Thank you, Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhardt

Overall, we were pleased to see that both the NYS Senate and Assembly included an additional 1.7% increase to the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) in their respective one-house budgets. Along with the governor’s proposed 1.5% COLA, this 3.2% increase would satisfy a portion of our budget request.

Unfortunately, the language in both one-house bills stating how the COLA could be allocated was too narrow in scope and does not take into consideration that the continuum of supports and services involves more that direct-care staff, despite their integral role. Limiting the COLA ignores the other critical facets of our system, including transportation, technology, facilities maintenance, and even food for the people we support, just to name a few.

We thank the Senate for including the Direct Support Wage Enhancement (DSWE), however it was omitted in the Assembly’s one-house bill and the Executive Budget. We need both the COLA and the DSWE if we are going to address the crisis to our workforce and support infrastructure.