On Thursday, February 15th, Governor Hochul released her 30-Day Amendments to her Executive Budget Proposal. Many of the amendments make technical changes to language within the proposal, but the Governor also added several new parts in her amendments. Those new parts include:
Health & Mental Hygiene (HMH)
- New Part GG – Would provide the Department of Health with additional flexibilities in relation to the 1115 Medicaid waiver, in order to carry out provisions of the waiver.
- New Part HH – A new set of long-term care reforms that would:
- Include regulation authority relating to quality-of-care standards and labor protections for the Consumer Directed Persona Assistance Program (CDPAP) and Personal care;
- Require consumer self-direction in the CDPAP;
- Eliminate conflicts of interest between CDPAP Fiscal Intermediaries, Licensed Home Care Service Agencies, and Managed Long-Term Care Plans; and
- Repeal the fiscal intermediary request for proposals and replace with fiscal intermediary authorization process.
- The Governor also removed Part X, relating to the opioid stewardship fund extender, to avoid duplication of provisions. The extender is also included in Part B.
Public Protection & Good Government (PPGG)
- New Part Y – Make the law allowing restaurants to sell to-go cocktails permanent.
Transportation & Economic Development (TED)
- New part MM – Actions to protect against deceptive uses of A.I. that would:
- Add a misdemeanor for the unauthorized use of one’s voice in connection with advertising or trade;
- Expand the existing misdemeanor or unlawful dissemination of publication of an intimate image to also include liability for unlawfully disseminating authentic or digitized audio featuring sexual content;
- Clarify that digital images are included in the current law on the unlawful distribution of intimate or sexually explicit images;
- Update the Penal Law to clarify that crimes committed with the unauthorized use of A.I. still constitute crimes, and expand certain crimes to specifically include unauthorized use of A.I.;
- Establish the crime of Unlawful Dissemination or Publication of a Fabricated Photographic, Videographic, or Audio Record; and
- Require all forms of political communication, including video recording, motion picture, film, audio recording, electronic image, photograph, text, or any technological representation of speech or conduct – created through digitization to provide a disclosure of its use when published or distributed 60 days prior to an election.
- New Part NN – Amend the Insurance Law to ensure that livery insurance rates are actuarily justified and approved by regulators and create parity between livery insurers and other auto insurers.
All 30-Day Amendments can be found at the links below:
State Operations Bill
Aid to Localities Bill
Capital Projects Bill
Education, Labor and Family Assistance (ELFA) Bill
Health and Mental Hygiene (HMH) Bill
Public Protection and General Government (PPGG) Bill
Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation (TED) Bill
Now that the Governor has released her 30-Day Amendments and the Legislature have held all 13 of their Joint Budget Hearings, the next step is for the Assembly and Senate to release their One-House Budget Proposals mid-March, after which the Governor and Legislative Leaders will begin negotiations on a final budget. The State Budget is due April 1st.