Speaker Julie Menin and 32BJ President Manny Pastreich Team Up to Highlight New Healthcare Accountability Report

Report reveals hospital consolidation and increasing care service prices as major drivers of rising healthcare costs

Findings also show fewer than 3 percent of commercial insurance claims are appealed internally, despite the fact that appeals tend to win one third of the time 

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and 32BJ President Manny Pastreich appeared jointly in a new video highlighting the Healthcare Accountability Report, which was recently published by the NYC Office of Healthcare Accountability (OHA). The report, which examines the drivers of rising healthcare costs, found that pricing — not how much care consumers use — remains the primary cause. The analysis also uncovered extreme price variation in hospitals across the city.

Healthcare costs in New York City are rising faster than wages and inflation, and are a major financial burden for many New Yorkers. The annual Healthcare Accountability Report provides context on major healthcare affordability issues, uses public data to analyze the financial practices of hospitals and insurers, and offers detailed price transparency data on both hospitals and payers, in addition to City spending on employee, retiree, and dependent healthcare.

In the video, Speaker Menin and Pastreich underscore the importance of consumer transparency. The full video can be found here, and the full 2026 OHA Report can be found here.

“When you go to the hospital, you don’t know what you’ll be charged for a service or procedure. For consumers, there is no other industry where you’re procuring a service—much less in the hospital at your most vulnerable time—and have no idea what it’ll cost,” said Speaker Julie Menin. “New Yorkers should never have to choose whether or not to get the care they need simply because they can’t afford it. Transparency brings down costs, and this year’s OHA report arms New Yorkers with the critical information they need about the cost of health procedures so they can make better informed decisions about the care they receive. I’m grateful to 32BJ for their partnership in making healthcare more affordable for New Yorkers across the city.”

“Knowledge is power. This new report helps put the power back into people’s hands by exposing the outrageous prices and growing hospital consolidations that drive up healthcare costs,” said Manny Pastreich, President of 32BJ. “It’s clear that less competition allows big hospitals to buy up the market, leaving everyday New Yorkers stuck with paying higher prices. While this report brings greater transparency to our hospital pricing system, accountability must be our next step. That’s why 32BJ strongly supports implementing the stakeholder convening provisions of Local Law 78 and has been championing the Fair Pricing Act in Albany. I commend Speaker Menin for passing the legislation that created the Office of Healthcare Accountability which produced this report and for her continued leadership and support for greater healthcare affordability.”

Key findings from the report reveal:

•   Hospital prices for identical procedures range dramatically across New York City. For example, a C-section can cost anywhere from $7,000 to $64,000 depending on the hospital, and an emergency room visit can range from $210 up to $6,000.
•    Nearly 70% ($3 billion) of the City health plans’ 2025 spend on hospital benefits were concentrated in the five largest NYC academic medical centers (Montefiore Health System, Mount Sinai Health System, NewYork Presbyterian, Northwell Health, NYU Langone Health).
•    Among the City’s own health plans, outpatient care spending outpaced all other categories, rising 13–17% in just one year, with that growth clustered at two hospital systems. This is compared to inpatient care spending, which only rose 4-5% in the same period.
•    The average marketplace premium reached $909 per month in 2025, jumping 20% over two years. Meanwhile, the City’s total spend on employee and retiree premiums reached $10.03 billion in Fiscal Year 2025, up 15% over the past two years.  
•    The denial rate of commercial insurance claims in 2024 was around 25% — or one in every four claims — with fewer than 3% of those denials being appealed internally even though appeals win up to a third of the time.  
•    In 2024, New York City’s nonprofit hospitals reported $10.6 billion in community benefit spending — 20% of total expenses. At the same time, large academic hospitals continue to treat fewer Medicaid and uninsured patients than public and safety-net hospitals.  

“As we prepare to negotiate the citywide economic agreement for city workers, we want to ensure more money goes back into our members’ pockets than in the pockets of hospital CEOs,” said Henry Garrido, Executive Director of District Council 37 AFSCME. “Every dollar counts for New Yorkers, and the reports generated by the Office of Healthcare Accountability have been instrumental in recent negotiations with certain hospital systems when benchmarking costs for individual services. We thank Speaker Menin for her partnership and advocacy in sponsoring the Healthcare Accountability and Consumer Protection Act, and look forward to using this new report to make the case for lowering arbitrary hospital prices.”

The Office of Healthcare Accountability last year helped the city harness its purchasing power to negotiate a better employee health plan, expanding care while saving taxpayer dollars.

In 2023, then Council Member Menin in collaboration with 32BJ and labor advocacy partners worked to pass Local Law 78, which established the Office of Healthcare Accountability — the first of its kind in the U.S. The office provides recommendations relating to City healthcare and hospital costs, analyzes expenditures on healthcare costs for city employees, provides information relating to the costs of hospital procedures, convenes stakeholders to examine healthcare costs, and collects hospital financial documents and makes them publicly available.

Speaker Menin has long been a champion of consumer protection. As the former Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, she worked to put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets, increasing consumer restitution by 70%, implementing the city’s historic Paid Sick Leave Law, and launching an Earned Income Tax Credit that returned $260 million to low-income residents.

Report: Biden-Era Afghan Refugee Program Had a 40% Error Rate, Potentially Bringing Terrorists and Other Dangerous Criminals into the United States

 

A lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s DHS forced USCIS to adjudicate 90% of the program’s asylum applications within 150 days

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after a report by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed that a Biden-era program to admit Afghan refugees had a 40% error rate in adjudicating asylum claims, which put the United States at risk of admitting potential terrorists and other dangerous criminals.

Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) was established under the Biden Administration by the Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, which required U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to interview an OAW asylum applicant within 45 days of the filing of the application, with no exceptions. In April 2023, a group of plaintiffs sued Biden’s DHS in Ahmed vs. DHS, with the lawsuit being settled in September 2023. As a result of the settlement, DHS ordered USCIS to adjudicate 90% of OAW asylum applications within 150 days.

Following complaints from USCIS employees warning that the rushed timeline would hinder the agency’s ability to comprehensively review each application, the OIG conducted its own evaluation of the process from March 2024 to January 2025. The OIG report determined that there was a 40% error rate in the adjudication of OAW asylum files, with USCIS missing opportunities to potentially link alias names provided by applicants to information that could have made them ineligible for asylum.

“Our asylum system should be as strict as possible. If even one dangerous criminal or terrorist slips through and enters our country, it endangers countless American lives,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “The Biden Administration dangerously mismanaged the Operation Allies Welcome program, disregarding all the thorough and well-established procedures of our asylum system and putting our nation at risk. Unlike the Biden Administration, the Trump Administration is putting the American people first and bringing an end to these reckless and rushed asylum practices.”

Operation Allies Welcome resulted in many criminal aliens being released into the country under the Biden Administration, including those convicted for lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, sexual battery, hit-and-run, drug possession, and kidnapping. Other examples include:

• In November 2025, DHS assisted the FBI in the arrest of an Afghan national who entered the United States under OAW and was federally charged for threatening to kill Americans and others.
• In December 2025, ICE arrested a member of ISIS-K who was allowed to enter the United States under OAW.
• In March 2026, ICE and USCIS arrested an Afghan national, allowed into the country by OAW, who had previously been convicted of indecent exposure to a minor.

Attorney General James Sues Festival Promoters for Scamming Ticket Buyers

 

Promoters Abruptly Canceled Evolutions Music Festival 10 Days Before Event, Failed to Refund Ticket Buyers and Vendors

Organizers Pocketed Over $240,000 in Advance Ticket Sales and $21,000 in Vendor Fees from Small Businesses

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a lawsuit against Evolutions Festival and its organizers, Michael and Justin Brown, for failing to refund ticket holders and vendors after abruptly canceling the three-day electronic dance music (EDM) and arts festival just 10 days before it was scheduled to begin. Evolutions Festival, which was scheduled for September 5-7, 2025 at the Sugar Mountain Performing Arts Center in Canedea, Allegany County, had sold more than $243,000 in advance tickets to 521 people and collected more than $21,000 in advance vendor fees. Attorney General James is seeking restitution for all ticket holders and vendors, civil penalties, and an order preventing the promoters from holding future events in New York state unless they provide a $500,000 bond.

“Concertgoers and vendors who spend their hard-earned money in New York should know that my office has their back,” said Attorney General James. “Arts and culture are a cornerstone of what draws people to our great state. My office will never allow unsavory promoters to ruin that experience and take advantage of consumers or small business owners.”

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) launched an investigation into Evolutions Festival LLC and 845 Vibrations LLC (the organizers) after receiving multiple consumer complaints about the festival’s failure to issue refunds. Evolutions Festival, promoted as an enhanced three-day weekend of music, arts, and camping, was first held in 2024. Organizers claimed that the 2025 event would be even better, touting A-list headliners, new so-called “glamping” options, immersive on-site experiences, and diverse international food offerings. The festival lineup included popular artists including Allison Wonderland, Of the Trees, and Flowdan.

Tickets went on sale on March 20, 2025 with prices ranging from around $200 to more than $700. Consumers could also purchase camping, parking, transportation, and other add-ons. In total, the organizers collected $243,158.04 in advance ticket sales through 1,157 tickets purchased by 521 individuals. The organizers also charged vendors advance fees ranging from $650 to $1,150 for a planned “vendor village,” which brought in $21,662.75 from 28 small businesses.

On August 26, 2025, just 10 days before the festival was scheduled to begin, Evolutions Festival announced on social media that the event was being “postponed.” The organizers claimed that the venue had not secured the necessary permitting for the festival, and as a result, the event was unable to move forward as planned. Despite the cancellation, Evolutions Festival did not offer refunds to ticket purchasers. Only 11 of 521 ticket purchasers received refunds, all by contacting their credit card companies and disputing the charges. Some consumers reported feeling like they had been scammed.

The festival also failed to refund vendors who had paid in advance to participate. One Rochester-area small business owner paid over $1,200 to secure a booth for the weekend and was notified of the event’s cancellation just six days before it was scheduled to begin. Festival organizers told her that they were working to reschedule the event, but that she could email a request for a refund and that those requests would be processed quickly. That promise was not kept.

Attorney General James alleges Evolutions Festival’s organizers violated New York’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law by failing to keep all advance ticket-sale funds in escrow or otherwise provide required financial protection for ticket purchasers. Under the law, ticket purchasers are entitled to a refund even when a performance is canceled or rescheduled. Attorney General James is seeking full restitution for all ticketholders and vendors, an order to prevent the organizers from hosting cultural events in New York unless they first post a $500,000 performance bond, and civil penalties of $5,000 for all 1,185 alleged violations of New York’s General Business Law.

During Suicide Prevention Month, Governor Hochul Announces New Mental Health Training to Support First Responders

New Training Focuses on First Responder Suicide Prevention and the Barriers That Prevent Responders From Seeking Treatment

Training Now Available for Mental Health Professionals Statewide

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the release of a new online training for mental health professionals working with or considering a career helping first responders such as 911 dispatchers, law enforcement, emergency medical technicians and firefighters. Developed by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the First Responder Mental Health and Cultural Awareness Training features content on the challenges these individuals face and barriers to treatment they may encounter, using insights gained from Governor Hochul’s New York State First Responder Mental Health Needs Assessment, which included input from more than 6,000 emergency professionals statewide.

“First responders see things in their day-to-day work that people in other lines of work could only imagine — it’s crucial that we provide the best resources and support to ensure others can help them take care of themselves as much as they take care of others,” Governor Hochul said. “The professionals who serve our first responders need to understand the complexities of such work and this training will go a long way to ensure our responders can get the care that they deserve. Our communities are better because of the work they do and we must show up to support them.”

The one-hour awareness-level training is for mental health professionals interested in working with first responders and includes suicide prevention videos specific to first responder professions, along with scenarios and interactive exercises. Modules include understanding the work of first responders, risk and protective factors, barriers to seeking care, recognition and assessment of suicidal ideation, and strategies for intermediate intervention and ongoing care.

The training is focused on suicide prevention and is the second in a series on first responder mental health and cultural awareness. Mental health professionals successfully completing the training can receive continuing education credit.

Complementing this training, the state Office of Mental Health’s CARES UP initiative is offering a series of webinars this month related to suicide prevention. Topics include sessions with first responders who have successfully navigated suicidal ideation and other challenges.

If you or someone you love are in need of support, OMH also hosts the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which connects New Yorkers to trained crisis counselors 24/7 and can help anyone thinking about suicide, struggling with substance use, experiencing a mental health crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress. New Yorkers can also call, text or chat 988 if they are worried about someone or believe they may need crisis support.

The state’s 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is also among the most active in the nation, logging more than 51,000 calls in August alone – second only to California. The 988-Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has been one of Governor Hochul’s capstone mental health initiatives – enough so that she secured more than $60 million to fund the service, including through a robust public awareness campaign that is now entering its third year. 

Mayor Mamdani Opens New Bridge to Home Facility in Brooklyn, Expanding Path from Hospital Care to Permanent Housing

 

New facility will provide 50 New Yorkers with private rooms, onsite clinical and behavioral health services, and support securing permanent housing   

 

Second Bridge to Home site expands program to serve 100 New Yorkers citywide

Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and NYC Health + Hospitals announced the opening of a new Bridge to Home facility in Brooklyn, expanding a program that helps New Yorkers living with serious mental illness move from hospital care into stable housing and continued treatment.

Bridge to Home program provides a critical bridge for patients who are ready to leave the hospital but do not have a stable place to go. Rather than sending New Yorkers from inpatient care to a shelter or the street, the program provides a home-like setting with onsite clinical and behavioral health services, housing application assistance and support throughout the transition to permanent housing.

"Recovery should not end at the hospital doors, and no New Yorker should have to choose between getting the care they need and having a safe place to call home,” said Mayor Mamdani. “By bringing this program to Brooklyn, we are giving more New Yorkers the stability, treatment and support they need to recover and move into permanent homes with dignity.”

"The Bridge to Home program brings together two fundamental commitments of this administration: ensuring New Yorkers can access high-quality mental healthcare and that every New Yorker has access to stable, dignified housing,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Helen Arteaga. “Following the success of our first site in Manhattan, we are proud to expand this model to Brooklyn and provide more New Yorkers with the care and support they need to move into permanent supportive housing.”

“A year ago, we opened Bridge to Home on a simple premise: patients with serious mental illness are far more likely to stay well if they leave the hospital for a stable place with care on-site, rather than a shelter or the street,” said Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals. “Our Manhattan guests and their incredible care team have shown what that stability makes possible — staying engaged in treatment, completing housing applications, and moving into homes of their own. I am grateful for the support of Mayor Mamdani and our city partners who have helped us quickly open our Brooklyn site so that we can offer that same path to a better life for more New Yorkers in need.”

Bridge to Home: Brooklyn will welcome its first guests this week and at full capacity will provide private rooms for up to 50 New Yorkers. Guests can stay for up to 12 months or until they are connected with permanent supportive housing.

Located near NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, the Brooklyn facility will allow guests to remain connected to a broad range of medical and behavioral health services, including substance use disorder treatment, individual and group therapy, social services and around-the-clock medical support.

The first Bridge to Home site opened in Midtown Manhattan in September 2025. During its first year, the program demonstrated strong engagement with clinical care and housing services:

• About 80% of current guests attend weekly clinical visits
• 70% have completed housing applications.
• Among guests who have transitioned into permanent supportive housing, the average length of stay is about seven months.

With the opening of the Brooklyn facility, Bridge to Home can now serve nearly 100 New Yorkers at any given time.

NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest provider of behavioral health services in New Yor City, serving more 82,000 patients annually. Nearly half of those patients experience homelessness. For many, housing instability can make recovery more difficult and increase reliance on emergency and inpatient care.

Bridge to Home addresses that gap by giving New Yorkers a stable place to live while they receive intensive clinical support and work with staff to secure permanent housing. The program is designed to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations, reliance on shelters and homelessness, while helping New Yorkers build a path toward long-term stability.

“When patients with serious mental illness have a stable place to go after they leave our hospitals, we now have the opportunity to create a lasting change in the course of their lives,” said Ted Long, MD, MHS, Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Services and Population Health at NYC Health + Hospitals. “What we've learned at our Bridge to Home site in Manhattan is that stability and onsite services will change the trajectory of someone's recovery. Our guests stay engaged in their care, avoid return trips to the emergency room, and work with our teams to prepare to live in permanent supportive housing. I am grateful to Mayor Mamdani and all who have helped us open this second facility in Brooklyn, where more New Yorkers will now have the chance to move from a hospital bed to a home of their own.”

“Leaving the hospital is not the end of recovery — in many ways, it is when the recovery work actually begins,” said Omar Fattal, MD, MPH, NYC Health + Hospitals Chief Behavioral Health Officer. “For people with serious mental illness who are experiencing homelessness, that requires a safe and stable place to live. Bridge to Home is a connection between getting well in the hospital and building a life in the community. It provides the stability and support patients need as they work toward recovery and permanent housing. We have seen the impact of this model in Manhattan, and we are excited to bring it to Brooklyn.”

“At Woodhull Hospital, we understand that a safe place to recover can be just as important as the care provided inside the hospital,” said Sandra Sneed, MBA, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull. “Bridge to Home strengthens the continuum of care by giving patients living with mental health challenges the clinical support, stability, and housing resources they need to move forward. We are proud to help bring this innovative model to Brooklyn and closer to the communities we serve.”

“Every week, our inpatient teams at Woodhull care for patients who are ready to leave the hospital but have nowhere safe to go, and too often we see them come back to us in crisis because they didn’t have a safe place to live or stay adherent to their medications,” said Rajvee Vora, MD, MS, Chief of Psychiatry at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull. “Many of them cite homelessness as the number one reason for their relapse and decompensation. With Bridge to Home: Brooklyn, our psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and peer specialists can continue caring for these patients right here in the community, in a place where they can rest, stay connected to treatment, and begin building the lives they want. This is continuity of care in its truest sense, and it is a proud day for Woodhull and for Brooklyn. This program is Woodhull's commitment to walking alongside our patients through that transition, connecting them to housing, treatment, and community so that leaving the hospital means moving forward, not starting over.”

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE OPPOSES FEDERAL RULE ELIMINATING INTERVIEW FROM ASYLUM PROCESS

 

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams is opposing a federal rule that would eliminate interview requirements for immigrants in the asylum process. The rule, USCIS-2026-0199-0001, was enacted on July 28th as an interim measure but is set to be made final pending the public comment period, which closed last night. If made permanent, the USCIS estimates this will lead to 132,167 immigrants being denied an interview annually.

In his public comment registering opposition, Williams argues that that the rule "unjustly eliminates an important part of the asylum process, essentially for reasons of expediency, rather than justice." While noting the need to address the backlog of asylum applications, he contends that reforms to the system should not come at the cost of fairness. He also notes that the Interim Rule will particularly affect those fleeing gender based-violence, who rely on an interview to share crucial context for their claims.

Further excerpts of the submission are below, and the full document can be read here.

"In the past twenty-months I have witnessed the Federal Government’s hostility to immigrants manifest in numerous ways. Reasonable people can disagree on many issues when it comes to who the administration refers to as “illegal” immigrants (which I think is a cruel dehumanizing phrase, and I more compassionately refer to as undocumented). However, I have heard a refrain from conservative-minded people my entire life: they don’t object to all immigration—they are fine with immigrants who “play by the rules” when trying to find a new home in our great country. This administration, however, seems determined to limit to every possible extent how people can do just that—follow the rules. The Interim Rule flies in the face of this refrain—it is a limitation on what was considered following the rules."

"Both U.S. law and the International refugee Convention (a/k/a the Convention Related to the Status of Refugees), to which the U.S. is a signatory, guarantee people the right to seek asylum. Asylum seekers come to our country “to escape violence, persecution, and other human rights abuses in their home countries.” I believe as the world’s richest country, we have a responsibility to take in refugees. The U.S. should be trying to reform the system in ways that are humane and acknowledge that anyone seeking asylum is coming from circumstances that we would not want to live. Instead, the Administration has been attempting to make it as difficult as possible to make an asylum claim and to successfully obtain asylum."

"Reducing the backlog of asylum applications is a worthwhile goal. The system is in great need of reform, however this should be done at the expense of fairness. The USCIS may be correct when it states that this rule will help reduce the backlog of 1.4 million asylum cases. However, even if it is true, this should not be done purely for reasons of expediency—these asylum seekers deserve every opportunity to plead their cases, and, therefore, the elimination of the interview is unjust. Asylum seekers by-and-large just want to play by the rules, the way many, if not most, Americans think they should—the U.S., therefore, should not be changing the rules in the middle of the game."

DiNAPOLI: NEW YORK REVERTS TO A NEGATIVE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, REFLECTING END OF PANDEMIC-ERA AID

 

NY Ranked 45th Among the States in FF2024

With the historic, multi-year pandemic aid from the federal government mostly in the past, New York returned to a negative balance of payments with Washington for the first time since Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2019, according to a report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. In FFY 2024, the state generated $353.5 billion in federal taxes and received $341.1 billion in federal spending. New York’s balance of payments amounted to a negative $12.4 billion. For every $1 in federal tax paid to Washington, the state received $0.97 in return, compared with a national level of $1.21.

New York has historically been a state that pays more in federal taxes than it receives in federal spending. This pattern was temporarily altered by substantial increases in federal spending spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. All states had a positive balance of payments in FFYs 2020 and 2021, and New York continued to have one through FFY 2023. In FFY 2024, New York was only one of ten states with a negative balance of payments.

“The state is once again sending more money to Washington than it gets back,” DiNapoli said. “With the impact of the federal pandemic aid largely gone, New York returns to the familiar position of being in the red. With damaging policies being implemented by the federal government, New York could have a disproportionate reduction in federal funding which will only worsen the state’s balance of payments in future years.”

In FFY 2024, every U.S. resident, on average, benefitted from approximately $16,999 in federal expenditures and paid approximately $14,008 on average in federal taxes – a positive $2,991 per capita. In contrast, for New Yorkers, the per capita amount was negative (-$618).

Key findings in DiNapoli’s report include:

• New York generated $17,674 per capita for the federal treasury, ranking it third among states in FFY 2024. The state received $17,056 per capita, ranking it 25^th in per capita federal spending.
• Federal income taxes made up the largest portion of taxes New Yorkers paid, $9,527 per capita – 34.7% higher than the national average of $7,075.
• New York ranked second on per capita for corporate income taxes, at $2,098, which was 35.4% higher than the national per capita amount of $1,549.
• New Mexico continued to rank first in per capita balance of payments (+$18,111), followed by Virginia, Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia. New York ranked 45^th and New Jersey ranked lowest (50^th).

Programs Where New York Ranks High

In FFY 2024, New York received $60.8 billion in Medicaid funding, or $3,040 per capita, 68.5% higher than the national average of $1,804, ranking it third in the U.S. New York’s robust social safety net encompasses more than public health programs and the state receives strong levels of support from many other areas of federal funding, including: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), public housing and rental assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

For 2024 per capita spending, New York ranked first on rental assistance and public housing, and TANF; fifth on homeless assistance grants; sixth on SNAP and eighth on grants for child and family services. New York also is among the highest in the nation on transit grants (third per capita) and on Pell Grants for undergraduate students (10th per capita).

Programs Where New York Ranks Low

Similar to findings in DiNapoli’s prior analyses, New York’s per capita share tends to be low in areas related to the federal workforce, retirement payments, and veterans’ benefits; much of this related to New York’s relatively smaller number of federal employees and veterans. New York also ranked lower on per-capita highway spending (49^th) and procurement (44^th).

This report is the tenth issued by DiNapoli’s office detailing the differences among the 50 states with respect to what they pay in federal taxes and how much they receive in federal spending. New York’s former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan pioneered the concept of this balance of payments and issued his first report in 1977.

Report

New York’s Balance of Payments in the Federal Budget, Federal Fiscal Year 2024

Downloadable Excel File with Additional Data

HERNANDEZ DEMANDS DINAPOLI FREEZE AND AUDIT HOCHUL'S $1.1 BILLION NO-BID DELOITTE DEAL

 

Republican candidate for New York State Comptroller Joseph Hernandez today called on Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to halt and investigate an $866 million amendment to a state Medicaid contract with Deloitte that pushed the total value of the deal to approximately $1.1 billion without a new competitive bidding process.

 

The Department of Health originally awarded Deloitte a $177 million contract in 2023 to develop a statewide Medicaid eligibility and enrollment system. Subsequent amendments increased the contract to approximately $317 million before Governor Kathy Hochul added another $866 million in August, bringing its total value to roughly $1.1 billion.

 

The expansion increases the state’s payments to Deloitte from approximately $9 million per month to roughly $25 million per month. Good-government experts have questioned whether an expansion of that magnitude should have been subjected to a new competitive procurement process.

 

“New Yorkers deserve an explanation for how Hochul turned a $177 million contract into a $1.1 billion deal without another company ever getting the chance to compete for the additional work,” Hernandez said. “First it went to $317 million. Then Hochul’s administration added another $866 million. At some point, this stops looking like an amendment and starts looking like an entirely new billion-dollar deal.”

 

State Finance Law §163 establishes New York’s competitive procurement requirements and provides for Comptroller review of covered procurements. State Finance Law §112 separately requires Comptroller approval before many state contracts above statutory thresholds can become effective.

 

“This is exactly the kind of spending New York’s Comptroller should be scrutinizing,” Hernandez said. “Kathy Hochul’s administration added $866 million to this contract without a new competitive bid. Tom DiNapoli should use every authority available to his office to scrutinize this amendment, determine how it was approved and demand answers from the Hochul administration about why an additional $866 million in work was not competitively bid.”

 

Deloitte previously worked on New York’s Excelsior Pass program, which ultimately cost taxpayers more than $60 million. Former State Budget Director Sandra Beattie also admitted this year to violating state ethics law in connection with interactions involving a Deloitte lobbyist while serving in state government.

 

“Kathy Hochul’s administration is handing Deloitte another $866 million without a new competitive bid,” Hernandez said. “Tom DiNapoli should freeze this amendment if his authority permits it, audit the procurement and put every document behind this deal in front of the public. New Yorkers deserve to know how Hochul’s administration allowed a $177 million contract to balloon into a $1.1 billion deal.”

 

“If Tom DiNapoli won’t aggressively scrutinize billion-dollar deals like this, I will when I take office on January 1, 2027.”