Albany

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday warned of the need for a new $2.3 billion tax to offset the cost of the state absorbing county Medicaid expenses if an add-on to federal health care legislation is signed into law.

The bill currently before the U.S. Senate preserves an amendment tacked onto the House version that would require New York state — and New York state alone — to absorb county Medicaid costs beginning in 2020. Cuomo wrote in a letter to members of Congress that state taxpayers will face a "'Faso-Collins Federal Tax' added onto local property taxes" if the provision makes it into law.

Though the language of the letter is a bit vague, the Daily News reported earlier Monday that the proposed new Faso-Collins tax would actually be listed as a line item on county property tax bills.

Cuomo named the tax after Reps. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, and Chris Collins, R-Erie County, who are behind the Medicaid cost-shifting effort. They say that if counties (in other words, everywhere but New York City) are relieved of the Medicaid burden, county officials could proceed to reduce property taxes.

Faso's office released a statement rebutting the governor's criticisms. "Rather than trimming his own bloated $160 billion budget, Cuomo insists on sticking it to homeowners, helping to drive more people from New York State," it said in part.

But Cuomo, who has threatened to sue if the cost-shifting requirement becomes law, has indicated that the same population of taxpayers has to fund the non-federal share of Medicaid. Under the legislation passed by the House and now before the Senate in slightly amended form, federal funding would be slashed by the same amount as the county share if the state fails to pick up the tab.

The mechanism "amounts to nothing more than a political Ponzi scheme, and New Yorkers aren't fooled," Cuomo wrote in his letter to the congressional delegation. "The Faso-Collins shell game ... will force every resident of this state to pay a 'Faso-Collins Federal Tax' added onto local property taxes to make up the difference to avoid decimation of our healthcare system."

It is not the first time this year that Cuomo has proposed using taxes to offset such costs.

The governor in March raised the specter of the state taking the local share of sales taxes to pay for the cost-shifting. His justification is that local sales taxes originally were authorized to help counties pay for Medicaid. He also has proposed raising income taxes.

Cuomo's letter is an escalation of his recent political rhetoric on the federal health care legislation. Though he previously warned of a tax hit for New Yorkers as the House considered its Affordable Care Act repeal-and-replace measure, the governor appeared at a June rally to warn that he would work to oust Republican members of the House, including Faso and Collins.

The state Democratic Committee sent out a fundraising appeal last week when the Senate released its bill that included a link to donate to the state committee's federal account. That email included a note from Cuomo that warned of a 26 percent tax hike on the middle class if the Faso-Collins provision succeeds.

At Sunday's New York City Pride March, the state committee held the first in a series of planned voter registration drives as part of the "New York Fight Back" campaign to flip the House to Democrats. Voter education, registration and mobilization efforts are planned for target districts in the coming weeks.

"For those in the delegation who supported this legislation, New Yorker's will remember that you were elected to serve them but instead fought to cut our funding and our vital healthcare services," Cuomo wrote in his Monday letter to members of Congress.

National Republicans scoffed at Cuomo, and suggested his tactics would backfire with taxpayers.

"With New York spending more on Medicaid than Florida and Texas combined, Cuomo would rather increase taxes than get his fiscal house in order," National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Chris Martin said in a statement. "It looks like the Cuomo-Pelosi dynamic duo will be a gift that keeps on giving for House Republicans in 2018 ...."

While the Faso-Collins amendment's cost-shifting wouldn't go into effect until 2020, any new state taxes would require state legislative approval — including passage in the Republican-held state Senate.

The Legislature closed out its six-month session last Wednesday, but it did not act on issues that assumedly must be resolved in the near future.

Mayoral control of New York City schools ends on Friday, and sales taxes for more than 50 counties lapse this fall.

It's uncertain whether lawmakers would return to come up with some federal budget response plan. In this year's state budget, a deal was struck that gives Cuomo's Division of Budget the ability to craft a cost-cutting plan if the federal government severely reduces state aid. The Legislature would then have 90 days to come up with and pass its own plan, or the DOB blueprint would go into effect.

The next regular state legislative session doesn't begin until January.

Spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island, did not comment on Cuomo's letter.

Raising revenue, a politically delicate matter, could be just one piece of the Medicaid puzzle.

Ron Deutsch of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a fiscally progressive think tank, pointed to some state economic development spending as a place to consider trimming. So did the Citizens Budget Commission's David Friedfel.

The state has "already been spending at a lower rate than we have in the past," Deutsch said, noting Cuomo's self-imposed 2 percent cap on spending increases. "So I think inevitably they're going to have to look at some sort of revenue-raiser."

Friedfel said the CBC has advocated for the state to assume the local share of Medicaid costs on its own, including for New York City. But "it's the type of thing you want to phase in," he noted.

"Something this significant within the state's budget, you'd want to roll it out over a long period of time — not one year," Friedfel said.

mhamilton@timesunion.com • 518-454-5449 • @matt_hamilton10