The RI Budget proposal, as seen by our fastest growing demographic, Seniors

Published in RINewsToday on January 22, 2024

This Tuesday, Jan. 16th, Governor Dan McKee officially kicked off the legislative debate on the state’s $13.68 billion FY 2025 Budget in his 48 minute (4,481 word) State of the State address that laid out his spending priorities.

Over the next six months the General Assembly will hold hearings on the proposed budget blueprint, rewriting it considering state revenues identified during the May Revenue and Caseload Estimating Conferences, and priorities of the legislature.

With passage by the House and Senate and signed into law by McKee, the final FY 2025 Budget will take effect July 1.

Governor McKee’s budget proposal, which came 2 days after the State of the State, makes funding investments in education, small business, and Rhode Island’s health care system without raising any broad-based taxes. FY 2025 Budget specifics can be found in an article published by RINewsToday on Friday, Jan. 19^th – HERE.

With the official release of McKee’s 2025 budget proposal on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 18, his statement along with comments from the top House and Senate legislative leaders were quickly issued.

“The Team Rhode Island budget that I’m sending to the General Assembly today prioritizes programs and initiatives that will help raise the incomes of our fellow Rhode Islanders,” said McKee.

“By using available resources in targeted and strategic manner, we will continue to make progress on our RI 2030 goals while putting Rhode Islanders to work in good-paying jobs on projects that will pay dividends for decades to come,” he adds.

Legislative leadership

“Over the next several months, Chairman Lou DiPalma and the Senate Finance Committee will conduct a rigorous review of all aspects of the proposed budget through their public hearing process. At this early stage, I am pleased that the budget proposal reflects some of the Senate’s top priorities, including moving our state towards universal public pre-kindergarten, increasing funding for multi-language learners, increasing access to no-cost meals for students, fully funding recommended reimbursement levels for Early Intervention and increasing Medicaid rates,” says President of the Senate Dominick J. Ruggerio.

“Now that Governor McKee has submitted the budget, our robust review process will begin. Chairman Marvin Abney and the House Finance Committee will soon commence the public hearing process and we look forward to working collaboratively with the Senate and Governor McKee over the next several months. With the federal pandemic funds having been allocated, we must live within our means and carefully scrutinize all spending requests,” says House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi. “The Senate will continue working with all partners and stakeholders to adopt a budget that meets the needs of all Rhode Islanders.” adds the Senate President.

Aging Groups and Advocates share thoughts

“It was good to see attention to older adults’ financial security by the proposal to increase the amount of pension income that can be exempted from state income taxes which would bring an estimated $500 benefit to about 10,000 persons,” says Maureen Maigret, The Senior Agenda Coalition’s policy advisor and former Director of the RI Department of Elderly Affairs.

“The Governor is looking for ways to increase Rhode Islanders’ incomes and the Senior Agenda Coalition has been working with several partners on a legislative proposal that would save $2,000 a year for many thousands of lower-income older persons and persons on disabilities on Medicare by having the federal government pay the cost of their Part B premiums,” she says, noting that this policy would not only save seniors money they can use for basic living expenses, but would bring millions of dollars into the state economy. It would also make them eligible for a federal program that helps pay for prescription drugs.

“We hope the $10 million in proposed bridge funding for nursing homes will help them to continue to provide necessary services for their vulnerable populations and avoid more closures which are so traumatic for residents,” says Maigret.

“Although welcome, we had been hoping for more than the modest increase of $200,000 for senior centers as it gets distributed across around 40 senior centers. We know our older population is growing and our senior centers help hundreds of older adults stay healthy and connected to their communities,” adds Maigret.

“With many older adults waiting three months or more to get home care services and the home care worker shortage continuing it is disappointing to see the reimbursement increases recommended by the Social and Human Service Rate Review Study spread out over three years especially when the Executive Office of Health and Human Services had recommended funding the recommended increases over two years. And home care is not only what persons say they prefer but it costs far less to state government than institutional care,” notes Maigret.

“AARP Rhode Island applauds the Governor’s goal of increasing financial security for all Rhode Islanders,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Catherine Taylor in a statement released days before the release of McKee’s budget blueprint. “Everyone should be able to choose how they live as they age,” she says.

AARP Rhode Island calls on the General Assembly to pass three pieces of legislation that would help to ensure financial security for all. AARP Rhode Island is pushing lawmakers to give all Rhode Islanders access to a retirement savings vehicle. We are pleased that Governor McKee called for the passage of the Secure Choice program, which would provide an optional, voluntary Roth-IRA plan to the 172,000 Rhode Island employees who do not have access to a plan through their employer,” says Taylor.

“The state must stop taxing Social Security benefits,” says Taylor. “We are one of 9 states that still tax these benefits. We encourage legislators to keep more money in the pockets of older Rhode Islanders by eliminating the state tax on Social Security,” she says.

“Lastly, we must reframe how we think about housing as we grow older, and Accessible Dwelling Units (ADUs) are part of the equation,” adds Taylor, urging the General Assembly to pass legislation providing housing options that are suitable for differing incomes, ages, and life stages. “ADUs are one way to accomplish this goal,” she notes.

This budget is an important step forward in helping our industry, says James Nyberg, president, and CEO of LeadingAge Rhode Island, a nonprofit representing providers across the long-term care spectrum from nursing facilities to home and community-based providers. “We appreciate Governor McKee and his staff recognizing our concerns and providing an infusion of funds across multiple settings to support older Rhode Islanders wherever they call home, their families, and our dedicated workforce,” he adds. This includes the $10 million in stopgap funds to help nursing homes in critical financial distress as they await their permanent rate adjustment effective October 1.

According to Nyberg, the October adjustment also included in the budget is expected to provide over $60 million in funding to help nursing homes address workforce challenges, the dramatically increased costs of operating their business, and remain financially viable. “We cannot lose any more nursing homes and hopefully this budget will help mitigate that well-documented threat,” he says.

Similarly, the budget includes the phase-in of rate increases for assisted living residences and adult day providers, per the OHIC recommendations, to support these providers, consumers, workers, and families,” says Nyberg. “We also hope the proposed housing bond will help address the shortage of safe and affordable housing for seniors, the lack of which was highlighted in the Long Term Care Coordinating Council’s recent report entitled “Meeting the Housing Needs of Rhode Island’s Older Adults and Individuals with Chronic Disabilities and Illnesses,” he adds.

“While there are financial and other challenges that persist, we look forward to working with the Administration and the General Assembly to advance these and any other initiatives to support our long-term care providers, those for whom they care, and their workforce,” says the nonprofit executive director.

Governor’s budget doesn’t adequately address Seniors’ needs

While aging groups recognize Gov. McKee’s funding provisions that will benefit older Rhode Islanders, one aging advocate calls on the House Finance Committee to beef up funding for seniors in its budget.

“Once again, the senior population of Rhode Island is the fastest growing demographic in the state, and the most neglected,” charges Susan Sweet, former state associate director of the Department of Elderly Affairs and an advocate for seniors facing hardships and low-income difficulties. “The Governor McKee Budget provides no relief for seniors in the proposed 2025 spending plan other than a small gift to nursing homes that may help that senior care industry and a small increase of $200,000 statewide for dividing up among R.I. Senior Centers,” she says.

According to Sweet, seniors receive nothing in the budget other than a proposed tax reduction of “pension and annuity income” to begin in calendar year 2025. In other words, nothing for this year. She notes that the current exemption would be raised from $20,000 to $50,000 while the state remains currently only 9 of 50 states that tax Social Security and a minority of states that tax retirement pensions.

“There is also not one cent for retirees who had their pensions frozen in 2011 and have been stripped of their contracted pension benefits of a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) each year which they were required to sign and to contribute to from their pay each year of employment,” she says.

“Just down the road in our neighboring state of Massachusetts, there is no state income tax for Social Security or pensions. Their proposed budget includes a new $2,400 per senior payout for housing assistance, rental, or ownership costs,” says Sweet. During the State of the Commonwealth speech just one day after RI Governor McKee touted his Team RI game plan, a representative of the (Massachusetts) Senior Action advocacy group was invited and recognized as a leading voice in enabling seniors to stay in their homes with cash assistance from the state, she noted.

As the founder of the R.I. Minority Elder Task Force which provides financial assistance to poor RI elders in dire circumstances, Sweet regularly sees the neglect of seniors without adequate resources for the basic needs of life. “This is not a senior-friendly state, and this is not a senior friendly budget,” she states.

Expect aging groups and advocates to gear up to push for their senior legislative priorities in the upcoming months. The budget debate now begins.

To listen to Gov. McKee’s State of the State Address on the FY 2025 Budget, go HERE.

Details of Gov. McKee’s FY 2025 Budget. Go HERE.

To read Gov. McKee’s FY 2025 budget proposal (H 7225), go HERE.

Age beat writer gives us his most important columns in 2023

Published in Blackstone Valley Call and Times, on January 1, 2024

Over the years, like many of the nation’s news organizations, The Pawtucket Times, created an ‘Age Beat’ column in 2002 that allowed this writer for several years to cover a myriad of aging issues, including Social Security and Medicare, ethics, long-term care, consumer issues, spirituality, pop culture, health care and economics. Ultimately, I would return in July, 2012 to resume writing, also picking up other weekly commentaries.

As an ‘age beat’ journalist for over 44 years, I have penned more than 930 stories covering aging, health care and medical issues. These authored and coauthored pieces have appeared in national, state and trade publications.

In 2023, my articles appeared weekly in 52 issues of the Pawtucket Times and Woonsocket Call (now combined in one newspaper called the Blackstone Valley Call & Times), and RINewsToday.com, a statewide digital news publication.

As we celebrate the New Year and look forward to 2024, looking back, here are my top five favorite articles published in 2023:

“In the coming years, generations of older Veterans will be leaving us,” – RINewsToday, Nov. 13, 2023

This commentary published before Veterans Day, had the Department of Veteran Affairs estimate that there will be a couple of hundred World War II veterans, over 1,600 Korean and 14,000 Vietnam veterans still alive in Rhode Island. In the coming years, frailty and health issues will keep these elderly veterans’ from attending Veteran Day celebrations and even at their reunions.

As a generation of Civil War and World War I veterans vanish in 1956 and 2011, this writer urged readers to cherish the surviving older veterans. In the next thirty years, it was stressed that new generations of veterans who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam will pass away and these veterans were urged to share their personal stories and oral histories for the sake of America’s future generations. “They have so much to say, and America’s younger generations have much to learn from them,” noted the commentary.

This commentary was dedicated to the writer’s father, Second Lt. Frank M. Weiss, who died in December 2003, in Dallas, Texas at 89 years old.

“Passages – Life and Times of Morris Nathanson,” RINewsToday, Oct. 7, 2023

Over two decades, this writer would visit Morris Nathanson on Saturday afternoons sitting in his living room drinking cups of freshly brewed coffee. We would talk about Pawtucket, world events, and he would reminiscence about his amazing life’s journey from his childhood in Pawtucket, to the international world he lived in later in his life.

My friend, 95-year-old Morris Nathanson, a painter, illustrator and restaurant/hospitality designer died last September. My commentary was written to recognize and honor Morris’s incredible life, detailing his World War II experiences, fighting for civil rights, and his impact on the art and design scene.

Growing up poor during the depression in Pawtucket’s Pleasant View neighborhood, Morris, a spitting image of Mark Twine, or maybe Albert Einstein to me, would ultimately have a major impact on Rhode Island’s art and restaurant design scene.

Morris brought the strategy of adaptive re-use of underutilized and vacant mills to city and state officials, a concept that he picked up from his years of working in New York City, watching the development and transformation of the industrial mills in SOHO.

Witnessing firsthand man’s biases and prejudices motivated him throughout seventy-five years of his long life to fight for the equal rights of all. Morris participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King’s campaigns in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

At age 24, Morris, head of the design team at Paramount, developed and designed the first franchise in American history, Dunkin Donuts. While working with Friedman he also designed restaurants in the pavilions of the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.

When Morris left Paramount Restaurant Supply Co, his most notable design projects locally include Hemenway’s, Ruth Chris Steak House, 22 Bowen, restaurants and bars for the Inn at Castle Hill, Capital Grill, Pizzeria Uno, Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Mills Tavern, Waterman Grill, Red Stripe and for those who still remember, the beloved Ming Garden and McGarry’s Restaurant in downtown Providence. He also had clients all over the world.

It would take pages to detail all of Morris’s professional accomplishments while serving on state, city and nonprofit organizations throughout his long-life. Hopefully I whetted your appetite to learn more about his life by reading this commentary.

“Will Magaziner fulfill call to reestablish House Aging Committee,” RINewsToday, Oct. 9, 2023.

As reported, with Congressman David Cicilline retiring from Congress, no House lawmaker has yet stepped up to reintroduce, H.R. 583, the Rhode Island lawmaker’s resolution to reestablish the House Select Committee on Aging (HSCoA). Without receiving a vote in the House Rules Committee at the end of the 117^th Congress, the resolution was considered “dead.” On his way out Cicilline was not successful in passing the legislative baton and finding a new original sponsor. The Rhode Island Congressman had introduced this resolution in four Congressional sessions.

The HSCoA was a permanent select committee of the U.S. House of representatives between 1974 to 1992. The committee was initially created with the intent of not crafting legislative proposals, but of conducting investigations and holding hearings to put the Congressional spotlight on aging issues. Its purpose was to push for legislation and other actions, working with standing committees, through regular committee channels.

This writer asks who will ultimately pick up the legislative baton from Cicilline to become Rhode Island’s fiery aging advocate? Will it be Congressman Seth Magaziner, or the newly elected Congressman Gabe Amo, from Rhode Island’s Congressional District 1 to step to the plate?

The article asks why shouldn’t a Rhode Island Congressman follow in the footsteps of former Rhode Island Congressman John E. Fogarty (dec.) and be the original sponsor of legislation that will have a major impact on national aging policy. The lawmaker would become a hero to America’s seniors.

“Unique partnership creates Senior Fellows pilot program,” RINewsToday, Dec. 11, 2023

This commentary announced that the success of a pilot Senior Fellows Program, created by Leadership Rhode Island (LRI) and Age-Friendly Rhode Island (AFRI), the organizations are seeking funding to offer another session in the summer of 2024.

The unique initiative prepared 25 Senior Fellows to advocate for improvements that address age-related challenges in Rhode Island. The initial eight-week program was tuition-free. The first crop of Senior Fellows, residents of 13 different cities and towns in Rhode Island, ranged in age from 62 to 83. Nearly half were retired.

The idea to develop a senior advocates program came from Marianne Raimondo, a graduate of LRI’s Core Program, who made the connection between Leadership Rhode Island and James Burke Connell. Connell is the executive director of Age-Friendly Rhode Island, an initiative at Rhode Island College that represents a coalition of public and private agencies, organizations and individuals committed to healthy aging.

Connell proposed the pilot program because, he says, empowering seniors to become advocates, activists and champions of age-friendly thinking and practices “will result in a Rhode Island where older adults thrive and live their best lives.” He was inspired by similar programs in Maine and New Hampshire.

Age-Friendly RI raised the funds for the pilot program, and relied on LRI’s “talented team” to handle recruiting, participant selection, curriculum planning, and guiding participants in the development of individual community commitments, Connell says.

Most session days were divided into two parts, with half focused on knowledge-building around relevant issues, such as housing, food insecurity, transportation needs, and health care. The other half focused on skill-building, such as writing persuasively, public speaking and network building, to enable the Fellows to develop and eventually execute their own Civic Commitments.

The Fellows took turns describing their Civic Commitments during their final session, held at the RI State House. The presentations, which included several “poignant and pin-drop moments,” were well received.

“Increased funding must be tied to nursing home mandated minimum staffing“, RINewsToday, September 25, 2023

The commentary announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had issued a proposed rule to establish comprehensive staffing requirements for nursing homes—including, for the first time, national minimum nurse staffing standards. CMS officials said that the requirement would improve both safety and promote high-quality care in the nation’s 18,700 skilled nursing facilities delivering care to 1.2 million residents each day.

National and Rhode Island nursing home trade groups pushed back on the unfunded mandate requiring more staffing especially during a severe labor shortage forcing hundreds of facilities across the nation to close because of lack of workers.

John E. Gage, President, and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association, reported that six Rhode Island-based facilities have closed since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Three others are currently in receivership. He warns that arbitrary federal staffing mandates will result in more closures, and residents will be displaced from their homes just as they were most recently when Charlesgate Nursing Center in Providence.

James Nyberg, president, and CEO of LeadingAge Rhode Island, with offices in East Providence, sees a staffing ratio mandate as a blunt enforcement tool that does not consider the numerous challenges facing providers, including Medicaid underfunding, lack of workforce, and the diversity of resident needs. Moreover, he charged that fining for being unable to meet a staffing ratio is counterproductive by siphoning off scarce resources that facilities need as they seek to address their workforce and resident care needs.

To review ALL of Herb’s articles published by RINewstoday, go to https://rinewstoday.com/herb-weiss/

Countdown to 2024 elections heating up about what to do about Social Security

Published in RINewsToday on November 27, 2023

The political clock is ticking. It’s 340 days before the upcoming presidential elections and control of Congress and the White House are up for grabs. As education, abortion, foreign policy, immigration, crime are emerging as upcoming campaign issues, fixing Social Security and Medicare are also on the voter’s radar screens, too.

As the Democrats call for expanding and shoring up the existing Social Security Program (by introducing H.R. 4583, Social Security 2100 Act and S. 393, Social Security Expansion Act and other legislative proposals), Republicans are calling for changes in the program including looking at raising the eligibility age for full-time retirement, possible means-testing, and adjusting benefits for higher income earners.

The Nov. 9th Republican debate was not reassuring for younger taxpayers who are counting on collecting the Social Security benefits they earn with every paycheck, says Max Richtman, President and CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare. Two of the GOP presidential hopefuls promised, in effect, to cut Social Security for future beneficiaries,” he said.

However, former President Donald J. Trump, who didn’t participate in this debate, has warned the other candidates not to make cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits. While he opposes raising payroll taxes to ensure the fiscal solvency of these programs, he doesn’t provide specific proposals as how to do this.

Presidential GOP candidates call for fixes to an unsustainable Social Security system

According to Richtman, Nikki Haley claimed that Social Security is going “bankrupt,” and she would raise the retirement age for workers who are now in their 20s, and also means-test benefits. Chris Christie also said he would raise the retirement age and eliminate benefits for higher earners, essentially converting Social Security into a safety net program, instead of an earned benefit.

“Governor Christie and Ambassador Haley fail to recognize that future generations of retirees will rely on their Social Security benefits even more than today’s seniors do — and that means testing would cut deep into the heart of the American middle class,” says Richtman. “Ron DeSantis — to his credit — promised not to cut Social Security, but demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the program’s finances by perpetuating the myth that the government is ‘stealing’ from the trust fund,” he added.

On Oct. 25, the newly sworn in Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent a message to his caucus calling for Social Security and Medicare reforms to be made by a debt commission to tackle changes being targeted for these programs. Richtman warns that this approach is “designed to give Congress political cover for cutting Americans’ earned benefits.” In response, the Biden Administration described such a commission as a “death panel” for Social Security.

Over six years ago, Congressman Johnson (now newly elected House Speaker) called for cuts to Social Security. According to Independent News Network, Meidas Touch Network, in a 2018 speech before the American Enterprise Institute, as incoming chair of the Republican Study Committee, he called for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He viewed these programs as “essential threats” to the American way of life, even suggesting that the government might cease to exist if they continued to be fully funded the way they are now.

Slashing SSA benefits through a Debt Reform Commission

“That is why these commissions have been rightly described as ‘death panels’ for Social Security and Medicare. It is unfortunate and disappointing that one of the Speaker’s first priorities is creating a mechanism intended to slash programs that American workers pay for in every paycheck, fully expecting the benefits to be there when they need them,” says Richtman, charging that the House Speaker “clearly wishes to break this compact with the American people.”

“Congress should address Social Security in the sunlight, through regular order, as it always has,” said Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, and former top assistant to Alan Greenspan on the 1983 commission. “The only reason to create a fast-track, closed door commission is to overthrow the will of the American people by cutting their hard-earned benefits. Anyone who supports this commission is supporting benefit cuts.”

In a Nov. 13 correspondence to Congress, Jo Ann C. Jenkins of the Washington, DC-based AARP, also opposes the creation of s debt commission. She strongly disputes the GOP’s claim that Social Security is a driver of the annual deficits or national debt, stressing that the program is self-financed.

According to Jenkins, 90% of the retirement program is financed through payroll contributions from workers and their employers. Around 4% of its funding comes from federal income taxes on some Social Security benefits and 5.4% comes from interest earned on U.S. Treasury bonds held by the Social Security Trust Funds.

“Any argument that claims that Social Security is a driver of the national debt – simply because it receives interest from the U.S. Treasury bonds- is disingenuous,” says Jenkins, noting that U.S. Treasury bonds are of the world’s safest investments.

Alex Lawson, Executive Director of the Washington, DC-based Social Security Works, agrees with Richtman’s assessment of House Speaker Johnson’s ongoing approach to Social Security and Medicare. “The Louisiana Congressman recently joined the vast majority of his caucus to vote for a commission designed to fast-track cuts to Social Security and Medicare behind closed doors”, notes Lawson.

“As Chair of the Republican Study Committee from 2019-2021, Johnson released budgets that included $2 trillion in cuts to Medicare and $750 billion in cuts to Social Security,” says Lawson. This includes raising the retirement age, decimating middle class benefits, making annual cost-of-living increases smaller and ultimately moving towards privation of Social Security and Medicare,” he notes.

With Johnson pushing for the creation of a debt commission, over 100 organizations have become co-signers on Nov. 8 correspondence to Congress opposing the legislative proposal.

Aging groups begin to mobilize

While the Social Security Trust Fund Report, released in April 2023, warned that Social Security funds will become depleted in 2033, making the program totally insolvent in 2034 when beneficiaries could only receive about 80 percent of their scheduled benefits, the cosigners say the program’s projected short falls are “manageable by size and still a decade away, are fully understood.”

“In this Congress alone, several legislative proposals that do just that have been introduced with numerous cosponsors. The only reason to make changes to Social Security via a closed-door commission is to cut already modest earned benefits — something the American people overwhelmingly oppose — while avoiding political accountability, say the co-signers.

“Congress already has a process to confront the federal debt. That process is known as reconciliation. Revealingly, Social Security cuts are excluded from the reconciliation procedure, because, as previously stated, the program is totally self-funded, cannot pay benefits or associated costs without the revenue to cover the costs, has no borrowing authority, and, therefore, does not add a penny to the deficit. Consequently, if a debt commission with jurisdiction over Social Security were to be formed, its purpose would be clear: to cut its modest benefits, while avoiding political accountability,” warn the cosponsors.

But the shortfall is real

In an article in Money magazine, the writer notes, “Taxpayer funds cover the bulk of Social Security payments, but if the program’s reserves run dry, beneficiaries would face immediate 20% cuts to their checks come 2034. Any decrease to Social Security payments would likely be extremely unpopular, considering they’re a major source of retirement income for tens of millions of people.” According to a new report from the American Academy of Actuaries, the longer the issue is put off, the harder it will be to address the looming shortfall.

The Third Rail of national politics

According to AARP research, “85% of older Americans, regardless of party, strongly oppose targeting Social Security and Medicare to reduce federal budget deficits. Specifically, the survey found that 88 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of Independents, and 87 percent of Democrats strongly oppose cutting Social Security. Similarly, 86 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of independents, and 88 percent of Democrats said they strongly oppose cutting Medicare.”

Washington insiders consider Social Security to be the “third rail of a nation’s politics”, a metaphor coming from the high-voltage third rail in some electric railway systems. Stepping on it usually results in electrocution and the use of the term in the political arena refers to “political death”.

Next November, can the GOP politically survive stepping on the third rail by targeting the nation’s most popular social welfare programs (Social Security and Medicare) for adjustments to reduce the federal budget deficit? When the dust settles after November, 2024 elections, we’ll see if younger voters, who have the most to economically lose, view Social Security and Medicare as a key issue influencing their vote and “untouchable.”

We’ll see.