CPC Statement on the New York State FY 24-25 Enacted Budget
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
Date: April 22th, 2024
Contact:
Wayne Ho, President and CEO | (212) 941-0920 x 143 | who@cpc-nyc.org
Alice Du, Director of Communications (adu@cpc-nyc.org) | 212-792-4585
CPC STATEMENT ON THE NEW YORK STATE FY 24-25 ENACTED BUDGET
New York, NY – The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) acknowledges the passage of New York State's FY25 $237 billion budget that makes some key investments into Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), immigrant, and low-income communities. However, as the cost of living soars, the budget fails to make deep investments that meet the immediate, growing, and long-term needs of our most marginalized communities. In the midst of one of the worst housing crises as well as a home care workforce shortage, the State has continued to take half measures that fail to address the root causes of these issues.
“The FY25 State budget includes important supports for our communities like the restoration of $30 million for the AAPI Equity Budget as well as the $4 million allocation for the Settlement House Program. However, this budget misses the mark on making much-needed deep investments for AAPI, immigrant, and low-income communities including affordable housing and improved wages for all human services and home care workers,” said Wayne Ho, President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC).
CPC is committed to ensuring that our communities are empowered through meaningful and transformative investments. Over the past year, CPC staff, community members, and Advocacy Advisory Council (consisting of 12 front line program staff across departments and boroughs) have been at the forefront of our budget advocacy efforts and have been fighting tirelessly so that our most marginalized communities can thrive. In February, we turned out over 320 community members in Albany for our State Advocacy Day to call on legislators to pass a budget that ensures investments into home care workers and the communities that they serve, fully funding the AAPI Equity Budget, and including a 3.2% COLA for all human service workers.
We are grateful to our legislative leaders for advocating on behalf of AAPI, immigrant and low-income communities, and for helping ensure that CPC can continue providing critical services. While we are celebrating the wins that we have been advocating for, we continue looking ahead to the fight to ensure that all New Yorkers have a thriving, dignified life.
Wins:
As part of the Equity Budget Coalition, we are thrilled to see a $30 million restoration was made into AAPI community based organizations to provide linguistically and culturally competent services.
$4 million allocation for the Settlement House Program, the first enhancement in many years.
The budget included a 2.84% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for human services workers of specific titles. While this is an important investment, a full and meaningful 3.2% COLA for all human service workers which would ensure fair and livable compensation was not included in the budget.
Sammy’s Law was passed, lowering the speed limit to 20 miles per hour in the city.
The State invested $2.4 billion into addressing New York City’s asylum seeker humanitarian crisis, an important start to the funding necessary to support this community.
$103 million for afterschool programs, a $20 million increase over the previous year.
An increase of $754 million in New York State Child Care Block Grant funding, for $1.78 billion to provide subsidies for 119,000 children.
Shortcomings:
We are pleased to see the elimination of initial proposals to cut wage parity for Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) workers and to delay minimum wage increases for home care workers. We are very concerned that the proposal to consolidate to one single CDPAP Fiscal Intermediary (FI) was included in the final budget because of the detrimental effects it will have on clients who will lose care and workers who will lose jobs.
Although the legislature proposed increasing the state reimbursement to counties for open-ended preventive/protective services funding to 65%, the final budget language maintained the reimbursement rate at 62%.
The Good Cause bill was weakened and will only protect certain types of tenants. We will continue to push for universal Good Cause to protect all tenants across the State.
The budget failed to include measures like the NY HEAT Act and the Climate Change Superfund Act, which would make significant investments into environmental justice and racial equity.
ABOUT CPC
The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is a social services organization that creates positive social change. Founded in 1965, CPC is the nation's largest Asian American social services organization and aims to promote the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities of New York City. CPC is the trusted partner to individuals and families striving to achieve goals in their education, family, community, and career.
關於華策會
華人策劃協會（簡稱“華策會”）是一個致力於創造正向社會變革的社會服務機構。華策會成立於1965年，是美國最大的亞裔美國人社會服務機構，旨在促進紐約市華裔美國人、移民及低收入社區的社會權益和經濟賦權。華策會是為個人和家庭實現其教育、家庭、社區及職業目標而努力的可信賴機構。
ACERCA DE CPC
El Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) es una organización de servicios sociales que crea un cambio social positivo. Fundada en 1965, CPC es la mayor organización de servicios sociales asiático-americanos del país y su objetivo es promover la capacitación social y económica de las comunidades chino-americanas, inmigrantes y de bajos ingresos de la ciudad de Nueva York. CPC es el socio de confianza de personas y familias que se esfuerzan por alcanzar objetivos en su educación, familia, comunidad y carrera.