NY Coronavirus Wrecking State And Local School Budgets: Cuomo

ALBANY, NY — The economic consequences of the new coronavirus outbreak are dire and Congress has failed to help states on the front lines of the outbreak, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. And the effect on school districts, programs and local governments will be massive.

"I'm disappointed," Cuomo said. "I find it irresponsible I find it reckless. Emotion is a luxury and we don’t have the luxury at this time of being emotional. When this is over I promise I’m going to give them a piece of my mind."

The new federal $2 trillion stimulus bill gives New York $5 billion to fight the virus but nothing to make up for the precipitous loss of revenue.

"What’s happening to a state government is a double whammy," Cuomo said. "You have increased expenses because of the virus and you have a tremendous loss of revenue because all those businesses are closed and all those people are out of work. We’re spending more and we’re receiving less.

"In the middle of all this we have to balance our budget. We estimate the loss of revenue at $10-15 billion. That is a ton of money for New York state’s budget."

That means state spending on everything will be all that much smaller. It will also be a moving target. New York's budget must be passed by April 1, but revenue losses are expected to continue to grow.

So state officials are going to do something never done before, he said: adjust the budget through the year to reflect actual revenues. Then what is apportioned out will be adjusted proportionately. The adjustments will be announced ahead of time, he said, so that school districts can adjust their budgets as they go.

This is happening while the death toll rises. The total number of confirmed cases in New York was 37,258 as of Thursday morning and 385 have died, up from 285 the day before, he said.

There are 5,327 people currently hospitalized with the coronavirus, including 1,290 intensive care patients.

The coronavirus is unprecedented in its demand for ventilators. In general an ICU patient is on a ventilator for 3-4 days, he said, but coronavirus patients are on them for 11-21 days. And some are on for 20-30 days. It is the latter who are most likely to deteriorate and die.

"Longer stays on ventilators lead to worse outcomes," he said. "We still have a large percentage of people who have been on ventilators for a long time."

It also puts a greater stress on the state's ventilator supply, which is still inadequate.

In addition to continuing its search for ventilators, he said health officials have found an acceptable method of splitting ventilators to serve two patients at once. They are also working on converting anesthesiology machines to become ventilators.

Officials are also seeking other medical supplies and equipment to buy where ever they can, he said. In fact, he said people have offered private planes to fly to China and pick up any supplies that the state buys there.

The state has enough for immediate needs for all hospitals, he said. His people followed up on a news report that nurses at one New York City hospital were using garbage bags as protective gear, and made sure that hospital's supply issues were resolved, added his aide Melissa DeRosa.

What has been pouring in is support, he said. The number of medical professionals answering the call for help has jumped to 52,000. The number of mental health professionals offering free services has jumped to 8,600.

"I don’t want to sugar coat the situation," Cuomo said. "They say to me 'people are getting tired of this.' It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. I understand people are tired. I also understand that people are stepping up to the plate and doing phenomenal work."

"When the pressure is on is when you really see what people are made of," he said.

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