Essex County board of supervisors head Randy Douglas
(02/02/12) Mandate relief--especially on Medicaid costs--was at the forefront of many county leaders' minds at the annual meeting this week of the New York State Association of Counties.
In his budget address January 17th, Governor Cuomo laid out a plan for the state to take over increases in Medicaid costs over the next few years--but some county leaders say that's not enough.
Essex County
board of Supervisors Chair Randy Douglas, of Jay, was at the NYSAC meeting. In
an interview for the public radio program Capitol Pressroom, he said this year's
county finances were stretched even thinner than usual:
"We were also
significantly hit with damages from Irene which puts us in a financial burden
that’s going to take us years to recover from. So I’d say mandate relief is
something that has to happen."
Essex has an
annual budget of about $102 million…and Douglas says it spends about $6-$7
million on Medicaid. He says the county’s financial situation would be
drastically improved if it didn’t have to pay for Medicaid:
"If we didn’t have this
we wouldn’t be looking at possibly selling our nursing home, closing our fish
hatchery, laying off people, making significant cuts to contract agencies and
libraries, we wouldn’t be able to not upkeep our roads!"
Essex
County legislators voted to override the newly-implemented 2% cap on property
tax increases; and the county’s new budget raises the levy by 10.5 percent. Douglas
says Cuomo’s Medicaid takeover plan is “a good start.”
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