When former Governor Eliot Spitzer slashed funding to the Garden Care Center and the Franklin Hospital Orzac Center for Extended Care in his proposed budget, Assemblyman Tom Alfano and Senator Dean Skelos blasted the cuts as a disgrace to senior citizens and their families. In fact, the two state representatives publicly called for restoration of the cuts and attacked the cruelty of the impact to senior citizens.

Under the governor's budget, the two institutions were slated to receive over $321,000 in budget cuts to their funding. That funding, according to Alfano and Skelos, is earmarked for care and nursing staff. Hundreds of senior citizens utilize the services of the two facilities and even more are in extended stays at the centers. Residents of the two highly regarded care facilities hail from Elmont, Franklin Square, Floral Park, Bellerose Village, Bellerose Terrace, West Hempstead, Stewart Manor and North Valley Stream.

With the new state budget enacted, Assemblyman Alfano and Senator Skelos announced they were able to restore $281,000 in funding for the centers. The funding restorations, according to Assemblyman Alfano, will assist staff to provide quality care to senior citizens.

"These restorations were critical for our senior citizens in these centers," Assemblyman Alfano said. "There is absolutely no doubt that if all of these cuts were made by the governor, these homes would have had to cut beds, laid off staff and devastated care to seniors. We couldn't let that happen- period."

Senator Skelos added, "This was a real team effort in restoring these cuts and protecting our seniors. Assemblyman Alfano and I worked together and delivered this funding that protects our elderly who need quality care and services. These two facilities deliver quality care and help countless families each and every day. We fought these cuts every step the way, and I'm proud we were able to restore most of this critical funding."

Assemblyman Alfano noted that health care cuts were largely stopped in this year's budget. "You have to make priorities. I knew that these cuts would have devastating consequences for hundreds of senior citizens right in our community. These cuts were not only the wrong decisions to make, they were heartless and inexcusable. You don't balance budgets on the backs of seniors and children. This budget attempted to do that and we stopped them."

Under the governor's budget, the Orzac Center was slated to be cut $192,000 and the Garden Care Center was targeted for a $129,000 cut. Alfano and Skelos were able to restore $96,000 to the Garden Care Center and $185,000 to the Ozac Center.