Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz today issued the following statement in response to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

“Today, I joined County Executives Steven Bellone of Suffolk, Laura Curran of Nassau, and George Latimer of Westchester counties on a conference call with State Budget Director Robert Mujica and Senior Advisor to the Governor John Maggiore to discuss the impact the Governor’s proposed changes to the Medicaid local-share cap would have on our counties.

My fellow county executives and I are concerned about the impact the Governor's FY2021 proposal will have on our budgets, and expressed those concerns to the governor's team. While we all look forward to working with New York State to find additional ways to reduce costs without reducing eligibility for those who truly qualify for Medicaid, since New York State assumed responsibility for the administration of Medicaid, counties have reduced ability to find savings in the program. Furthermore, since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, nearly 80,000 additional Erie County residents receive healthcare through Medicaid due to the expansion of Medicaid eligibility.

As such, we will be doing a further analysis of the budget proposal's impact to Erie County."