New York Senators and Assembly Members have concerns with provisions that run through Governor Cuomo’s state budget proposal; provisions that are meant for a quick response in case the new Trump Administration radically changes federal funding for programs like Medicaid.
They allow the top administrators of state agencies to reallocate funds on their own authority, without coming back to the legislature, in order to keep services running.
The issue came up during a hearing into the State Health Department budget. Health Commissioner Mark Zucker says if the Affordable Care Act is abolished mid-year, he’d be able to reallocate funds to keep people covered as long as he didn’t exceed his total budget.
Lawmakers don’t like that idea. They say there’s no way that would happen fast enough that the governor couldn’t call the legislature into session to deal with it.