Budget Crisis

Gov. David Paterson's budget-cutting proposal to the Legislature is nothing short of an all-out assault on public services and taxpayers throughout New York State. "The cuts he proposes cannot be made without affecting real people and real services and will undermine local governments and health care among other areas," said CSEA President Danny Donohue. Aid to localities, Medicaid, and other health care funding provide essential services in every community. In difficult economic times, the governor's proposed cuts put more people and real services at risk when needs are the greatest. CSEA needs you to take action by sending a message to the governor that these cuts are not good for New York! Note: Due to recent upgrades, some CSEA members who have previously requested not to receive e-mails from CSEA may be receiving e-mails. If you do not wish to receive e-mails from CSEA, please visit the CSEA web site at http://www.csealocal1000.org and sign into the "Members Only" area. Once signed in, click on "My Profile" on the left menu. When your profile is displayed, uncheck the box that states "Yes, I would like to receive updates, alerts, information, and special offers from CSEA."

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Proposed budget cuts

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

Cutting health care for the sick and elderly, slashing services to the most needy, and taking my job are NOT GOOD FOR NEW YORK. Why should my family and I suffer just so you can spare the wealthy from paying their fair share?

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
August 15, 2008


Background Information

Gov. David Paterson has cut $630 million from the 2008-09 budget through a hard hiring freeze and an additional 7% cut to state agency budgets. These are actions the Governor was able to take without Legislative input or approval.

He wants the Legislature to make an additional $600 million in reductions to the 2008-09 budget and has given them an outline of $1 billion in cuts to look at. Below is a summary of the cuts that will hit CSEA member the hardest. The Governor has only proposed cuts, he has not addressed proposals to raise revenue that might offset these devastating cuts.

Aid to Localities

The Governor has proposed a 6% reduction in Aid to local governments. This reduction would be taken against all unspent local assistance funds, except for school aid, welfare, Medicaid, child welfare, youth detention and special education.

Some of the worst cuts for CSEA would be to: *Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) to cities, towns and villages in the amount of $33,070,000 and a loss of $40,000 to Erie County *Education cuts will include a reduction in Community College Base Aid of $19,942,000, $1,952,000 in Bundy Aid and $874,000 in Library Aid *Probation Aid will be cut by $2,184,000

Health Care

Hospitals: Will face total cuts of $99.4 million in 2008-09 and $419 million in 2009-10 *Reinstituting the 0.7% assessment on hospital revenues ($22.3 million cut in 2008-09 and $271.2 million in 2009-10). *Across the board hospital rate Medicaid rate reduction of 7.2% in 2008-09 and 3.6% annually thereafter ($62.1 million cut for 2008-09 and $79 million in 2009-10 *Discontinue the remaining share of the 2008 trend factor, effective September 1, 2008 ($8.4 million cut in 2008-09 and $18.4 million in 2009-10) *Discontinue the 2009 trend factor completely effective January 2009 ($6.3 million cut in 2008-09 and $50.4 million in 2009-10)

The covered lives assessment will be increased by $120 million, from $920 million to $1.04 billion.

Nursing homes: Will face total cuts of $169.4 million in 2008-09 and $277.7 million in 2009-10 *Reduces the 2008 rebasing payments and delays the 2009 payments from January 2009 to April 2009 and caps the 2009 payments at $230 million ($50 million in 2008-09) *Implements an across-the-board nursing home Medicaid rate reduction of 4% in 2008-09 and 2% annually thereafter ($55 million in 2008-09 and $62.8 million in 2009-10) *Eliminates the remaining share of the 2008 nursing home trend factor (($20.6 million in 2008-09 and $44.9 million in 2009-10) *Completely eliminates the 2009 nursing home trend factor ($8.8 million in 2008-09 and $70 million in 2009-10) *Eliminates the $35 million grant to public nursing homes for 2008-09 and the $100 million in 2009-10.

COLA for early intervention providers would be eliminated resulting in cuts of $16.7 million in 2008-09 and $23.1 million in 2009-10.