Editor's note: This week is the first you'll hear a new format to the Disabilities Beat. Some weeks, rather than one long story, we'll be sharing with you highlights and disability news from the past week. The hope is to cover more and keep our listeners up to date.
This week on the Disabilities Beat, we dive into Governor Kathy Hochul's budget proposal for New York State, which has been met with mixed reactions from the disability community.
TRANSCRIPT:
Emyle Watkins: Hi, I'm Emyle Watkins, and this is the Disabilities Beat.
This week is the first you'll hear a new format to the Disabilities Beat. Some weeks, rather than one long story, we'll be sharing with you highlights and disability news from the past week. The hope is to cover more and keep our listeners up to date.
First, from my New York Public News Network colleague, Samuel King, in Albany. Governor Kathy Hochul says her changes to the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, or CDPAP, have saved state taxpayers more than a billion dollars, double what was expected. But as King reports, some advocates say there are still problems with the transition and hope legislators make changes.
Samuel King: During her budget address, Governor Hochul said without her changes, CDPAP would've been in jeopardy.
Kathy Hochul: We said enough is enough. We cut out the abuse and brought the program back in line. And our reforms are working.
Samuel King: CDPAP allows patients to hire their own caregivers, who are then paid through Medicaid dollars via what's known as fiscal intermediaries. That's been narrowed to one company, Public Partnerships, LLC, or PPL.
Some advocates continue to criticize the changes and their impacts. Nicole Demme of Erie County was among those at a rally led by the group Caring Majority. She serves as her son's caregiver.
Nicole Demme: It's been terrible. Our previous FI was a nonprofit. In our community, we had a single point of contact. I had excellent benefits as his careworker.
Samuel King: Several lawmakers have vowed to pursue legislation that would restore some choice to the program. In a fact sheet on its website, PPL called the transition successful and said some opponents are "clinging" to a broken system.
Emyle Watkins: In Buffalo, advocates and agencies are expressing gratitude for one part of the governor's proposed budget, a raise for direct support professionals who work in group homes and other human services agency costs.
Max Donatelli: At least there's an increase and it's not flat funding.
Emyle Watkins: Max Donatelli is an advocate and parent of an adult son with Down syndrome. Currently, a 1.7% targeted inflationary increase in funding is included for organizations paid by several human services offices. That includes agencies that run group homes funded by the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities or who provide services funded through the Office of Mental Health. Donatelli says they're grateful because under the last governor, they struggled to get funding.
Max Donatelli: At least there's something in there right now. We certainly are going to be doing advocacy around, at the very least, trying to get closer to the 2.7.
Emyle Watkins: Donatelli and People Inc. CEO Anne McCaffrey are among the many pushing for a 2.7% increase in the final budget. Most agencies and advocates appear unified on this number. McCaffrey says it's because it matches the cost of inflation from the consumer price index.
Anne McCaffrey: So when you translate that into an agency like People Inc., where we're providing housing, food, all these services for people, so much of that is going into our employees' wages, and our employees are seeing the pressure of increased costs of housing and utilities and gas and cell phones and food, all of that.
Emyle Watkins: Many New Yorkers will also have their focus on how the state plans to handle health insurance and Medicaid after federal cuts. The Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Albany think tank, estimates nearly one million New Yorkers will lose Medicaid coverage due to the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last year.
Michael Kinnucan: New York does have the resources and policy capacity to prevent that kind of insurance loss, but unfortunately the executive budget doesn't propose to do it.
Emyle Watkins: Michael Kinnucan, the health policy director at the Fiscal Policy Institute, says that while New York could cover those who lose health insurance due to federal cuts, the budget doesn't include rescuing those people.
Michael Kinnucan: Instead, the executive budget focuses on protecting providers to some degree from these insurance losses but does not actually propose new initiatives to keep people covered.
Emyle Watkins: In July 2025, when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed, Hochul said in a press release, "I've been very clear. No state can fully undo the damage in this bill or backfill cuts of this scale." At the time, Hochul's administration estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers could lose Medicaid due to new verification and eligibility rules.
Stay tuned to the Disabilities Beat through the state budget process. A finalized plan is due April 1st. We'll keep you up to date on how the budget will impact New Yorkers with disabilities, chronic health, and mental health conditions.
I'm Emyle Watkins. Thanks for listening.
