The 2020 legislative session is shaping up to be a deeply challenging one for state lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
There are holdover issues from the current year, like legalizing marijuana and the byway created by the public health concerns surrounding vaping usage.
It’s an election year and money has gotten tighter. There will be a push to spend more on education, but also close a Medicaid gap.
In a way, the concern is a simple one: Keep spending down and not resort to broad-based tax increases in an election year.
The biggest is a $6.1 billion budget shortfall.
This is, arguably, the biggest budget challenge Gov. Andrew Cuomo has faced since he took office and inherited a $10 billion budget gap.
And while the budget gap that year flowed from the relatively simple issue of revenues not meeting targeted spending, this budget for the coming year will be starkly different.
As outlined by the midyear budget report released (past its deadline) on Friday, the state faces a $6.1 billion shortfall fueled in large part by a gap in Medicaid spending.
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