LiveOn NY Response to the New York State Budget
New York, NY – This week, the State of New York released its Fiscal Year 2027 State Budget. LiveOn NY released the following statement:
"New York's $268 billion budget tinkers at the edges while older New Yorkers wait for real change. Hundreds of nonprofit organizations across the state are being asked to do everything with nothing to meet the needs of our rapidly aging population, and the state missed an opportunity to deliver for them with its own Master Plan for Aging.
Some wins in this budget demonstrate a growing recognition of the need. In doubling the funding for N/NORCs, the state has acknowledged the value of formal infrastructure to support people growing older in their homes and communities. This investment will expand an excellent evidence-based and inexpensive framework for community service delivery.
Similarly, increasing the eligibility for SCRIE as well as other reforms to modernize the rent increase exemption program will help many older New Yorkers stay in their homes. Our members serve older folks every day who are one rent increase away from eviction and we are thankful the state has enacted efforts to address this.Two things can be true: these investments will be life-changing for thousands of New Yorkers, and they are tiny compared to what our state needs.
New York is putting band-aids on a crisis. Failing to fund Proposal 50 of the Master Plan on Aging – Funding Aging Services – means that older New Yorkers will not have the evidence-based preventive care that would save us billions on Medicaid. It means that the state has decided to prioritize for-profit institutional care, and the private equity firms which profit from it, over the community care that we need. It also means that tens of thousands of New Yorkers opt out of the workforce or struggle to keep their jobs because they can’t find common-sense , affordable and community options (like Meals-on-Wheels and case management) for aging family members.
We have solutions that work– and yet budget after budget we are choosing to ignore the needs of not just older New Yorkers, but the daughters and sons who quit their jobs, deplete their savings, and sacrifice their futures to fill the gaps the state refuses to close.
The state spent years working with stakeholders on the Master Plan for Aging – and it’s unconscionable to have no clear path towards implementing the over one hundred validated and approved recommendations. A Master Plan without implementation is just a document. LiveOn NY will continue to fight for huge systemic change because this is unacceptable to us, to our hundreds of member and partner organizations who serve thousands of older adults in crisis, and the millions of older New Yorkers who built our state."
