Levy fights proposed state funding cuts

ALBANY - Suffolk Executive Steve Levy came here Monday to present a stark message to state lawmakers: restore a total of $26 million in public health funding or county health clinics, the crime lab and emergency responders will suffer.

As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked for more state money and warned of teacher layoffs in a televised hearing, Levy met privately with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) for 30 minutes Monday morning to press his case.

Later, the county executive buttonholed lawmakers in a bid to maintain health funding that he said Suffolk uses more than any county in the state.

"We got smashed," Levy said of the cuts. "How many health centers can we close? These are terrible choices to have to make."

As part of $3.7 billion in cuts in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed budget, the state would halt payments for "optional services," including treatment for adults with chronic conditions. The change would save the state a total of $10.5 million in 2011-2012 - $6 million in Suffolk alone - and about $52 million annually thereafter, budget officials said.

The $6 million in cuts next fiscal year include more than $1 million to come out of budgets of the Suffolk medical examiner, the crime lab and emergency response teams, said Levy.

Then-Gov. David A. Paterson last year also ordered Suffolk to retroactively return about $20 million for funding received from 2008 to 2010. Suffolk is fighting the action in court.

Suffolk uses so much of the state's public health money because it has a system of health centers instead of a public hospital, such as Nassau University Medical Center. The law considers many health-center services optional, while hospitals provide services covered by law.

The $65-million Suffolk health center system would lose almost $5 million a year, Levy said, forcing Suffolk to pay for 12,000 adults to get treatment for chronic conditions at the eight health centers. However, state budget officials couldn't confirm how much the county would lose in the future.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto emphasized the optional nature of the Suffolk program, and said the health centers are being asked for no more than state agencies, which are being ordered to cut about 10 percent from their budgets.

"All levels of government must find ways to provide the services . . . at a lower cost to taxpayers," Vlasto said.

Nassau officials said they were still analyzing the budget.

Levy, a former Democrat who turned Republican in his bid for governor last year, said his pull with Long Island's powerful Senate Republicans was "stronger than ever." Skelos did not respond to a request for comment.

In the Democratically controlled Assembly, veteran lawmaker Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) said he spoke to Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) about the centers.