Both houses of the New York Legislature are considering adding another billion-plus dollars in funding to Gov. Kathy Hochul's executive budget.

For SFY 2023-24, the Assembly Ways and Means Committee’s All Funds revenue forecast is $1.1 billion above the executive’s estimates. 

For SFY 2023-24, Senate Finance Committee staff forecasts that All Funds receipts, including federal sources, will total $226 billion, which is $1.3 billion or 1% higher than the executive vudget financial plan forecast. 

This is considered very positive news among advocates like Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. 

“We feel very good about it,” he told Capital Tonight.

The backdrop to this news is that multiple advocates for mental health have said that, while Gov. Hochul’s allocations for mental health care are more generous than any in history, they are “misguided."

Hochul is proposing to spend $1 billion to “overhaul" mental health in New York. 

Her plan includes $890 million in capital and $120 million in operating funding to establish 3,500 new residential units for New Yorkers with mental illness.

These units include 500 single room occupancy units, 900 transitional step-down units and 600 licensed apartment units serving individuals who require an intermediate level of services.

Hochul also wants to bring 1,250 inpatient psychiatric beds back on line. 

But Rosenthal and Luke Sikenyi, also of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, told Capital Tonight that rather than beds, there is an urgent need for increased funding for mental health and addiction recovery services, along with a call for other compassionate, cost-effective, and common sense policies. 

Rosenthal and Sikenyi joined Susan Arbetter to discuss funding several projects including Project INSET, Peer Bridgers, Housing First and Clubhouses along with other forms of outreach.  

Sikenyi also urged the legislature to increase funding for the mental health workforce by implementing an 8.5% cost of living adjustment.