literally coming off of the the tables of needy New Yorkers when they are taking money and skimming it, stealing it off of these cards. The frustrating part is DOL is already using a similar type technology with chip technology in their some of their benefit programs. So the reason for us to not have done this years ago is is extremely frustrating. And I think a disservice to those New Yorkers who really need it. So I I really do hope this gets done, whether it's legislatively through this bill or the governor doing it in the budget. It needs to get done.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Thank you. I agree with you. And as late as the December, we were having meetings with the governor's team talking about the importance of this. So, you know, we were all pleased when we saw that and we were told that they were going to include this. So, you know, we're moving forward. May I have a motion? So, everyone wants to move the bill. Yes. So, the bill is Senator Claire and everyone else has moved the bill and so we haven't moved one second And I'm assuming there is no without that. No. Okay. The bill will be moved.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Okay. The next bill is senate bill thirty seven eighty seven by senator Myers to be reported to finance an act to amend the social services law in relation to eliminating rent for homeless shelters and to repeal certain provisions of such law relating to their chair.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: So question of the bill? We have a motion. Motion. Motion by senator Cavanagh. Second by senator Clare. All in favor?

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Aye. Aye.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Any without rec? Senator Weikh without rec? Negative. Senator Murray is a negative.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Yeah. It's reported.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: To both bills reported.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Senate bill seventy seven thirty eight by senator Bernard is to be reported for finance and active in the social services law in relation to authorizing certain shelters to be reimbursed for housing a single individual in a room intended for double occupancy.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: Questions on the bill? We have a motion. Senator Cleare moves the bill. Senator Kavanagh seconds. All in favor? Aye. Without rank? The bill is reported.

[Dennis Weekly (Committee Director)]: Okay. The last bill, senate bill eighty five seventy by senator Persaud. This is going to first reading. An act of establishing the fiscal cliff task force to conduct a study on fiscal cliffs in the state's public assistance programs and to make recommendations related there too and providing for the repeal of such provision upon expiration thereof.

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: So as you all know, go ahead, Secretary.

[Senator Dean Murray (Ranking Member)]: I was just gonna ask. I I know the governor keeps vetoing. I I don't get it. This thank you, by the way, for your persistence and keep pushing this because it makes sense. Maybe that's why she's vetoing it. But but I haven't really seen a reason. Did she give a real in the message other than the fact she's lumping it in with other task force bills. Is there any logical reason why she's she's vetoed?

[Senator Roxanne J. Persaud (Chair)]: No, they have said, you know, we need funding the budget and the senate proposed that last year. Right. But it was still vetoed and so we again, we had this conversation with her team in December and so they promised to work with us on this and so we're hopeful that this year someone will see the light and the bill will be signed. Sure. Hope so. So, may I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Senator Murray. Second by Senator Claire. All in favor? Aye. Any diseltering? No. The bill is reported. And that concludes our social services committee meeting for today. Thank you all for joining us. And our meeting is adjourned.