Sky-high health care insurance costs, high property taxes, and the need to attract more jobs to the state were some of the issues touched on by Gov. Eliot Spitzer at a surprise visit to Cecelia Madden, a recently widowed mother of two who lives in Kingston. Despite the sleety weather, the governor arrived almost on time at the suburban-style house Dec. 27, just after noon. The governor has been visiting ordinary folks in cities around the state in an effort to reach out and discover what issues his constituency cares about the most, said a staff member.
After settling in on the sofa and making small talk with Madden and her extended family, he asked the group to name the three things he should be focusing on as governor.
Madden said her top priority was the affordability of health care insurance. Since being widowed and losing the insurance coverage provided by her husband, she pays $525 a month for a plan that doesn”™t include dental””a huge extra cost, since one of her daughters has braces. Madden”™s brother Stephen, who owns a restaurant in Kingston”™s Rondout, said he provides insurance to his dozen employees but would like to offer better coverage.
The governor said he could relate. The state has a deficit of $4.3 billion, with a significant cost being the health care insurance of the state”™s 190,000 employees. “I want to expand health care insurance, but the challenge is paying for it,” Spitzer said.
He is focused on driving down the cost of health care. The state cost for Medicaid was $64 billion last year, he said. “The state has made progress in reducing Medicaid costs, by relying on more generic drugs and moving to a managed care system.” This includes the state assuming the burden of Medicaid costs from the counties at a certain threshold, collectively saving them $1 billion a year.
Spitzer said preventive care is another strategy. “We”™re moving away from the reimbursement trend for things like cardiac surgery to a more preventive approach.” Spitzer said the ten-year-old initiative to prevent smoking “worked. We want to do the same thing with obesity and preventing diabetes.” Promoting preventative care for kids will have a big payback 20 to 30 years down the road, he said. Another priority is addressing the high medical malpractice insurance premiums for doctors, Spitzer said.
Regarding property taxes, Spitzer said last year”™s STAR rebate program was one form of relief. And he said as he prepares the 2008 budget, he is committed to not raising taxes. But the ultimate solution is to create more jobs. “We”™re doing everything we can to bring in high-tech and solar energy jobs,” Spitzer said.
A significant source of new employment in the Catskills is the proposed Belleayre ski resort, which will create “thousands of construction jobs and a couple of hundred permanent jobs,” Spitzer said. The expansion of Stewart InternationalAirport is also a jobs generator, he said. The upgrades at Stewart, including improvement in transportation links, “will have a huge impact on the southern tier of the state,” Spitzer said.
Spitzer cited the reduction in the cost of workers comp ”“ a savings of $1 billion ”“ as a step forward in reducing the cost burden on businesses. Asked about the possibility of bringing more manufacturing to the state, Spitzer said he”™d like to do that. In the meantime, his office has been successful in creating incentives to keep existing businesses here, listing successes with Alcoa, Fort Drum, General Electric and Corning Glass. “We want to create an environment where businesses want to be here.”
Spitzer said that investing in downtowns is one way the state is encouraging more investment in upstate. That”™s also “an inducement for people to move back. Redirecting our ESD (Empire State Development) funds upstate is our biggest and most difficult challenge.”
As for difficulties in working with the Legislature, the governor said, “It”™s been a remarkably productive year. We have the same agenda, and when it gets down to getting it done, we will do it. We”™re working together.”
The governor also said the state was committed to green energy. Spitzer said “a political shift” at the Public Service Commission, which regulates most of the state”™s utilities, was in the works and that his office was “pushing real hard” to change the rules that currently prevent businesses from installing net meters, which send the excess power from solar energy systems back to the grid. The governor reiterated his plan to reduce the state”™s energy consumption 15 percent by 2015.
“When I sit down with a family, they have the same concerns, whether I”™m in Oswego, Corning, or Kingston,” he said. “They”™re worried about taxes, jobs and health care. But I think we”™ve made real progress in the last year.”
