BY MIKE PETTINELLA
For Video News Service
New York State Association of Counties’ officials, county administrators and county executives are calling upon their Congressional representatives to speak out against provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that they say will result in an estimated $13.5 billion annual loss to the state’s economy and lead to nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers becoming uninsured.
NYSAC Executive Director Stephen Acquario led the 30-minute Zoom call on Wednesday afternoon that included comments from several county government figures, including Genesee County Legislature Chair Rochelle Stein.
On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul urged Republicans in the House of Representatives “to speak out and push back to protect New Yorkers, now.”
In a press release, Hochul stated the bill, as currently written, “will lead to substantial changes in how the critical public insurance programs Medicaid and the Essential Plan are funded and administered across the state.”
Her office is projecting an annual loss of $7.5 billion in federal funding for the state’s Essential Plan – “threatening the future of the program and causing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to lose coverage.”
“That same Ways & Means text would shift almost $3 billion of costs to the State, and result in billions of dollars in cuts to the State’s healthcare providers.”
Genesee County Manager Matt Landers was one of many county administrators – and media members – listening in to the NYSAC briefing.
He agrees that should the bill pass in its current form, the economic impact upon the state’s 57 counties and New York City would be “significant to a level we have not seen in a long, long time.”
“The bill will impact all states, but it will disproportionately impact New York State because of the mandates of the Medicaid program in New York State and because New York is unique as it is one of only a few states where counties share in the cost of Medicaid,” Landers explained. “So, when there is a cut to Medicaid, like the feds are proposing, it impacts not only the state government, but it impacts counties. And counties are the ones levying property taxes.”
Landers said the majority of states will take on cuts trigged by the federal bill. That isn’t the case in New York.
“On the call, we heard a couple of the county administrators or county executives who suggested the state should perhaps roll back some of the benefit levels. That will be something that New York State has to decide and contemplate,” he said.
“But, in my opinion, I don’t think the state would like to do that. I believe the state probably will absorb some of the costs and then also pass along a large number of the costs down to the counties.”
When these costs are shifted to the counties, it becomes everybody’s problem, Landers said.
“One thing the NYSAC leaders on the call could have communicated more strongly was how these potential cuts would affect the taxpayer,” he offered. “You can draw a direct line that if the bill passes, there’s a strong correlation – a strong possibility – that property taxes are going to increase if the state pushes those costs to the counties and keeps the tax cap in place.”
Landers said he doesn’t have exact figures, but he wouldn’t be surprised Genesee County took a yearly hit of somewhere between $1 million and $5 million.
“What the governor’s office and NYSAC are stating is that New York State is facing a roughly $13 billion cut due to the bill being proposed through Congress right now, and there’s no expectation that the state would absorb the entire $13 billion. There’s going to be a significant cost share with counties,” he said.
Currently, the state’s counties and New York City collectively pay around $7.6 billion annually toward Medicaid, with Genesee County capped a slightly less than $10 million.
“Right now, it’s a guessing game of how much we would lose,” Landers said. “It’s alarming. It’s significant.
“The tax cap only allows the county to typically in a given year increase property taxes by roughly 2 percent. This could result in that whole 2 percent tax cap not even making a dent in the amount of the cost shift to the county.”
Asked to speak during the Zoom call, Stein said:
“We know that we are in the middle and we, oftentimes as counties, are the providers of both state and federal programs. We could not be squeezed any harder than what we currently are.
“There’s going to be at some point a compromise, and we have to be ready for that because … what is the next step? We know that we’re not in charge and we know that our voice is only as big as those that will listen to us at both higher levels of our government.
“This is important on all levels for us. So, for us to be engaged and at the table at this time is the most important thing we can do.”
Broome County Executive Jason Garnar shared what he called “a simple message” to the state’s Congressional representatives: “Go back to the negotiating table and stop these cuts that will cripple our state and county budgets, increase local taxes, hurt our hospitals and take health care coverage from our neighbors.
“If these cuts go through, up to two million people will lose coverage and state and local taxpayers will most certainly have to pay more and many of our most vulnerable New Yorkers will lose access to stable health care. Many more will lose nutrition assistance (SNAP) that their families rely on to simply put food on their tables.”
In Genese County, about 4,800 adults and children receive SNAP benefits at a mandated cost to the county of around $835,000 per year.
