Tax Credits Boost Employment For Drug Addiction Recovery State offers tax credits to business who hires recovering addicts.

New York state employers will get a tax credit of two thousand dollars if they hire each individual who is recovering from drug addiction. N-C-C’s Jiaqi Huang is live at Syracuse A-C-R Health center.

Thanks, Sam. This center will help people who have drug abuse problems. Companies could get tax credits if they hire qualified employees. Executive director Wil Murtaugh tells me stigma connection attached to needle injection is the biggest problem these people face at employment.

“We have over 4,500 people signed up for a syringe exchange program, we have every single zip code in Onondaga County coming to us for syringes, I think the new law is great if it’s going to help people in recovery become stronger and get back into life, get back into working, and making their own living and maybe keeping them away from the drug that they were using.”

General counsel Rob Kent from New York state of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services says they are finalizing details of the tax credit application. He says local recovery centers will work with drug abusers to help them qualified.

“So our hope and goal are to spend all the two million of tax credits, we are the first state to do this.”

Governor Cuomo recently approves this new law, it will start next year.
Jiaqi Huang, N-C-C News.

By Jiaqi Huang SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) —A new law will provide New York State businesses with tax breaks if they hire people who are recovering from substance use disorders. In the recently approved state budget,  Governor Cuomo agreed to allocate up to $2 million annually for the tax credits. Starting in 2020, New York State employers will get a tax credit of $2,000 for hiring each qualified employee.

The State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services is still finalizing the criteria of application for tax credits. Rob Kent, the general counsel from OASAS, said New York is the first state to ameliorate the employment for people with drug abuse problems. “We will look forward to eligible employees, and this is written in the law that they have a commitment to recovery, to support people and have connections to the local recovery community organizations in their area,” he said.

Wil Murtaugh, the executive director of Syracuse ACR Health, said there is a stigma attached to people who use needles and injection drugs, and the connection makes it difficult for people to get hired. “In our syringe exchange program, we have over 4,500 people signed up for syringes, that’s a lot of people,” he said. So eventually those people will need and want to go to recovery and medication-assisted therapy.”

Kent said putting this tax credit forward will help bring these people back. He said an OASAS-certified local recovery center will work with recovering drug abusers to be qualified. “In the middle of the opioid epidemic, this is one more piece to support people who reach complete treatment, reach a point to recovery, to be able to find jobs, to do the same things everyone else does,” he said.

Kent said they try to spread the benefit around the state with spending all the $2 million tax credits. “Businesses wouldn’t get another tax credit for the same individual the following year, but they can hire other individuals in recovering to get another tax credit for the new employees,” he said.

 

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