Dear New York Focus readers,

As budget negotiations continue past the April 1 deadline, New York Focus reporters have been following the story. One big question this budget season is how the state will respond to the Trump administration’s funding cuts.

Social services reporter Jie Jenny Zou reported on the push from mental health providers and advocates to prevent mass layoffs and program reductions as a consequence of federal cuts.

New York State faces cuts of $40 million to addiction and substance abuse treatment, $27 million to mental health services, and $300 million to the Department of Health, impacting programs from virus surveillance to infection prevention in healthcare facilities, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

What power does the state have to fill this gap? Hochul says the state lacks the resources, but mental health advocates who provide medication management and housing assistance see a sense of irony when her budget proposals include a push to expand on involuntary treatment for people with mental illness.

Another way the state has been responding to the threat of cuts from the Trump Administration: New York Focus contributor Nathan Porceng reported on how Trump’s anti-trans order clashes with the state’s mandate to provide gender-affirming care.

Trump referred to the kind of care that helps a person align with their gender identity as “mutilation” and a “horrifying tragedy.” His executive order directed federal agencies to withhold funding from health care entities that provide gender-affirming medical care to people under 19.

Porceng reported that New York has some of the strongest protections for trans people in the nation due to its 1945 Human Rights Law prohibiting discrimination in “public accommodation,” including hospitals and clinics. But some providers have buckled to threats from the federal government — the NYU Langone health system stopped providing gender-affirming healthcare and has been met with protests and pressure from state lawmakers to resume.

Do you have more questions about how the Trump administration is impacting budget negotiations or public services in New York? Ask them here or email Alex Arriaga at alex@nysfocus.com.

Climate reporter Colin Kinniburgh has been reporting on the Hochul administration’s delays in implementing the governor’s promised cap and invest program. Cap and invest would bring in funding that could help the state meet its ambitious climate goals, and Hochul has been promising it since 2023. Now, environmental and climate justice groups are suing New York for “stonewalling necessary climate action in outright violation” of its legal obligations.

Education reporter Bianca Fortis wrote about a proposed bill that lawmakers are considering to weaken the state Education Department’s recent guidelines on yeshivas and other nonpublic schools. These schools face a June 30 deadline to prove they offer a “substantially equivalent” education as the state’s public schools, but the draft bill would loosen those rules and potentially delay the deadline.

Fortis wrote: “The education department has already pulled funding for six schools — all yeshivas based in Brooklyn — which it said had failed to cooperate with the New York City Department of Education, as well as the state Education Department, despite several deadline extensions and invitations to meet.”

New York Focus often publishes with local media partners across New York City and state. This week, we published a couple stories with our partner, The CITY.

First, Sam Mellins reported on the fund that pays for New York City employees’ health benefits. The fund has run dry, opening up a $600 million hole in the city budget and threatening potential cuts to public workers’ health benefits. Mellins reported that the city government and the Municipal Labor Committee are currently in negotiations to find ways to salvage the stabilization fund and cut overall health care expenses, which could result in cuts to city workers’ benefits or increased health care costs for employees.

Also in partnership with The CITY, contributor Surina Venkat published a story about how stop-and-frisks have soared since Eric Adams took office. NYPD officers recorded over 25,000 stops last year, a 50 percent increase over the previous year. Nine in 10 people stopped by the NYPD last year were Black or Latino. A notorious “anti-crime” plainclothes unit resurrected by Adams may have contributed to those increases.

We have a network of 50 local media partners and any media organization can sign up to our distribution list and pick up our stories following our republishing guidelines.

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