Harckham, Mayer foresee challenging budget problems at Bedford Hills forum

State Sens. Shelley Mayer and Pete Harckham speak to constituents at a forum in Bedford Hills. (Jeff Morris photo)

By JEFF MORRIS

The overarching message from state Sens. Pete Harckham and Shelley Mayer at a forum on Wednesday was clear: “We are seeing big cuts coming to New York state next year,” said Harckham. 

“We’re going to have a very, very challenging budget year.” Mayer agreed. “We are going to be in a quandary starting next year in the budget,” she said. 

Harckham, (D-SD40), and Mayer, (D-SD37), appeared at a joint forum in the Bedford Hills Community House.

The two focused on their areas of specialization during the first half of the event. Harckham, who is chairman of the Committee on Environmental Conservation, spoke extensively about state investments in green energy, and efforts to ensure everyone has clean water. Mayer, who is Chair of the Committee on Education, shared information about education funding that was included in the state budget, and discussed implementation of the state’s bell-to-bell school cellphone ban.

A hot topic that both touched on is utility rates (see related story on Page 1). She said they had been “on a warpath” about utility rates for a long time. “Both ConEd and NYSEG have applied for another three-year rate increase — a substantial rate increase,” said Mayer. “I think they are truly ignoring the economic challenges for our constituents.” 

She noted this was for the regulated part of the bill: the delivery charge, not the unregulated part that depends on fluctuating energy markets.

“I believe the Public Service Commission is broken,” she said, pointing out that the utilities come to them with a very high proposed increase, and the PSC reduces it to something that is lower, but still a big increase. “That is a backwards way to do it,” said Mayer. 

She urged constituents to make their voices heard by going on the PSC website, and expressed hope that Gov. Kathy Hochul will see how fed up people are and take action to reign in the PSC.

Harckham added that in New York there are 1.2 million households that are in utility arrears, yet ConEd thinks their rate payers should pay 10% more even though their shareholders average $2 billion in profit annually. “NYSEG — hold your hats — wants a 35% increase for electric rates, and a 39% increase for natural gas,” he said. “It’s just mind boggling how tone deaf and arrogant they are.” 

Attendees, some of whom came from a number of surrounding towns, asked questions that touched on a variety of issues. Harckham and Mayer did not shy away from criticism of several state agencies for their unwillingness to adjust their practices and become more responsive to constituents — as well as to criticize some of their colleagues in the state assembly, who have failed to advance legislation that has passed the Senate.

Impact of federal cuts coming

The pall hanging over this forum, though, was the prospect of cuts in federal funding that have yet to fully impact the state. 

In response to a comment about joblessness, unemployment and store closings, Harckham said, “We have big cuts coming to New York state next year.” He said the Medicaid cuts coming to the state will ultimately be $10 billion a year, and 1.5 million New Yorkers will lose their Medicaid coverage in the next couple of years. “That’s not partisan exaggeration,” he said, “those are the numbers that come from the economists and from our budget analysts in New York state. That is also going to equate to the loss of 78,000 direct health care jobs, and another 280,000 ancillary jobs related to the health care field. So the cuts that are coming from Washington are not going to help the economic picture.”

Harckham added that further cuts to “the infrastructure that is supposed to help us during bad times” are going to make things challenging, and besides health care there will be environmental, education and transportation cuts coming in the next reconciliation bill. “We could lose 200 employees from the Department of Environmental Conservation next year, because they’re all funded with federal funding for enforcing clean air and clean water,” he said. “But since someone’s decided that we don’t need clean air and clean water anymore, those folks are expendable.”

Mayer noted that when they adopted the state budget, they did not build in coverage for all they thought was going to happen with the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” She said they did a balanced budget, and “we did give the governor some authority to make cuts, anticipating this, up to a certain dollar amount, without us coming back and doing it. Now, however, they have passed that bill; the budget bill will be done in October for the feds, and we will see how it plays out. We already know, the cuts in Medicaid are going to be very significant.”

Mayer went on to say that expenses, “as a result of that bill, across the board, are going to be very substantial. And the conversation’s going to be — and you’re all going to weigh in — what are we going to do about it?” She said there is pressure to raise some kinds of taxes, as some legislators are suggesting, but the governor has said she will not raise taxes — hence, the quandary that is coming.”

“The Essential Plan, which is sort of the Obamacare alternative in New York for people who make maybe $35,000 to get health insurance — that was federally matched; it’s not going to be federally matched anymore, and that’s going to cause a problem,” said Mayer. “Notwithstanding what some members of congress say, that it will be two years out — the effect of that is going to be in next year’s budget.”

 Jeff Morris has been a reporter for The Recorder since its inception, and previously wrote for The Record-Review, The Lewisboro Ledger, and business periodicals, and even edited jokes for Reader’s Digest.