Unions Launch PR Campaign Against Paterson
New York, NY —
TV ads released state-wide today show black and white, old and young, native and foreign-born New Yorkers excoriating Paterson for a proposed multi-billion-dollar reduction in Medicaid spending.
AD: Governor Paterson, your healthcare budget cuts are definitely all wrong.
REPORTER: The ads are produced by the Greater New York Hospital Association and SEIU 1199, the healthcare workers union. They're long-time allies in maintaining Medicaid, the largest New York budget item and by far the largest Medicaid outlay of any state.
Paterson’s office says he only wants to slow the rate of growth, not decrease spending on the healthcare entitlement, which is split 50-50 between state and federal government.
The lobbying powerhouses says the campaign will cost a million dollars a week for TV alone and will run across the state for up to 4 weeks.
The healthcare union is also joining a parallel campaign sponsored by the Working Families Party calling on Paterson to increase income tax on New Yorkers who make $250,000 dollars a year or more.
For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.
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