Making Sense of Federal Funding Cuts in New York
A Q&A about federal funding cuts
A Q&A about federal funding cuts
New York can protect its Medicaid system from Trump’s cuts – but it needs to act now.
The OBBBA spending cuts are concentrated in Medicaid and food stamps (SNAP), with devastating effects for New Yorkers. The bill will cut federal funding to the New York State budget by approximately $10 billion annually and kick 1.5 million New Yorkers off their health insurance, more than doubling the statewide uninsured population. On top of the direct fiscal costs to New York State, the OBBBA will cut an additional $13 billion in funding to New York’s healthcare system.
Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory in the New York City Democratic primary election has brought FPI’s past research on millionaire tax flight into the national spotlight.
Fiscal Policy Institute Director Nathan Gusdorf today released a statement on the federal budget legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives this afternoon by a vote of 218-214, with all of New York's Republican representatives voting in favor of the bill.
70 of New York's 156 hospitals are at risk of closure from federal Medicaid cuts
Over 100 organizations signed a letter calling on Congress to protect the essential plan, which provides health insurance to 1.6 million New Yorkers.
3.5 million New Yorkers – 18 percent of the state population – depend on SNAP benefits, which average $209 per month for a participant (about $2,500 per year). The OBBBA would threaten SNAP benefits for over 1 million New Yorkers, including 363,000 children.
The OBBBA spending cuts are concentrated in Medicaid and food stamps (SNAP), with devastating effects for New Yorkers. The bill will cost the New York State government $15.4 billion annually and kick 1.5 million New Yorkers off their health insurance, more than doubling the statewide uninsured population.
The Enacted Budget, while it contains few significant new policy initiatives, allows state spending to recover some of the lost ground from a decade of austerity policies in the 2010s. The most important policy measure in the budget is a long overdue increase in unemployment insurance benefits that will better prepare the State economy for a possible recession (discussed in detail below). The bad news is that the Enacted Budget contains serious fiscal errors, including permanent tax cuts and one-time payments that will cost $3 billion in fiscal year 2026 alone.
FPI presented a briefing on the New York State budget for fiscal year 2026.
Stagflation is the deadly combination of low growth and high inflation. With the implementation of sweeping and high tariffs by the federal government, most economists and forecasters currently predict something resembling “stagflation” on the Unites States’ economic horizon. But New York may have already entered a period of stagflation: New York’s economy has recovered the jobs lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, but lags the economic growth seen in the rest of the country.
Republicans have argued that they can cut Medicaid without cutting services to vulnerable populations by cutting “waste, fraud and abuse”; by targeting people who are not, or in their view should not be, eligible for the program; and by reforming complex state financing mechanisms like provider taxes.
The Trump Administration Just Cut Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year from New York’s 1115 waiver – and that could be just the beginning
The Adopted Budget should anticipate realistic revenue and spending on core services while maintaining a flexible reserve to prepare for fiscal uncertainty. The budget response put forward by the City Council takes important steps toward these goals.