Town of Preston Supervisor Zachary Meseck and NY State Governor Kathy Hochul. Meseck represented the Chenango County Board of Supervisors at the New York State Association of Counties Legislative Meeting in Albany in February. (Submitted photo)

ALBANY – Town of Preston Supervisor Zachary Meseck represented the Chenango County Board of Supervisors at the New York State Association of Counties Legislative Meeting in Albany late last month, and said many of the issues facing New York State won’t be going away anytime soon.

The conference was held in late February, and had representatives from all over New York State discussing issues including ambulances services, the future of artificial intelligence, and the state budget.

“It was an honor to represent Chenango County again at the 2024 NYSAC Spring Legislative Conference, and work with legislators on so many of the important issues facing upstate New York,” said Meseck. “I’d like to thank the entire Chenango County Board of Supervisors for allowing me to represent our county, and New York State Governor Kathy Hochul for taking the time to meet with me at the New York State Executive Mansion.”

Meseck said he was also joined by the Chenango County Planning Department, and he hopes that other supervisors will take the opportunity to attend future conferences. He added that there were a variety of opportunities for education throughout the conference.

“One of my biggest priorities was to find out what was happening with the state budget, and how the state would move forward with proposed cuts to foundational aid to school districts and CHIPS funding,” he said. “I was also interested in learning more about NYSAC’s “Rescue EMS” campaign, and how other counties were handling the EMS crisis throughout the state.”

“It sounds like there is a good chance many of the proposed cuts will be restored, but it’s important that organizations continue to advocate until there is an official announcement from the state.”

New York State’s 2024 Budget

“One of the biggest takeaways from the conference was the financial pressure unfunded state mandates are putting on counties – with mandates leading to an average increase in local share tax costs of approximately three times our allowable tax cap growth.”

Meseck said at the time of the conference the 2024 NYS Budget was scheduled to be approximately $229 billion, with $19.5 billion for reserves.

He said NYSAC representatives discussed the issue of state mandates and taxes in depth, with the majority of state spending being dependent on estimated revenues. He added that until recently the state had no reserves, and when revenues have dropped in the past many of the promised funds to counties have fallen short.

“Representatives said one of the big factors impacting costs is Medicaid - it appears that Medicaid costs are significantly higher than the state originally estimated, with spending more than doubling in the past seven years,” said Meseck. “This matters to counties because costs are only continuing to increase, and we have been bearing the brunt of that load.”

“Key factors to this situation are that cost containment actions have failed to achieve savings targets over the last decade, program expansions have exceeded expected costs, and spending increases funded by one-time COVID aid and temporary federal waivers have become absorbed by the state upon expiration, which is putting more pressure on the state budget and local governments to find additional funds.”

Meseck said NYSAC financial representatives described the biggest problem with Medicaid as, “growth management,” and he added that a portion of the blame is to be put on federal aid that fell through.

Rescue EMS

Alanna Badgley, a paramedic and Co-Founder, EMS Sustainability Alliance spoke at the conference, and advocated for NYSAC sponsored EMS legislative packages.

“Around this state, people are also calling for help when no one is nearby or available to respond to their emergency,” said Badgley. “The way things have been working now, someone might wait hours for an ambulance, or one may not come at all.”

“This is true in both the urban areas, and the rural ones.”

Badgley said state and local budgets should not dictate whether or not a life is saved.

“When we say make EMS essential what we mean is live up to the promise that an ambulance will arrive when someone calls 911,” she said. “The EMS practitioners in this state want nothing more than to live up to that promise to our neighbors, but we must do so in a sustainable manner that does not break us down bit by bit in the process.”

She added that the EMS system is broken, and the system has been collapsing for years because society has allowed it to.

“We’ve created a third-class system that is largely unfunded by the public, even though it is a publicly expected service,” said Badgley. “As a result, the providers themselves have also been devalued, and blocked from a viable career of service as an out-of-hospital healthcare provider.”

“We are an afterthought on budget lines, which is internalized not just by us, but by everyone around us.”

She said communities will be hard pressed to find children out there who will say they want to be a paramedic when they grow up. She added that everyone she works with has an exit strategy of some kind, and very few of those plans involve sticking around for 30 years to have a relaxing retirement.

“We can do better and we deserve better, so we must begin the process of fixing the broken system of EMS,” she said. “That starts with making EMS essential by creating funding structures that are sustainable and equitable, with offering more resources to the providers in the field.”

“It starts with the legislative package proposed by NYSAC to rescue EMS. With this package we can begin to ensure the equitable delivery of pre-hospital care in every corner of this state. Listen to the stories the heroes in your communities tell you about the lives saved, and the lives lost. Then ask yourselves what a life in your county is worth. “

Those who are interested in learning more about the, “Rescue EMS” Legislative Package may visit https://www.nysac.org/news/posts/rescuing-local-emergency-medical-services-ems/ for additional information.

- Information from the Town of Preston Supervisor's Office.