March 24, 2025

Talks to intensify on NYS budget that raises school aid, cuts taxes

Michael Gormley, Newsday, 3/23ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic legislative leaders will meet behind closed doors this week to negotiate a state budget expected to significantly increase spending for schools and health care while cutting taxes for the middle class, despite the threat of deep cuts in federal aid.

The budget of at least $252 billion is due before the April 1 start of the fiscal year. But rank-and-file Democrats said they expect to miss the constitutional deadline by several days.One concern that surfaced last week is the need for an additional way to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The Trump administration pledges to cut billions of dollars in transportation funding in order to try to stop the congestion pricing program in Manhattan. Fees charged to drivers are supposed to help fund the MTA’s massive needs to renovate transit systems, including the Long Island Rail Road, while combatting traffic congestion and global warming.”Discussions on revenue raisers is definitely going to have to be part of the MTA,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Thursday. “The discussion on revenue raisers is more centered on the MTA than anything else at this point.”Heastie wouldn’t say how the leaders might raise revenue for the MTA, but state budgets have in the past relied on increases in the payroll tax charged to larger employers on Long Island, the five boroughs and the northern suburbs. Past increases have sparked outrage by commuters, who usually bore the brunt of the tax increase.

An official close to talks said early discussions focused on raising revenue for the MTA from only the biggest firms, to limit the impact on New Yorkers.”We’ll figure it out,” said Heastie, a Bronx Democrat.”When you spend this much money, there is obviously a lot of good things here,” said Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island). However, “when you spend $17 billion more than the largest budget in the country, we feel that makes New York $17 billion less affordable for New Yorkers.”The deputy minority leader said at a joint legislative budget hearing on March 17 that the budget fails to address the influx of migrants, high utility costs and “a fiscal climate that is less than inviting.”

When the budget talks began on March 17, the leaders focused attention on their theme of making New York more affordable.”We prioritize affordability,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers). She promised the budget will be a “fiscal battle plan” to increase school aid, Medicaid health care for the poor, working poor and hospitals, and to help build affordable housingHochul began the “affordability” mantra with her budget proposal to the State Legislature in January, saying, “This year’s budget will put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets.”Her proposals are still in play:

• Tax rebate checks for the middle class up to $500 for families making less than $300,000 a year. Single filers making less than $150,000 a year would get $300 checks.
• $3 billion in additional tax breaks for families making less than $323,000 a year.
• An $825 million increase in school aid now at $34 billion. The Assembly proposes a $2.7 billion increase over current funding and the Senate, more than $1 billion.
• Extending a temporary income tax surcharge on New Yorkers making more than $2.1 million a year, to raise $5 billion in revenue.

But Hochul is also driving the budget talks with policy measures. Under the state constitution, governors have extraordinary leverage over the Legislature to pass policy measures in the spending plan. Hochul told legislative leaders her top policy objectives include:

• Restricting cell phones in classrooms by students. Hochul had proposed a “bell-to-bell” ban, but legislators are hearing calls from some schools and parents urging more local control in setting the policy.
• Making it easier for police and the courts to send people suspected of mental illness, particular in crimes or on the subway, to psychiatric hospitals for mandatory evaluation. Democratic legislators have been opposed to the measure because they say it isn’t effective and unfairly targets the small number of mentally ill people who commit crimes.
• Restricting use of masks in public, except for health and religious reasons, as another crime-fighting measure. While supported by Republicans, Democrats have been critical of the measure which could result in arrest of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who cover their faces out fear of retribution.

There is less friction from the Democratic majorities over the finances in Hochul’s budget, but the Senate and Assembly majorities want to spend more. The independent Budget Commission said the Senate and Assembly proposals would increase state operating funds by13.7%, or four times the rate of inflation, over the current year’s spending.”

Even in a normal political year, I would be concerned that this budget is reckless in terms of spending,” said Bill Hammond of the conservative-leaning Empire Center think tank in an interview. “But this is not a normal year. There is every indication that Congress wants to reduce federal spending dramatically and the Trump administration is finding ways to do that with executive action.”Targeted areas include federal aid for colleges, hospitals and clinics funded by Medicaid, and schools which Heastie said could lose $4 billion in federal aid under Trump’s plan to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.But that pain may not be felt for months.The strategy of the Democratic governor and the Democratic leaders of the Senate and Assembly so far is to ignore the threatened cuts in crafting the budget. They hope the Republican efforts will fail to gain approval in Congress or be rejected by the courts as unconstitutional.If the threatened federal aid cuts stick, however, lawmakers expect to hold a special session in the fall to face prospects of cutting programs or raising taxes, which they will blame on Trump and the Republican Congress going in the 2026 mid-term congressional elections.”

They are kind of whistling past the graveyard in terms of their fiscal plan,” said Michael Kink, executive director of the Strong Economy for All advocacy group.

He said the state budget should further tap the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations to protect the poor, working poor and middle class so they don’t get hit hardest by federal cuts.”We know that huge federal cuts are coming, and I think it would be smart to prepare for that,” Kink said in an interview.

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FEDERAL BUDGET UPDATE:  BUDGET RECONCILIATION AND THE BLUEPRINT

On the Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to finalize a budget blueprint with the Senate and get it passed by the week of April 7, with a final bill through the House before Easter. Senate Republicans want something to show before they leave again in April.

Yet GOP lawmakers still have decisions to make regarding how deep to cut into social safety-net spending, how to pacify swing-seat lawmakers over key tax breaks, how to reconcile the cost for extending existing tax cuts and decide how many more tax breaks they can deliver. The Senate has been looking for cues from the House on how to proceed, which has created a quiet standoff between the chambers.

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The Big Secret About Medicaid: It’s a Middle-Class Benefit

By Ron Lieber, NY Times, 3/21

When cuts to Medicaid were under consideration in 2017, Ron Lieber wrote columns about its intersection with ethics, elder care law and long-term care insurance.

“I never thought that Medicaid would become an issue in my family, but it has.”

That was the first line of a note I received this week from a retired investment industry veteran whose autistic son receives coverage from the program. A similar email arrived from one of the most affluent towns in California.

Yes, Medicaid primarily serves Americans with the lowest incomes, and you may not count yourself among them.

But now that the program is potentially on the chopping block, as Republicans in Congress seek to make up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, it’s a good time to consider others who qualify.

It could be an aging parent who needs nursing home care, whose significant nest egg has been drained after 20 years of retirement. Or it could be a 26-year-old adult child who can’t be covered on your health insurance anymore but is not yet making much money. Or perhaps it’s a severely disabled child.

Millions of people who are financially comfortable now may be just one bad break away from needing Medicaid for themselves or a member of their immediate family. Without coverage, the cost of care for an aging parent or a sick or disabled child — of any age — can be ruinous.

Medicaid is a shield against anxiety for the luckiest among us. If there is any chance your family could face enormous bills from situations like the ones that follow, the Medicaid policy debate affects you, too.

Long-Term Care

Medicaid pays for nursing home and other long-term care for people who have mostly run out of money. (Medicare does not pay for such care in most circumstances.)

Often, middle-aged people are astounded when they start helping an aging parent or another relative and find that the median annual cost of a semiprivate room in a nursing home is $111,325, according to an annual survey by Genworth, a company in the long-term-care planning business.

They’re relieved when nursing home employees tell them that their parents will qualify for Medicaid once those parents draw down their own funds (or already do qualify) — and it won’t cost the adult children anything.

“This is everybody’s coverage,” said David C. Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.

Your 26-Year-Old Adult

One law that most people don’t appreciate until they hit their 20s (or their child does) is a requirement that health insurers allow most parents to keep that child on their plan until the child turns 26, providing it offers coverage for dependents.

A defiant Schumer again defends his decision to avoid a shutdown.

After turning 26, they’re on their own. And no matter how well-off you are, it doesn’t guarantee that your 26-year-old will have gainful employment, let alone the kind that has employer-provided health insurance.

Enter Medicaid, which often covers individual adults who earn no more than $21,597 annually. The website for KFF, a nonprofit health research group, has a number of clear explainers on various categories of eligibility. (Which state you live in can matter a lot for all categories of Medicaid beneficiaries, and states administer the programs.)

People in their 50s don’t usually boast about their 20-something children being on Medicaid. I know of two recipients in my circle in this category, because I inquire about such things. Ask around; they’re probably in your circle, too.

The Disabled

For most children with an incurable but not fatal condition — and many adults with a disability that prevents them from working or earning much — there is usually at least one family member managing some aspect of their care. But those family members may not be paying for it.

If your minor child has, say, spina bifida or cerebral palsy, your health insurance may not cover every therapy or the health aides who will allow you to avoid becoming a full-time caregiver. Medicaid often steps in to pay for many such expenses, no matter how much the parents earn.

Some adult children with autism may not be able to work, drive to work or live alone without a lot of help. But they may still want independence. The assistance and aides necessary for them to live away from family, though, may not be on the family’s dime. Medicaid pays many expenses for those who are eligible, no matter their parents’ assets.

So if you’re pregnant or considering becoming a parent, Medicaid is a likely backstop if your child ends up needing an enormous amount of care. The same thing is true if your 20-year-old college student has a disabling accident, your 25-year-old has a severe stroke and only partly recovers or your 30-year-old has a life-altering mental health diagnosis.

It may also be true if you want to adopt. When Kelly M. Smith and his partner adopted two brothers from the Connecticut foster-care system and moved them to North Carolina, the boys qualified for Medicaid and stayed on it until they were young adults.

Later on, Mr. Smith’s grandmother turned 100 and could no longer live alone. Medicaid paid for her nursing home care until she died.

“Medicaid supports everyone, including us upper-incomers,” he said.

Mr. Smith sent me the loveliest picture of his family, and he wasn’t the only one who shared snapshots. But the messages with some of those photos were harrowing. When parents hear about the possibility of even moderate Medicaid cuts, they are scared out of their minds. They’re also teeming with rage at what they see as the cruelty of it all.

President Trump has promised not to cut the program. Rhetoric around Medicaid “fraud, waste and abuse” floats in the ether, but there is no formal legislative blueprint yet.

All we have for now are the statistics and the stories. The statistics are these: Medicaid pays for roughly 50 percent of long-term services and support (like nursing homes and in-home care), according to KFF, and the program covers more than 70 million people.

The stories are yours to tell — and to coax out of others who might otherwise be disinclined to discuss a delicate part of their financial lives.

“Talk about it. Celebrate it,” said Brittany van der Salm, who spent years working for consulting firms that helped states improve their Medicaid programs. “It’s something to be proud of. You’ve made a great decision for yourself in seeking and getting care.”

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Gothamist, 3/21/25

As New York state lawmakers hash out a budget that’s expected to top $250 billion, they’re whistling past the graveyard when it comes to GOP plans for federal funding cuts.

The state budget proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul relies on federal dollars for everything from highway projects to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to 9 million low-income New Yorkers. All told, federal funding makes up about $93 billion – or around 37% of the state’s overall spending plan. In budget talks, Hochul and fellow Democrats who control the state Legislature have assumed funding from Washington will continue at the pace set by the Biden administration, which funneled aid to states in the wake of the pandemic through COVID-19 relief bills and enhanced Medicaid reimbursements.

But every sign from the GOP-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump indicates that the fat times are over. House Republicans plan to cut $2 trillion in spending over the next decade, with exact cuts to be specified later. Trump has called for shutting entire agencies, including the federal Department of Education. On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to withhold money for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unless transit officials specified their plans to reduce subway crime.

“The risk is across the board,” said Andrew Rein, president of the independent fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission. He said the state is spending at unsustainable levels and questioned whether there’s enough money to fund new initiatives – like Hochul’s proposal to send rebate checks to New Yorkers.

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