During Monday’s conference call about census funding, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was asked an off-topic question about Medicaid.

The reporter asked if he intended, in any way, to increase the local share that counties pay toward Medicaid.  

While the governor wouldn’t tip his hand, he did make a distinction between a budget gap and a deficit. When you have a deficit, he said, you have to moderate expectations against projected growth.  

In other words, he doesn’t have to cut $6 billion dollars out of the budget. In fact, he said, he is not allowing the deficit to change his priorities.

“We have a very bold agenda and we are going to exact a very bold agenda.  I’m not going to stop the trajectory of this state,” he said, while acknowledging there are structural issues that need to be addressed within Medicaid.

It was an interesting addendum to comments the governor made during the State of the State address in which he emphasized that the state has picked up the cost of the Medicaid increase for the last six years.  

Those comments led many county executives to believe they might be asked to pony up more cash – something they cannot afford under the property tax cap.

With that said, here are five questions that I have about today’s budget address:

1. How does the governor intend to deal with the $6 billion deficit? While he may not have to ring $6 billion dollars out of the budget, he will need to make some tough decisions, especially if he’s not going to raise revenue (see question #2). 

• Counties, hospitals, schools and other stakeholders will be watching to see how the governor addresses this issue.  Will counties be asked to pay more?  Will they have to give up any control of the process?  Will hospitals that serve under-insured patients see cuts?  Will there be additional cuts in payments to providers? 
• Will the governor resort to using one-shots or fiscal gimmicks to address the deficit?  Both E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center and Dave Friedfel of the Citizens Budget Commission have warned that one-shots and other gimmicks will only make New York’s financial situation worse in the long run.

2. Cuomo has said he doesn’t want to raise taxes.  But will he institute other kinds of revenue raisers?

• Progressive organizations are hoping that the governor corrects what they see as a tax system that is unfair.  Groups like NY Budget Justice and the Fiscal Policy Institute are urging the governor to raise taxes on the very wealthy via one or more of the following: pied a terre, gross receipts; carried interest; or foreign companies benefiting from Trump tax laws, among others.   
• Another kind of “revenue raiser” is a fee.   Remember last year’s hullaballoo about license plates?  The governor could insert fees on just about anything into the budget. These are considered regressive.

3. What did the governor mean when he said during his State of the State, “Let’s use state funds to raise those at the bottom”?   

• During his State of the State he repeated this line multiple times.  It’s not clear what he intends. He could mean adding more funding sent to the state’s poorest school districts. Another interpretation is that he will double down on his desire to see school by school equity.   Groups like the New York State Council of School Superintendents feel that this isn’t the best use of district resources since the federal government already requires this information.   It’s not clear how the governor would add to this regulation which is already in place. 
• Many of the groups that comprise the Education Conference Board are hoping that governor is willing to update the now 13 year old Foundation Aid formula.  The data that informs the formula is, in some cases 20 years old.  Other groups, namely the Alliance for Quality Education, simply want the formula fully funded.  Currently the state is $3.4 billion dollars behind in implementing the formula.   
• Since school districts are also laboring under a less-than-2 percent property tax cap, school funding will be especially fraught this year.  Remember, to bust the cap, school districts need 60 percent of voters to agree.

4. Will any bail reform changes be included in the budget?

• Cuomo knows that Speaker Carl Heastie and many in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party don’t want to change the new bail laws – at least not until they have been in place for a few months. If Cuomo includes changes to the law in his budget address, we will know that he’s either very serious about amending the law, or he wants to use the issue as leverage for something else. 

5. Will Cuomo’s vision for marijuana legalization match that of Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes?

• Peoples-Stokes has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to where revenues from marijuana sales should be spent: The black and brown communities that were decimated by the “War on Drugs."  It’s not clear if the governor has come to share her vision. 
• There are also plenty of other issues left over from last year that are still unresolved.  

Because Spectrum News is carrying the Presidential Impeachment Trial at 1pm today, “Capital Tonight” will air a special edition of the Budget Address, in full, at 7:30pm tonight.