Invest In New Yorkers with Disabilities!

 As a constituent and supporter of New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), I am calling on you to include the following requests in the 2025-26 New York State Budget: 

· Investment in I/DD services through a 7.8% rate increase in the SFY 2025-26 Budget to stabilize non-profit provider agencies. 

· Creation of a Wage Commission to examine the roles and responsibilities of human service workers and establish fair, sustainable compensation standards commensurate with that work. 

· Enhanced Capital Funding to help agencies modernize their operations, making them more energy-efficient and in alignment with the state’s climate goals. 

New Yorkers with disabilities are our family members, friends, loved ones, and members of our community. And for decades, New York state has not made adequate investments to sustain the essential programs and services people with intellectual and developmental disabilities rely on.  

This systemic under-funding has driven us into a perpetual staffing crisis and eroded New York's system of supports for its citizens with I/DD. We have seen some progress over the past several years but remain critically behind what is needed and often overlooked or excluded from state-funded programs that could help support the continuum of supports and services. 

New Yorkers with disabilities need your help. 

Direct Support Professionals need your help. 

The system of care that they live and work in needs your help. 

Please don't let us down.