Governor Kathy Hochul faced an unexpected financial surplus for this year’s state budget, but even so, not all proposed budget items were included in the finalized agreement.
High-profile budget items like child care, education support, and home care were approved, as well as non-fiscal measures like revisions to the state’s bail reform laws and a temporary suspension of state sale tax on gasoline.
The FY 2023 state budget includes $7.4 billion towards a wage increase for home care workers.
Rachel McCullough, co-director of the New York Caring Majority, stated her belief that the state budget doesn’t go far enough in addressing the worker shortage. She said adding a pay increase of 150% of an area’s minimum wage is the “only solution to stem the home care shortage,” according to Democrat & Chronicle.
New York’s Excluded Worker Fund was another measure left out of this year’s budget. The $2.1 billion fund, which ran out of funding in 2021, provided benefits for undocumented workers excluded from traditional unemployment assistance.
One-house budgets from both the state Assembly and Senate proposed a $345 million state-funded healthcare plan for New Yorkers excluded from current state healthcare marketplace due to immigration status. A smaller-scope version of that measure passed, with $100 million allotted to establish a health insurance plan for undocumented people over 65 years old and new mothers.
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