Goꦰv. Cuomo isn’t bothering to campaign publicly in the runup to Election Day, but he’s sure playing politics. His latest move: a giant, and fiscally reckless, giveaway to his friends at the politically potent health-workers’ union, SEIU 1199.
As Carl Campanile reported in Saturday’s Post, the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond spotted the “public notice” o🐻f the $160 million-a-year gift, .
Basically, Cuomo’s Health Department is boosting Medicaid reimbursment rate for hospitals, with ⛄orders that they use it to increase pay and/or benefits — meaning raises for 1199 members with no need for any actual negotiations.
The hike went into effect 🔜Thursday, just in time to inspire 1199 members (whose union was one of the first to endorse Cuomo’s re-election this year) to head to the polls Tuesday to say thanks, Andrew.
Hammond notes that it recalls a similar payoff by Republican Gov. George Pataki in 2002, when he got the 1199 endorsement — except that Pataki at least had his pay🍰 hike publicly debated and passed into law by the Legislature, whereas Cuomo simply had the Health Department announce it.
The deal is expected to cost $1.35 billion over the next four years, and 🍸similar amounts forever after. But Cuomo is funding it with a one-shot — a big chunk of the $2 billion he blackmailed out of the Archdiocese of New York in exchange for not blocking the sale of its Fidelis Care insur🐻ance plan.
As we noted📖 at the time, that extortion cut billions from what the Archdiocese had intended to dedicate to health-care charitable spending. Now Cuomo’s using for “charity” of a ve♉ry different sort.
Plus, of course, the state will keep having to ma🔥ke the higher Medicaid payouts long after the Fidelis bounty is used up. But that’s a headache for the next governor.
The Cuomo administration, incidentally, has denounced Hammond’s online post reveal♈ing the giveaway as “the ramblings of a right-wing think tank” — but also confirmed he got his facts right.
In all, it’s one last pre-election addition to the billions of dollars that the taxpayers have involuntarily “donated” to boost Cuomo’s campaigns, most notably via his disastrous AndyLand “economic development” gif💟ts to developers.
Cuomo’s excuse for staying off the campaign trail, even skipping the League of Women Voters debate in Albany last week, is that he’s too busy doing state business. Too busy making t♔he state government do his business is more like it.