Looking Ahead at State Politics
2018 will prove to be a challenging year in state government. The state is facing a $4.4 billion deficit - a result of the federal government’s funding cuts and lower-than-expected tax revenues. Governor Cuomo’s executive budget attempts to close the gap with new taxes and fees, although Senate Republicans have already expressed opposition to the plan. We’ll be watching closely to see how the budget impacts healthcare funding. In February, the legislature will hold public hearings to discuss the governor’s budget proposals. Then the Senate and the Assembly will release their one-house budgets and negotiations between the Legislature and the Governor will begin, with the goal to pass a three-way budget agreement by March 31. To complicate matters, control over the NYS Senate could change after two special elections take place later this year.
Healthcare Funding in the NYS Budget
As always, Pandion Healthcare: Education & Advocacy’s first priority is to protect the 17 hospitals that we represent across Rochester and the Finger Lakes to ensure that patients receive the highest quality care. We’re thankful that the governor’s executive budget included some protections for healthcare providers, who have recently endured several damaging cuts to federal funding.
However, the executive budget assumes that Congress will approve funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital Program (DSH), which funds hospitals that serve vulnerable populations. On October 1st, funding for CHIP expired and DSH cuts were implemented. Pandion Healthcare: Education & Advocacy is strongly urging Congress to ensure that any federal budget extender funds these two essential programs. If Congress does not act, New York’s healthcare budget must be amended.
Control Over the NYS Senate
Right now, there are 31 Republicans and 30 Democrats in the NYS Senate, with 2 vacancies. The vacancies were created when Senator Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) was elected to the New York City Council and Senator George Latimer (D-Westchester) was elected Westchester County Executive in November of 2017. After the general election, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Democrats and the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) announced a tentative agreement to work together to reunify the party.
In order for the Democrats to regain control of the Senate, Democrats would have to win both special elections to fill the vacancies and Senator Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) would have to caucus with the Democrats (he currently caucuses with the Republicans). In addition, the Senate Democrats and the IDC would have to pledge to work together.
If the IDC backs out of the agreement, the New York State Democratic Party will launch primary bids against IDC members. If mainline Democrats back out of the agreement, there will be a push to change their leadership. Governor Cuomo has been under a lot of pressure to unify the Senate Democrats – it remains to be seen whether the Democrats can win the special elections, whether the Democratic/IDC deal will hold, whether Senator Felder will caucus with the Democrats, or whether control of the NYS Senate will change. All 63 seats will be up for reelection in November of 2018.
To Be Continued…
We’ll be watching closely to see how the state government impacts healthcare funding, and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date via Facebook and Twitter.
Mary Beth Walker is the Senior Assistant to the President: Communications and Government Relations at Pandion Healthcare: Education and Advocacy. Prior to joining Pandion, she worked at the U.S. House of Representatives, the New York State Assembly and at a national not-for-profit organization.