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Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 62
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to social services
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Relates to a cost of living adjustment for designated human services for the purpose of establishing rates of payments
In Assembly Committee · Mental Health · Sponsor Linda Rosenthal
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend part C of chapter 57 of the laws of 2006, relating to establishing a cost of living adjustment for designated human services programs, in relation to extending COLA provisions for the purpose of establishing rates of payments and the effectiveness thereof
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill extends the current Human Services COLA for an additional three years and revises the COLA formula in order to make the annual COLA more predictable
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 of the bill would limit the current Human Services COLA formula to the current fiscal year.
Section 2 of the bill would extend the Human Services COLA for three more years until March 31, 2022. The COLA would be based on the Annual CPI - Urban, excluding food and energy as published by the United States Department of Labor
Section 3 is the effective date.
Justification
In 2006 the state created a three year Human Services COLA to provide fiscal relief to providers of state funded services in order to address inflationary cost increases. The Human Services COLA was extended for a second 3 year period in 2009. Unfortunately, due to the serious fiscal difficulties the State faced beginning in 2009, the Human Services COLA was deferred each year until 2016, when it was extended until March 31, 2019. The COLA has been based upon the CPI-Urban (CPI-U) as published by the United State Department of Labor. CPI-U has ranged from 5.6% to minus 2.1% over the last eight years. Fluctuations in the CPI over these years have largely been driven by changes in food and energy prices. Indeed this year's CPI-U level of .2% is largely the result of a 14.8% reduction in energy costs. Many economists focus on core inflation which is defined as CPI-U excluding food and energy. This year CPI-U, excluding food and energy grew by 1.8%. Using CPI-U, excluding food and energy provides a more stable and predictable Human Services COLA. Over the past 10 years CPI-U, excluding food and energy has increased by 1.9% on an averaged annual basis.
Prior legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications
The current fiscal plan includes an estimated 2.5% Human Services COLA in FY18. This bill has the potential to provide a savings to the fiscal plan over the near term
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.