BATH – A potential financial crisis for Steuben County tops the agenda when the county Legislature meets in regular
session at 10 a.m. Monday via teleconference.
The way to ward off the crisis is to receive funding directly from the federal government, county lawmakers say.
County officials say their most pressing need is for the state to release the Enhanced Federal Medicaid Matching
Funds (eFMAP) Steuben is entitled to from the federal government. Steuben leaders say those funds, through the
federal Affordable Care Act, are meant to offset the sharp increase in social and health services costs in the county
and should be sent directly to the county.
Instead, Steuben legislators are deeply concerned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will use the funds for his Medicaid
Redesign Team, proposed earlier this year to restructure the state’s healthcare entitlement system.
The county says the loss of FMAP since January 2020 will force county property owners to pay for a broken system.
Coupled with the state’s complicated 2-percent tax cap formula and its threat to force counties to pay for excess local
Medicaid spending by withholding eFMAP funds will increase the county tax levy by millions of dollars, and place
the burden of paying for the soaring costs on county taxpayers.
“The state has failed to streamline Medicaid like Cuomo said it would in 2012 and now he wants to force our
taxpayers to pay for the deficit," said county Legislature Chairman Scott VanEtten, R-Caton. “The redesign team can
make all the changes it must after this crisis is over. But right now, the feds have thrown us a lifeline and he’s hanging
us with it.”
Steuben legislators also will call on the federal government to send other financial aid directly to the counties, now
facing a serious crisis due to a significant loss of sales tax revenues brought on by the pandemic.
Like many other counties, Steuben relies on its strong tourism industry, room occupancy taxes and sales tax revenues
to pay for daily and public safety operations that serve the public at large. However, driven by pandemic social
distancing requirements those revenues are predicted to drop by at least 20 percent this year, at the same time the state
Division of Budget warns state aid may be cut in half.
County lawmakers said those cuts mean local governments across the state may face bankruptcy – a last-resort
response no one wants and threatens public safety.
The remedy is for the federal government to send the next round of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security
Act (CARES) funding directly to counties and municipalities, according to Steuben officials.
