On July 31st, I watched a webcast of Governor Paterson speaking at the weekly National Press Club Luncheon in Washington, DC. He focused his talk on the sluggish state of the economy and how it has gravely impacted New York State. The theme and tone of his talk were not-surprisingly grim.

Earlier in the week, he had announced that the state economy is in the worst shape it has been in in over ten years, forcing the reopening of the already-deficient 2008-09 state budget to attempt to chip away at the now $6.4 billion deficit. The Administration plans to make $630 million in cuts to state operations, and the Governor has called upon the Legislature to return to Albany for a special session on August 19th to come up with an additional $600 million in cuts. (You may hear these actions described as “savings,” but I prefer to use the word “cuts” because it is a better characterization of what they actually are.) A hiring freeze is being imposed, including attrition of positions when state employees retire. The cuts overall equate to 7% of the state budget, on top of the 3.3% cuts already made a few months ago.

The roughly $1.2 billion in cuts the Governor plans to make in the short-term, with the Legislature’s help, is small compared to the entire deficit the state is currently experiencing and what the deficit is projected to be in the coming years. I am not prepared to provide commentary on whether the Governor has overreacted or is acting prudently. I’ll leave that to the real political pundits. I will, however, voice my strident opinion on the nature of the cuts the state will be forced to make.

In his speech to the Press Club, the Governor said that in slashing funding, “compassion is not optional, but neither is common sense.” He added that “we must be compassionate in our governing and smart in our budgeting.” He is calling this approach “the constructiveness of compassion.” Those are nice things to say, and in sunnier budget times, I’d be confident that these statements mean cuts that affect services on which New Yorkers rely will not be touched.

However, the Governor was also quoted in the press this week as saying that “nothing is off the table right now,” and we have heard that education and Medicaid, the two traditionally-safe areas of the budget, are going to the chopping block with everything else.

To say that cuts to Medicaid eligibility or benefits would be unacceptable is a gross understatement. Without Medicaid, low-income New Yorkers who need care and services would go without, resulting in illness and even death. In the case of the Medicaid waiver programs that allow people with disabilities and chronic care needs to stay in their homes, remaining in or returning to institutional settings will be a reality. Beyond not making fiscal sense, it is completely immoral for the state to fail to provide what its most-vulnerable residents need and deserve.

The lobbying forces that have far more money than anyone in the advocacy realm, namely the hospitals, nursing homes and unions, will be out in full force to urge the Governor and the Legislature to protect their interests. It will be crucial for us as advocates to make our voices heard in the next few weeks, sounding the alarm that making cuts on the backs of low-income New Yorkers who rely on Medicaid for their health and well-being is wrong. As advocates, it is our job to implore our state’s leaders to make the right decisions and to call on the Governor to take his own advice and employ the “constructiveness of compassion” in every move he makes to save the state from financial ruin.