Reforms in NY Budget

The three-way budget agreement was announced on Sunday afternoon. Below are a series of policy reforms included in the proposal that were touted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.


Policy reforms in the 2011-2012 budget include:
• •Changing Permanent Law and Provides 2-Year Appropriations and Caps for Education and Medicaid: Education will be increased at a rate of personal income growth next year – roughly 4 percent. Medicaid will be increased at a rate tied to healthcare CPI which is roughly 4 percent. Together, these actions reduce next year's deficit from about $15 billion to about $2 billion and change decades-old practice of overspending.
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• •Redesigning the Medicaid System: The budget includes a global cap on State Medicaid expenditures of approximately $15 billion and implementation of the majority of recommendations by the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) to redesign and restructure the Medicaid program to be more efficient and get better results for patients. There are reallocations within the MRT cap that reduce some areas while targeting increases to others. Among the notable changes: the cap on medical malpractice is not included and EPIC is increased by $22 million. The MRT reduction of $2.8 billion and the overall spending cap to the state will be enforced by the Department of Health's "superpower" provision, whereby the commissioner has authority to make reductions during the year to enforce the cap.
• •Creating Regional Economic Development Councils: The budget establishes 10 Regional Economic Development Councils, chaired by Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy. These councils will create a region-based approach to allocate economic development funds to speed up the creation of jobs. They will act as one-stop shop for all State-supported economic development and business assistance programs in each region, and will be supported with $130 million in capital that is reprogrammed from existing resources.
• •Creating the Recharge NY Power Program: Recharge New York will enhance and make permanent the current Power for Jobs Program that will significantly boost the state's economy by creating and maintaining hundreds of thousands of jobs. Recharge New York will improve upon the existing program by opening it to new participants and allocating a blend of stable, low-cost hydropower and market power for use by businesses that seek to grow and create jobs in New York state.
• •Authorizing the SAGE Commission: The budget authorizes Governor Cuomo's Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission to reduce the number of agencies, authorities, and commissions by 20 percent. Currently, the consolidation of Parole and Corrections will save $16.8 million, the merging of NYSTAR into Department of Economic Development will save $1.9 million, and the merging of Consumer Protection into the Department of State will save $500,000.
• •Creating the Department of Financial Services: The budget merges the state's Banking and Insurance Departments into a new Department of Financial Services.
• •Authorizing Governor to Close Prisons: The state will eliminate 3,700 prison beds throughout New York at the sole discretion of the administration in consultation with the Legislature.
• •UB 2020: The Governor has also agreed to hold a summit with stakeholders to discuss how to make UB 2020 a reality.
• •Reforming the Juvenile Justice System: The budget includes significant reforms of the state's juvenile justice system by encouraging greater use of community-based alternatives, downsizing the state juvenile facilities system by more than 30 percent, and investing resources into enhanced services for juveniles that remain in OCFS custody.
• •Creating New Education Performance and Efficiency Grants: The budget enacts initiatives Governor Cuomo proposed to make districts more efficient and improve student performance. Funds totaling $500 million will be awarded competitively to districts that demonstrate significant improvements in student performance and to districts that undertake long term structural changes to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The budget also restores $270 million in education related funding.
• •Improving the Excelsior Jobs Program: As proposed in the executive budget, the budget strengthens the Excelsior Jobs Program, which was created in 2010 to provide job creation and investment tax credit incentives to businesses in targeted industries.