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����������/NYLPI Note: See the article below to confirm that negotiations on the budget and Kendra’s Law are further intensifying as we head towards an anticipated budget agreement this Thursday and that legislators appear to be still considering their position on Kendra’s Law.
We are at a critical juncture and need you to keep pouring on our shared opposition to an expansion of Kendra’s law.
We were heartened by statements over the weekend by the NYS Legislature’s Black, Hispanic, Puerto Rican and Asian caucus whose views were captured by a statement issued by Senator Julia Salazar: “I don’t think expanding Kendra’s Law would directly address these underlying causes of public safety issues and wouldn’t provide the comprehensive mental health services we want to see in our communities and communities that have been really most impacted by violence, as well as communities that have had the least access to mental health services in our state.”

But this fight will go right to the end so please take a minute (literally!) to tell key ���������� State
Senators and Assembly Members to vote NO on the Governor’s amendments by .

PLEASE ACT NOW   THANK YOU!
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Budget Talks Heat Up 
Politico  March 28, 2022

Budget talks are heating up in Albany, as lawmakers have until the end of the week to finalize and vote on a fiscal year 2023 spending plan. It remains to be seen end up in the final budget (Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders have been largely tight-lipped about those negotiations.) But there’s growing speculation in Albany that lawmakers will once again likely miss the budget’s Thursday deadline by at least a day, if not longer, POLITICO’s Shannon Young reports.
Negotiations had largely been on track until the governor’s 10-point plan on criminal justice issues, , , sparking new debate in Albany.
Included in the was an expansion of involuntary commitment and Kendra’s law, which created a framework for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment. Hochul had , named after Kendra Webdale who was pushed in front of a moving subway train by a man with schizophrenia, through June 30, 2027 in her original budget proposal.
Hochul, in a recent with Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, called for strengthening “Kendra’s Law to make it easier for judges to require individuals who are struggling with serious mental illness and present a danger to themselves or others to participate in mandatory outpatient treatment.”
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters last week that while she couldn’t get into specifics about internal discussions, her Democratic conference “has been extremely clear that we have to do more in terms of investing in mental health and making sure that the supports are there, and that the opportunities are there to be able to mitigate some of the things that we see.”
“I think in our one-house, we certainly extended it with the understanding that there was more conversation that needed to be had,” she said when asked about the governor’s proposal.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said his “members are open to discussion” on Kendra’s Law. “I do think exploring things like that are equally as important [rather] than just saying you’re going to change this law and change that law,” he told reporters last week.
The proposed expansion of Kendra’s law has drawn concerns from groups like Drug Policy Alliance, which argued in a memo shared with POLITICO on Friday that lawmakers “should oppose involuntary treatment and instead invest in proven public health and evidence-based behavioral health supports.”
Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the ���������� Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, meanwhile, has repeatedly urged lawmakers not to expand Kendra’s Law, which he said is “very controversial” and “unproven.” Instead, he’s called for more money to be invested in “upstream voluntary engagement.”