New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) President Melinda Person released the following statement in response to this year’s final budget agreement: NYSUT and nearly 700,000 Members across the State this year made their voices heard to win a budget that supports public schools, colleges and the Labor Movement.  We thank the Legislature and Governor (Kathy Hochul) for a final agreement that demonstrates these priorities.  This budget will support our current Educators and attract new educators by continuing the process of fixing Tiers 5 and 6 in the Pension System.  It will boost the impact of our colleges and universities with additional funding and require a collaborative process to revitalize SUNY (State University of New York) Downstate.  It will restore the majority of proposed cuts to public school funding - and importantly, will begin the process of updating the Foundation Aid formula to ensure every student in the State has access to a sound, basic education.  New York can and will lead the country with strong communities, engaged citizens and a world-class Workforce.  Our Union advocacy in this year’s State budget puts us on the road to do just that.

Meanwhile, 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers East President George Gresham and Kenneth Raske, who serves as President of the Greater New York Hospital Association, released the following statement: The final budget agreement represents a significant improvement from Governor Hochul’s initial proposal - which contained over $1 billion in Medicaid cuts - and highlights the immense importance of our ongoing Medicaid Equity Campaign.  The New York State Legislature clearly heard the voices of their constituents, tens of thousands of whom made calls, wrote letters and told their health care stories in the halls of our State Capitol and on the airwaves.  This budget represents a meaningful first step towards reducing and ultimately eliminating the Medicaid coverage gap.  Thanks to the advocacy of Speaker Carl Heastie and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, it includes a vitally needed $800 million in support for struggling safety net institutions.  We are also very encouraged that the State will pursue Federal approval for a Managed Care Organization Tax, which is an essential building block for an adequately funded Medicaid System.  But this budget is not perfect - the down-payment on a Medicaid rate increase is less than what is truly needed to ensure access for Medicaid consumers and safeguard standards for quality care.  We are also grateful that the final agreement rejected cuts to wages for Home Care Workers and care for home care consumers, instead finding savings in unnecessary administrative costs.  While the transition to a new Home Care System will be challenging, we will work tirelessly to ensure that the voices of Home Care Workers and consumers are heard and that mission-driven providers remain an important part of service delivery and consumer support.  Medicaid Equity is a moral and racial justice issue.  This is why health advocates, Medicaid patients, Front-Line Caregivers and hundreds of ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, and others from New York's Faith Communities have joined together to fight for it.  As we have said from Day 1, the effort to reduce health care disparities in low-income communities and end Medicaid under-payments to hospitals and nursing homes will be a difficult, multi-year effort.  This budget is only the beginning, and we will not rest until health care justice is achieved.