The 2020 legislative session gets underway this week with the governor\u2019s \u201cState of the State\u201d address.\u00a0 The big issue casting a shadow over the session will be the state\u2019s looming budget deficit.\u00a0 The budget shortfall has been projected to exceed $6 billion and how it gets addressed will drive the policies for the budget and, most likely, the remainder of the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reining in health care in the state\u2019s $175\nbillion spending budget will be a top issue for the session. The governor has already pledged to reduce\nthe state\u2019s reimbursement for most Medicaid payments to health-care providers\nby 1 percent, which should save hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that move alone will not solve the problem\nand how to make health-care delivery more efficient will likely be a top action\nitem at the Capitol. A recent report\nshowed that New York\u2019s hospitals perform poorly when it comes to delivering top\nnotch health care; experts note that good health care is less expensive, since\npatients who are cared for properly are less likely to need additional costly\nmedical attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other health care topics like reducing the use\nof electronic cigarettes (and tobacco products too), limiting the cost of\nprescription drugs, and determining whether to legalize the recreational use of\nmarijuana will likely get thrown into the mix. \nLegalizing pot sales could result in increased tax revenues for the\nstate, as could a hike in taxes on vaping and tobacco products. But there likely are start-up costs for pot\nlegalization, meaning state coffers might not benefit in the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other revenue increases will matter too, since\nthe governor and lawmakers will not close the deficit with cuts alone \u2013\nparticularly in an election year. There\nwill be a plan to raise the personal income tax rates, which is supported by\nthe Assembly Speaker, but has been coolly received by the governor and the\nSenate Majority Leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Closing wasteful corporate tax loopholes,\nparticularly for the oil, gas and coal industries, could emerge as other\nrevenue sources. Those big polluters are\nresponsible for the growing climate crisis and should pay for dealing with\nit. They are also among the state\u2019s\nbiggest polluters of water supplies and plans to ensure that drinking water is\nprotected will be a top issue, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond the budget debate other issues that\nwere not addressed last year could emerge again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the last day of the 2019 session, a plan to\nautomatically register to vote eligible New Yorkers who interact with government\nagencies collapsed on technicalities. \nBoth houses said they would move on a new plan in early 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last November was the first year that New York\nallowed early voting. Expect action on\nways to improve on that experience for the 2020 elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state\u2019s campaign finance reform commission\nissued its plan in December. The new law\nhas been roundly criticized as inadequate, so it\u2019s expected there will be\ndebate on plans to improve it. The\nstate\u2019s ethics watchdog, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has been\nwracked by controversies and calls for its elimination. There will likely be legislative action in\nthat area too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The costs of higher education will also be in\nthe spotlight. The Cuomo Administration\nhas been the architect of annual public college tuition hikes and has\nessentially frozen financial aid programs \u2013 with the notable exception being\nthe Excelsior Scholarship, which benefits a small percentage of college\nstudents. With national Democrats\ncalling for massive changes in the way that higher education is funded, it is\nlikely that state Democrats will want to be in sync with the national\nagenda. The state Senate has held\nhearings to set the stage for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, it is expected that there will be a\ndebate over the specifics of a multi-billion-dollar transportation package to\ndecide spending on various roads and public transportation projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep in mind that in Albany, it takes three to\ntango: The Senate, Assembly and governor\nall must be on the same page for the budget and legislative proposals to become\nlaw. And this year state government will\nbe acting on a compressed timetable in a pivotal state and federal election\nyear. For the first time in decades, the\nLegislature is planning to wrap up its work by early June. The reason is last year lawmakers moved up\nthe state\u2019s election primary date from mid-September to the end of June (the 23rd<\/sup>). As a result, lawmakers are going to want to\nhit the campaign trail and to do so they want to be freed up from\nresponsibilities in the state capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, no one really knows how this will\nall play out. But given the stakes, all\nNew Yorkers should pay keen attention to the state Capitol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2020 legislative session gets underway this week with the governor\u2019s \u201cState of the State\u201d address.\u00a0 The big issue casting a shadow over the session will be the state\u2019s looming budget deficit.\u00a0 The budget shortfall has been projected to exceed $6 billion and how it gets addressed will drive the policies for the budget and, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2349,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions\/2349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}