New

York State Budget and Legislative Platform

Fall 2014

Budget Priorities

$20 Million investment to address New Yorks Hepatitis C epidemic: Hepatitis C, the leading cause of
serious liver disease, affects 250,000 people in New York State, many through a history of injection
drug use. Hepatitis C can cause disability and fatal liver disease and is a leading cause of death for
people with HIV/AIDS. It is thought that half of New Yorkers do not know their status, and those that
do are often not receiving care and treatment, which partly explains the significant increase in hepatitis
C related mortality in the past 10 years. Despite the scale of the epidemic, however, the Department of
Healths viral hepatitis programs have been flat-funded at less than $1.5 million for the past 5 years. A
$20 Million investment would allow the Department of Health to expand grant programs aimed at
building the treatment provider base, increase surveillance, and improve access to prevention services
targeting those most at risk of new infection, among other priorities.

Fill Gaps in Harm Reduction Services Coverage by Doubling State Funding to Approximately $16
Million: Syringe exchange and wraparound services have been remarkably successful not only at
reducing HIV and other disease incidence in New York, but in serving as a platform for engaging and
linking into care individuals who are not typically well served by the medical system. Under Affordable
Care Act and NYS Medicaid Redesign system reforms, harm reduction services are a crucial lynchpin in
reaching a high need population in order to improve health and reduce costs. The need for
comprehensive harm reduction services is increasing alongside growing heroin and prescription opioid
use, overdose, and a hepatitis C epidemic, yet funding has been stagnant for years. New funds should
be prioritized to fill geographic gaps based on overdose, hepatitis C incidence, and drug-related
hospitalization and drug treatment rates.

$5 Million investment to the end AIDS by 2020 in New York: Although there are more New Yorkers
living with HIV than in any other state in the nation, we know that we can end the epidemic. We now
have the knowledge and means to dramatically reduce new HIV infections and promote optimal health
for those with HIV. In June 2014, Governor Cuomo announced a Task Force to End AIDS in New York
that will develop a strategic blueprint and plan in collaboration with the AIDS Institute to end the
epidemic. This task force gives New York the potential to serve as a national model for ending the
epidemic by making a long-term commitment to, and a strategic priority of, ending AIDS for all New
Yorkers.

NY/NY IV or New York Urban: Building upon the successful New York City and State cooperative
program to build housing for homeless mentally ill New Yorkers, this program has been expanded
statewide. The commitment to build 30,000 units of supportive housing over 10 years could build
much needed housing for formerly incarcerated individuals, active drug users and people living with
HIV and AIDS.

Ending AIDS Statewide with Housing, Nutrition and Transportation Assistance: In New York City,
expand the enhanced rental, nutrition and transportation assistance provided through the HIV/AIDS

Services Administration (HASA) to people who are currently HIV+, but asymptomatic. We know that
when people are in housing, they are more likely to be treatment adherent. On any given night, there
are up to 1100 New Yorkers living with HIV in the costly shelter system. Outside of NYC, there is no way
to access the enhanced transportation, nutrition and rental assistance benefit. Approximately 10,000
more New Yorkers would receive a real rent subsidy, which would mean the difference between
homelessness and housing.

Legislative Priorities
(Policies listed below may not currently have an active bill, or the active bill number may change)

Fully Legalize Syringe Possession and Reform the Expanded Syringe Access Program (ESAP). Harm
reduction programs, including syringe exchange and wraparound services, are the first meaningful
point of contact many people who use drugs have with the healthcare system, a step toward positive
changes in their health and wellbeing that often leads to less dangerous drug use or engagement in
treatment. Harm reduction organizations in NYS are credited with reducing HIV and HCV transmission
and overdose deaths, linking people to healthcare including drug treatment, and saving the state many
millions of dollars. Amid an increase in heroin and other injection drug use, now is the time to make
sure that laws and other policies do not create barriers to services. Firstly, New York should repeal the
criminal law on syringe possession: despite more than 20 years of legal syringe access programs,
thousands of New Yorkers are still being arrested for syringe possession based on an outmoded,
unnecessary law, a situation which creates fear and undermines service delivery. Second, the ESAP
program which allows pharmacy syringe sales should be reformed to remove the limit of 10
syringes per transaction and to allow program advertising.

Fairness & Equity Act (Squadron S.7927/Camara A.10175): In 2010, there were 103,698 marijuana
possession arrests in New York, more than any other state in the country. While marijuana possession
was decriminalized in 1977, possessing small amounts of marijuana in public view or burning
remains a misdemeanor, meaning that someone complying with a police order to empty their pockets
may be charged and arrested. Marijuana arrests remain overwhelmingly targeted at people of color
even though they use marijuana at lower rates than whites. Statewide, black people are 4.5 times
more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession and in counties like Onondaga
and Niagara that number climbs to 7.75 and 7.56 times more likely, respectively. The Fairness and
Equity Act will:

o End all arrests for low-level marijuana possession by reducing penalties for plain view and
burning.
o Create a vacate process for those who have already been convicted of possessing small
amounts of marijuana so that they can have their records cleared.
o Establish a process to utilize racial/ethnic impact statements for future legislation that modifies
New York's penal code to ensure transparency and fairness.

Restoring Parolee Voting Rights (Hassell-Thompson S.3342/Camara A.3312: Over 37,000 New Yorkers
are denied the right to vote because they are on parole, and the vast majority of that population is
Black or Latino. Voting is a fundamental civic duty and should be an essential part of the re-entry
process for someone returning to their community.

New York State Fair Chance Act (Hassell-Thompson S.3367 / Aubry A.4869): Employment is one of the
most effective means of preventing recidivism and ensuring successful reentry, but having a criminal
record is one of the biggest barriers to getting a job for many people who are formerly incarcerated.

New York City, Buffalo and Rochester have already implemented policies so that people who are
formerly incarcerated applying for public and/or private sector jobs do not have to disclose their
criminal record history until after a conditional job offer. New York State should adopt a similar
statewide ban the box policy for all private and public sector jobs so that people with criminal
records have a fair chance at employment.

Medical Marijuana Access: This year, New York became the 23rd state in the nation to legalize medical
marijuana, providing much needed relief for thousands of New Yorkers suffering from serious and
debilitating conditions, including HIV and cancer. The new law is a promising first step, but there were
several compromises that restrict access to this vital medicine for people in need. The New York State
Commissioner of Health and the Governor have the statutory authority to expand the medical
marijuana program by setting a fair price to ensure access for low-income patients, ensuring access to
the whole plant rather than limiting access to products that cater to the needs of select patients and by
adding serious and debilitating illnesses to the list of eligible conditions such as PTSD and Arthritis
that are not currently included in the program.
Ensuring Access to Condoms (Clarke A.2736/ Montgomery S.1379): Criminalizing condoms
undermines harm reduction interventions to promote safe sex practices in our communities and, when
this criminalization is connected to prostitution, it disproportionately impacts low-income, LGBTQ,
communities of color where folks are commonly sex trading and sex working as well as more
commonly profiled as sex workers by law enforcement. Protections for victims of trafficking and
pimping are particularly important as recent policies put forward by the NYPD and local district
attorneys carve out these offenses creating a perverse incentive for exploiters to prevent condom
access. For the purposes of public safety, New York State should adopt a wholesale decriminalization of
condoms that is consistent across the State and inclusive of all offenses related to sex trading.