Gov. Cuomo is drawing ire from both sides of the political aisle over his spending plan, which recommends slashing a funding stream for disease-prevention and -control programs by 20 percent.
The plan, if approved by the Legislature, would consolidate 39 public-health appropriations that are “duplicative and overlap” into four programs — disease prevention and control, maternal and child care, public-health workforce and health outcomes and advocacy.
As part of the consolidation, funding for disease control and prevention programs would drop by $8.3 million, to $41.7 million.
Analyses of Cuomo’s $163 billion spending plan by both the Democratic-led Assembly and Republican-run state Senate indicate the cut would hit disease-fighting services, a campaign to combat tuberculosis and programs to treat childhood asthma and hypertension.
“The Assembly is opposed to this cut. These are very important health issues to fully fund,” said Amy Paulin (D-Westchester), a member of the Health Committee.
Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) called the proposed reduction “a big mistake” and suggested the governor slash questionable economic-development subsidies instead.
Legislative sources also said the proposed cut is a head-scratcher because Cuomo has championed the expansion of breast-cancer screenings ever since his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, was treated for the disease.
But Cuomo budget director Robert Mujica called claims of cuts for cancer screening and disease prevention “disingenuous” because they ignore ample spending boosts for cancer services elsewhere in the spending plan.
“Our proposal consolidates outdated and duplicative appropriations so we can direct more resources to our health-care priorities — which include preventing and treating cancer and other diseases. The budget includes $62 billion — a $3 billion increase from last year — for health-related services, so any claim that there is a cut to health spending is absurd and untrue,” Mujica said.
Cuomo’s office suggested consolidation would give the state Health Department the flexibility to shift spending from diseases that no longer require the same amount of money as in the past — such as polio and TB — and focus more on cancer and child obesity.
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