Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon pronounced the county in good shape Monday in his State of the County address, his first since being elected to the job last year. But along with announcing a wide range of initiatives, he’s also hoping a looming state budget deficit won’t put a drag on the county’s bottom line.
New York is facing a $6 billion deficit, much of it fueled by increasing Medicaid costs. McMahon said he doesn’t want the state to shift some of those costs to local governments.
"Right now there are proposals out there that could hurt counties. And we want to be constructive. I'm not throwing bombs, I want to be constructive to find solutions," McMahon said.
Among them would be the creation of a local Medicaid fraud unit. Right now, state law prevents local governments from sharing in Medicaid recoveries in fraud investigations. Changing that rule would encourage more counties to dig out fraud and abuse. McMahon said another big drain on the system is the use of Medicaid to pay for long-term care. It makes up almost half of all Medicaid expenditures and isn’t sustainable in the long run. He said it's often the result of loopholes in regulations that don’t ask for income verification.
"Medicaid eligibility planning is now a very lucrative industry in the legal and financial communities, where practitioners actively help family members shield income and assets toward the goal of qualifying family members for Medicaid," he said.
Other initiatives from the State of the County include plans for creation of a 50 acre multi-sports facility, made up of turf fields and a stadium. McMahon said the complex would be owned by the county, or through a public-private partnership.
He also proposed more shared services between the county and city of Syracuse. Under an agreement with Mayor Ben Walsh, the county and city's economic development and planning departments will move to the former Carnegie Library, pending approval from the county legislature and Syracuse Common Council.
The county will also take control of the last bit of private property along Onondaga Lake from Honeywell, the company in charge of the lake's cleanup. The 40 acres of land, pending approval from the county legislature, will be used for a new park.
McMahon also touched on one of the biggest projects coming to central New York, a massive distribution center in the Town of Clay. He said we should all know who the mystery tenant is within four or five weeks.
"It’s not so much about who it is, that's part of the story and that's excting. But it’s about what this opportunity represents. And it’s really a game changer in so many ways for our community," he said.
The developer of the site, Trammel Crow, has kept quiet about who the tenant would be, but it is widely expected to be Amazon.
