What's happening
Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.
Why it matters
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A10546
Title of bill
An act making an appropriation to the Schenectady health care practitioner volunteer program
Purpose or general idea of bill
To provide $350,000 for the operation of the Schenectady Health Care Practitioner volunteer program (the Schenectady Free Clinic).
Summary of specific provisions
Section one appropriates $350,000 to the Department of Health for the purpose of funding the Schenectady Health Care practitioner volunteer Program. Section two provides a immediate effective date.
Existing law
In prior years, the Schenectady Health Care Practitioner volunteer program received funding through the Health Commissioner's Priority Pool and through modest Legislative member initiatives.
Justification
The primary source of State funding for the Schenectady Free Clinic has been the Health Commissioner's Priority Pool, which provided $100,000 in each of the first two years of operations, and $200,000 in 2006-07.
Based on conversations with Health Department staff, the Schenectady program expected $300,000 to $400,000 from the Department for 2007-08. During the last week in March, 2007, the Department advised the Schenectady program that they would provide no funding for 2007-08. At that point, it was too late to develop an alternate source of State funding. Since the Schenectady program operates on an annual budget of about $800,000, this loss of support from the Health Department was devastating.
Schenectady County has provided an emergency grant of $50,000, and several pharmaceutical companies have offered to help reduce costs by providing free or low cost prescription medications. However, in the absence of some form of replacement for the Health Department funds which were withdrawn, the Free Clinic has been forced to stop accepting new patients and may now be forced to close.
Prior legislative history
2008: A.8852; Held for consideration in Ways and Means 2007: A.8852; Referred to Ways and Means
Fiscal implications
Appropriates $350,000.
Local fiscal implications
Schenectady County has provided an emergency appropriation of $50,000.
Effective date
Immediate.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.