Andrew Cuomo's 2012 New York State budget proposal and healthcare policy

NYBudget

The current fiscal crisis facing American states has led to some drastic changes in state budgets. Throughout the country various states have been struggling to balance budgets without cutting vital services to citizens. In many states this quandary has caused a great deal of debate and has proven to be a major hurdle for governors. The purpose of this discussion is to examine the New York State budget as proposed by New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo. The research will focus on how the budget affects the public policy especially in the health care field. The discussion will also evaluate the advantages of the proposed budgetary cuts.

Proposed Budget

On February 11, 2011 the governor of New York released the 2012 budget proposal. There are several cuts that are expected to take place as a result of this budget. The governor explains that

"New York is at a crossroads, and we must seize this opportunity, make hard choices and set our state on a new path toward prosperity," Governor Cuomo said. "We simply cannot afford to keep spending at our current rate. Just like New York's families and businesses have had to do, New York State must face economic reality. This budget achieves real, year-to-year savings while restructuring the way we manage our state government. This is the first step toward building a new York (Cuomo)."

One of the main aspects of the proposal is a total transformation of the entire state budget process. Such changes, asserts Cuomo, are designed to ensure that the state will be able to eliminate its $10 billion deficit without having to raise taxes or borrow money (Cuomo). Among the areas to be effected by the budget Cuomo has proposed Reducing the Cost of State Government, Merging and Consolidating State Agencies, Reducing the Size of State Government, Education and juvenile justice reform.

As it pertains to decreasing the General Fund State Operations spending, the proposal asserts that such spending must be lowered by 10% for State agencies. Additionally both Commissioners and agency heads are expected to increase savings in the area of non-personal services. The remainder of the savings will be realized through a partnership between the governor and the state employee labor unions to develop ways to save in are of personal service spending. According to the governor such reductions will be done in a manner that will least effect state employees and the services that the state offers. However, if this partnership is unsuccessful and workforce savings cannot be realized the governor proposes a layoff of 9,800 employees.

Cuomo also proposes cuts to the state government. According to the budget, in an effort to assist in the redesign and transformation of government, the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission was developed. The purpose of the commission is to make suggestions to decrease by 20% the number of agencies, authorities, and commissions that exist in the state's government. Additionally the SAGE Commission has to present the Governor with a rightsizing plan to decrease the number of agencies by May 1, 2011. This rightsizing plan will then be submitted to the Legislature to take action and to ensure that the plan is properly and adequately carried out.

Another major issue with the New York State budget is the manner in which education services may be affected. School districts throughout the country are dealing with substantial cuts and New York state is no exception to this serious issue. The governor's plan explains that

"Education in New York is financed primarily through a combination of State and local funding. Under current law, school aid was slated to grow at a rate of 13% in 2011-12. The Executive Budget proposes School Aid of $19.4 billion for the 2011-12 school year, a year-to-year reduction of $1.5 billion. This represents a reduction of only 2.9% of the total operating expenditures projected to be made by school districts statewide during the 2010-11 school year, and 7.3% in State support. After these reductions, which represent $2.85 billion of gap-closing benefit for the State Fiscal Year, School Aid will continue to represent the largest State-supported program, accounting for 29% of General Fund spending (Cuomo, 2011)."

In an effort to assist the state in making the education system more efficient and realize the goals established by the governor of improving the education system in New York, the Executive Budget has set aside $250 million to be given to school districts in the state that show noteworthy improvement student performance (Cuomo, 2011). An additional $250 million will be given to school districts that establish long-term structural changes which reduce costs and increase effectiveness (Cuomo, 2011). In accordance with the budget, there is a Executive Budget school aid proposal. The proposal

"includes a $2.8 billion Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) for the 2011-12 school year that would help achieve a balanced budget through reductions in school aid on a progressive basis, accounting for each school district's wealth, student need, administrative efficiency and residential property tax burden. The size of the GEA in part reflects the loss of $1.3 billion in one-time Federal funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Education Jobs Fund of 2010. The GEA is partially offset by $305 million of growth in existing expense-based aids such as Building Aid, Transportation Aid and BOCES Aid (Cuomo, 2011)."

The budget also calls for the reformation of transportation aid to support shared services and cost-effective practices. A total of $696 million will be made available to the state through the Federal Race to the Top program. The program was created for the purpose of rewarding student performance. In addition to reduce the growth of schools in the years to come, the budget calls for a new Gap Elimination Adjustment formula that will develop a law that restricts growth in the out-years dependent upon the growth in personal income.

Like other states New York is having to contemplate how to close their deficit and education like other state sponsored services may have to be cut in some ways. This is a controversial reality and in many ways New York has been saved from having to cut education expenses to the degree that other states have been forced to cut education spending. The budget also calls for the potential layoff of 7000 teachers if education expenses cannot be reduced in other ways ("Future of NY schools, teachers online in budget").

Conclusion

The purpose of this discussion was to examine the New York State budget as proposed by New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo. The proposed cuts have the potential to impact many people in the state if they are implemented. These cuts have been proposed because Cuomo believes such cuts and adjustments must be made if the state is going to be able to avoid an increase in taxes or borrowing. The investigation revealed that Cuomo has proposed substantial cuts to the New York state budget and these cuts have included several areas including education, reductions in state agencies and The research focused on how the budget effects the state government public policy especially in the health care field and evaluated the advantages of the proposed budgetary cuts. The investigation demonstrates that without such cuts the state of New York will be in an even more desolate place as it pertains to the state's deficit. In addition such reforms to the healthcare system can eventually lead to an improvement in the way the overall system works, thereby making is more efficient, affordable and accessible to the people of New York.