County Legislators Hope State Will Pick Up Medicaid Tab

A group of county legislators are enthusiastically supporting legislation that would shift the burden of more than $50 billion dollars in Medicaid costs currently shouldered by county governments across the state to Albany's ledger sheet.

The state bill would relieve county governments of a mandated cost that is currently rising at a rate of 3 percent each year. If passed into law, the line item would be shifted from county to state ledgers over a period of eight years.

Westchester County currently pays as much as $7.3 billion for Medicaid from county property taxes.

“This successful, bi-partisan effort to help alleviate the onerous Medicaid costs that New York's counties are burdened with should gladden taxpayers across the state,” said BOL Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers). “They should know their elected leaders are working hard to find smart solutions to rising mandate costs. Senators Gallivan and McDonald and Assemblywoman Paulin, along with the New York State Association of Counties, deserve a lot of credit for working together and moving forward with new legislation that makes a lot of sense. Here, at last, is some real action on mandate relief.”

Do you think this measure would make a significant dent in the county budget? Do you think it has a chance of passing?

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