New York City public health officials are celebrating the partial restoration of funding for core public health services, following an agreement between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul on the state’s $127 billion preliminary budget for the next fiscal year.
The agreement includes the restoration of $60 million through Article 6 of the Public Health Law, reclaiming some of the $90 million originally cut under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019. This is part of a larger $1.5 billion state operating support package for New York City spread over two years.
Despite the restoration, a $5.4 billion budget gap remains over the next two fiscal years, requiring further negotiation between City Hall and Albany. Mayor Mamdani has indicated that the only viable solutions are either persuading Gov. Hochul to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers or raising city property taxes.
The budget proposal is slated to take effect on July 1, pending negotiations and revisions with the City Council.
While specific allocations of the restored Article 6 funds are still being determined, the news has been met with relief within the public health community, which has been advocating for the funding’s reinstatement for several years.
“We’re still getting the details here, but what a massive victory,” Acting Health Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michelle Morse told Healthbeat last week. “I can’t think of a more strategic time for the match to be restored, because we do have so many threats to public health, and long-term resources from the CDC, frankly, are still a bit in flux.”
The restoration comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has withheld millions of dollars in funding from state and local public health programs since Donald Trump returned to office. Last year, the New York City Health Department experienced a $100 million cut in federal funding, impacting its public health lab’s ability to test for pathogens like measles, tuberculosis, rabies, and bird flu.
Mayor Mamdani briefly acknowledged the funding changes during a news conference last week, stating, “Much of this state assistance reverses longstanding Cuomo-era cost shifts.”
Through Article 6, local health departments cover public health work – including immunizations and infectious disease surveillance – with the state covering the remaining costs. The state provides a base grant of $750,000 to each municipality delivering core public health services, or $1.30 per capita for larger municipalities like New York City. The state typically reimburses localities for 36% of the cost of these services.
The 2019 cut reduced New York City’s reimbursement rate to 20%, forcing the city to cover 80% of the costs, compared to the previous 64%. Advocates argue this cut disproportionately impacts New York City due to its large and diverse population, which faces a greater burden of public health costs.
The Cuomo administration justified the cut by citing direct federal funding received by New York City. However, advocates countered that the cuts stemmed from a strained relationship between Cuomo and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, a Queens Democrat, who sponsored a bill to restore the equal reimbursement rates, welcomed the decision. She and City Council Health Committee Chair Lynn Schulman had actively campaigned for the funding’s return. “We’ve been fighting to restore that funding for a number of years now. And, yeah, I’m just really thrilled that it’s happening,” González-Rojas told Healthbeat.
Advocates estimate the cuts have cost the city $90 million annually, hindering the Health Department’s ability to deliver and expand services, such as tuberculosis control, which requires significant resources.
Carlos Arnao, director of the healthy communities program at the New York Immigration Coalition in Manhattan, expressed hope that the funding would support preventative screenings for communicable diseases like TB. He called the partial restoration “a really great start, and it signals a willingness to at least talk about a full restoration.”
Arnao also suggested the funds could be used for vaccine education and outreach, addressing misinformation, and for addressing maternal and infant mortality rates in the Caribbean community, as well as homeless outreach, citing the recent cold spell that resulted in at least 20 deaths.
