Sunday, January 24, 2010

Death by a Thousand Cuts

The NY Nonprofit Press reported on Governor Paterson's Executive Budget announcement. As the article relates:

Was it a bloodbath or a surgical strike? The impact of Governor David Paterson’s Executive Budget for FY2010-11, which proposes to close a $7.4 billion deficit with $5.5 billion in spending cuts and $1.4 billion in taxes and other revenues, varies markedly across the nonprofit human service sector. Most providers and advocates were expecting something close to Armageddon – or even California. At the end of the day, some programs had escaped relatively unscathed while others were eliminated entirely. The most common assessment was “death by a thousand cuts” as another round of significant budget reductions followed multiple prior year cuts, slicing ever deeper into the heart of services.

On a macro level, the Governor proposes that state agencies cut approximately $1 billion from their operations. The two largest components of the budget were given the highest profile in announcing initiatives to close the gap. School aid would be reduced by $1.1 billion while health care would absorb a $1.9 billion gap closing plan, including $1 billion in spending cuts and over $216 million in Medicaid Provider Assessments. Read more here.

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