Congress reportedly is set pull over a billion dollars in health care funding the state and city had been counting on to balance their budgets.
The Wall Street Journal says the additional Medicaid money will not be included in a measure to extend unemployment benefits that the Senate is expected to pass this week.
Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg had been hoping for that money to help fill budget gaps, but optimism had waned in recent weeks that the money would come through.
The governor has vetoed spending measures assuming the state wouldn’t get the funding.
But, as recently as yesterday, the mayor said he was getting assurances from some in Washington a deal would get done, so for now is leaving the expected funding in the city budget.
If it doesn’t come through, it’s estimated the lack of funding will cost the city $600 million over two years, and create a hole of more than billion dollars in the state’s budget.
State and city officials say the health care funding cuts could force more layoffs.
(Source: NY1)
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3 Responses
Extra?! You call getting $500,000,000.00 cut from New York’s Medicaid and Medicare budget extra?!
Thanks Senators Schumer and Gillibrand!
1. The city and state are free to reduce Medicaid funding to something resembling the national average.
2. Fiscal responsibility means cutting programs – not just “tax them, and spend on me”
akuperma, in this budget the city and state are not free to reduce Medicaid budget based on the mandates. Governor Jindal from Louisiana has bemoaned the fact that he is not able to further reduce and to be flexible with his budget.