The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

One of the key points of dispute between Tom Reed and Eric Massa is whether the grant Reed received is "stimulus money". The answer to that question is complicated.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, did some analysis of the impact of the stimulus bill on New York State's budget. This graph shows how the Center believes the stimulus helped cover the shortfall in the 2009/2010 budgets:

Here's the Center's analysis:

New York predicted that without changes to its revenue structure or spending programs, available funds in fiscal year 2010 (the 12-month period beginning April 1, 2009) would fall about $17.9 billion or 26 percent short of what was needed to balance the budget. In addition, New York’s FY2009 budget was projected to be short $2.2 billion due to declining revenues and rising costs.

The federal recovery law is providing New York $6.2 billion in federal funding that it is using to help close its budget gap. This includes $5 billion in additional federal Medicaid funding, $876 million in education-related State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money, and $274 million from the “government services” component of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

It's clear that the stimulus had a direct impact on the New York State budget. The question is whether the $150 million grant program that funded Reed's grant would have survived if New York hadn't gotten a massive stimulus payment.