Cuomo unveils Medicaid plan, trades barbs with Faso
ALBANY, N.Y. >> Gov. Andrew Cuomo and congressional Democrats unloaded on U.S. Rep. John Faso on Thursday, unveiling a plan for the federal government to bail out New York in the event county Medicaid costs are shifted to the state.
“Most federal officials go to Washington to help their district,” Cuomo said in a telephone conference call with reporters. “That’s why they go there. The Faso-Collins model is new, where you go to Washington to hurt your district.”
Cuomo was referring to plan proposed by Rep. Chris Collins, R-Erie County, and backed by Faso, RKinderhook, for a state takeover of Medicaid costs now shouldered by county taxpayers. Faso and Collins say the plan is much-needed local tax relief the state can easily afford, but Cuomo said it will lead to either cuts to the healthcare system or an income tax increase to cover a significant loss of county tax revenue.
Faso and other GOP members fired back, saying that Medicaid was a huge burden on local taxpayers.
“After hearing from local taxpayers and county leaders, Gov. Cuomo and New York Democrats are finally getting it,” Faso said in a press release. “Average New York property taxpayers cannot afford to pay Albany’s Medicaid bill. Skyrocketing property taxes are forcing people out of our state and we need to provide relief, which is why I will be introducing legislation to end this 51-year-old practice once and for all.”
Faso added that “it’s on Mr. Cuomo and state legislators to end the Medicaid mandate. Gov. Cuomo will spend billions of dollars on corporate welfare in his budget and millions more on self-serving television commercials. If he cannot, by 2020, spare 1.5 percent to cover his state government’s share of Medicaid costs, it will be remembered as another broken promise to Upstate New York.”
Said U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Essex County, “New York’s Medicaid mandate is a serious problem for counties and taxpayers across my district. New York state currently raises $7 billion from its local governments to fund its $27 billion Medicaid liability, which is the largest amount in the nation. Governor Cuomo should push the state to take these burdensome requirements off our county governments and work to make Albany accountable for their own budgeting.”
The GOP House members said, “Florida (20.7 million residents) and Texas (27.9 million residents) have more than double the population of New York state (19.7 million residents). However, their combined Medicaid costs total less than New York’s. Annually, Florida spends $21 billion, Texas spends $36 billion and New York spends at least $60 billion.”
In his telephone press conference, Cuomo called the Faso-Collins proposal “a fraud and it was part of an entire fraudulent scheme that the America people caught onto ... it was a scam. This bill is actually the reality of the sham Faso-Collins were trying to perpetrate on the people of the state.”
Cuomo endorsed the “Empire State Equity Act,” which would increase federal funding for Medicaid in New York by about $2.3 billion, the amount now paid by county taxpayers. The bill has no chance of passage by the GOP-controlled Congress, but the Democratic House members said it was necessary to make the proposal in the event of a revival of President Trump’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Talks are said to be under way in Washington to revive repeal and replace, which was pulled after Republicans split on the issue and there were not enough votes to pass it in the House.
Cuomo said the money was owed to New York. “We’re a gross donor state by about $30 billion,” Cuomo said, citing estimates by some of the imbalance of New York getting less back in benefits from the federal government than residents pay in federal income taxes. “We’re talking about $2 billion here, so we’d still be about a $28 billion donor state.”
Cuomo said it was money “we never see again.” The funds help pay for the federal government, spent on national defense, transportation, healthcare and countless other programs.
Cuomo also accused President Trump and the GOP of “targeting New York like we have a bull’s eye on us.” He cited threats to state and local tax deductibility, proposed cuts in discretionary funding, the Medicaid shift, and the Obamacare repeal and replace “that would have wrecked us.”
Said U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, who was also in on the call, “The Trumpcare legislation is really a phony legislation, it’s a shell game, it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul and wouldn’t have benefitted New York the way our bill does now.
U.S. Rep. Sean Maloney, D-Cold Spring, said to Cuomo during the call, “You’re so right to point out that it is a fraud. I think we can call it the Faso fraud and it gets an F because it is also a fig leaf for cuts in good programs. It would have destroyed Planned Parenthood’s healthcare. It would have destroyed so many other things and undermined Medicare.”