Cuomo Medicaid Plan

May Cost County $1.9M

Reps Resolution Urges Governor

To Keep Zero Cap On Local Share

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – Governor Cuomo’s plan to close the state’s $6 billion budget gap includes passing more Medicaid costs on to the counties, county Rep. Meg Kennedy, R-Hartwick/Milford/New Lisbon, told her colleagues at their March meeting this morning.

It could cost Otsego County a maximum of $1.9 million, she said, having been briefed as a member of the state Association of Counties board of directors.

That would require an “immediate 15-20 percent property tax hike in the county,” board chairman David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield, observed.

The representatives, unanimously, approved a resolution proposed by Kennedy, urging the governor and legislative leaders “to maintain the zero percent Medicaid growth cap for counties.”

“If state experts in the Medicaid program are unable to develop solutions to control growth in the Medicaid program, it will be difficult for counties to do so, since they do not have the authority to control costs,” the resolution states.

County Rep. Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, revisited a presentation he gave the board in August 2017, noting that in 22 states, counties pay nothing toward Medicaid; in New York, counties are levied $2 billion annually, which is more than the 3,000 counties who make contributions in other state pay altogether.