Medicaid
The ARRA provides a temporary increase in the share of the Medicaid program paid by the federal government. The bill provides $87 billion in assistance for 27 months. New York will get about $12.6 billion of that over two years.

Infrastructure
The ARRA money set aside for rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure is meant to get out into the economy fast. The president and Congress want it spent quickly but wisely, so it is supposed to go for “shovel-ready” projects that only lack money.

States have just 180 days to “obligate” half of their shares of this pot to specific projects and they must obligate the rest of it by August 1, 2010.
For New York, it will likely mean:
• $1 billion for roads and bridges;
• $87.5 million for drinking water;
• $439.2 million for clean water; and
• $1.3 billion for mass transit.

State Fiscal Stabilization
The ARRA provides $53.6 billion over two years to help state and local governments avert budget cuts. Most of this money is for education:

• $39.5 billion is primarily to help states to keep funding for K-12 and higher education at last year’s level. Governors may distribute any remaining funds to local education agencies. New York’s likely to receive $2.5 billion of this money.

• $5 billion over two years in education “incentive grants,” but states must meet key performance measures to qualify and then must share half of what they get with local governments.

• $8.8 billion is provided as “flexible relief” to states over two years, with New York getting about $556 million, which it will use to replace revenue from the proposed new sales taxes.

Criminal Justice
It’s likely the state Division of Criminal Justice Services will receive $160 million for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program overseen by PEF members and others.

Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)
New York will likely get approximately $86.7 million over two years for community action agencies. The CSBG program is administered by the NYS Department of State and funds some PEF members’ jobs there.

Workforce
The ARRA provides $3.95 billion for training and employment services. New York is likely to get approximately $100 million for laid-off workers and $67 million for unemployed youths and adults.\ Some of this funding may help support PEF members’ jobs at the state Labor Department which administers this federal funding in the state.

The ARRA also includes money to increase regular and extended unemployment benefits by $25 a week through December.

By SHERRY HALBROOK and JOHN MURPHY
As the state struggles to close a $13 billion budget gap, it welcomed the news of up to $24.6 billion it will likely get over this year and next from the federal economic stimulus bill, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

It sounds as though the federal windfall could cut the state budget problem nearly in half, but that’s not the way it’s working out.

The federal money is meant to help jump start the national economy by adding 3.5 million new jobs, including 215,000 in New York. Most of the money can only be spent for certain things, such as Medicaid, education and shovel-ready infrastructure projects.

Nevertheless, the governor and state legislative leaders announced March 11, an agreement to substitute $1.3 billion of the ARRA funds for revenue that would have come from new state sales taxes the governor had proposed.

The governor also has announced he hopes to use $24 million of ARRA funding for specific shovel-ready highway and bridge projects in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schoharie and Warren counties. They are the first of many such projects the state hopes to fund through the ARRA.
A much more ambitious project the governor hopes to launch with ARRA funding is a 20-year comprehensive rail plan for the state that would develop high-speed train service. It would cost an estimated $10.7 billion over two decades.
 
The state may be allowed to tap into a special $8 billion pot set aside in the ARRA for high-speed rail nationwide. If approved, New York might have until September 30, 2012, to spend it.

So far, it’s not entirely clear exactly how the ARRA will affect the state budget and PEF members.

The ARRA money is in addition to federal budget aid for the state. President Obama is expected to present in April a detailed budget proposal for the federal fiscal year that starts October 1.