County Executive Day Issues Statement Criticizing State’s $1.2B Medicaid Mismanagement Amid SNAP Crisis

I applaud New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli for uncovering that New York wasted more than $1.2 billion paying Medicaid premiums for people who don’t even live in the state anymore.

If Albany can’t manage its own programs, how can it expect to monitor counties or dictate local error rates?

That money alone could have easily covered the looming SNAP shortfall. Instead, the State is handing out $400 ‘inflation checks’ that do nothing to ease the current high cost of food or utilities.

Families in Rockland and across New York need real solutions, not political gestures.

Let’s not forget New York was already fined for misusing Medicaid funds by extending coverage outside federal guidelines, triggering a 10% reimbursement cut.

We hope the State is not planning to pass these costs down to counties, because doing so would force impossible choices and likely higher property taxes.

Rockland is working to budget responsibly, but we cannot do it without clarity from Albany. Taxpayers deserve accountability, not waste and gamesmanship.”