Lawler Hosts Putnam Town Hall

Fields questions about Social Security, military parade

Rep. Mike Lawler, whose district includes Philipstown, held a town hall on June 8 at Mahopac High School, the third in a series of four he has promised constituents. 

After being introduced by Kevin Byrne, the Putnam County executive, Lawler spent two hours fielding questions about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the U.S. House, 215-214, with Lawler’s support and is being amended by the Senate. 

In addition to tax cuts and an increase to the cap on deductions for state and local taxes, the legislation contains changes to programs like Medicaid and food stamps that are expected to lead to a loss of benefits for some enrollees. Lawler also fielded questions about Social Security, cuts to foreign aid and the estimated $45 million price tag for a military parade being held in Washington, D.C., on Saturday (June 14), which is President Donald Trump’s birthday. 

Below are some of Lawler’s statements and a review of statistics he cited. 

“We [New York] spend 83 percent more on Medicaid than the average of the other 49 states.”

According to data from KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation), Medicaid spending in New York totaled just under $98 billion in 2023, second only to California. The spending was 83.77 percent more than the average for the other 49 states. 

However, the average does not account for each state’s population. Wyoming, for example, has 588,000 residents, compared to 20 million in New York. It also means using costs in states that, unlike New York, opted out of a provision in the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid so that more people qualify; the federal government pays 90 percent of the additional cost. 

Alternative methods to measure Medicaid spending among the states include per-capita or per-enrollee. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, New York ranked fourth in per-capita Medicaid spending in 2022 ($11,203), behind North Dakota, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. The national average was $8,919. New York placed third among states in Medicaid spending per enrollee in 2021 ($9,688), according to KFF. Virginia and Minnesota had the highest per-enrollee spending.

“If [the Tax Cut and Jobs Act] expired, it would have been about a $4,000 increase in taxes on the average family in our district.”

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act, passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration, expires this year. If it is not extended by Congress, taxes will increase in the 17th Congressional District, on average, by $3,530, according to the Tax Foundation, a think tank founded in 1937 that analyzes tax policy. 

Drilling down to specific income levels with a calculator created by the Tax Foundation (dub.sh/tax-calculator), annual taxes would increase by $933 for a single person without dependents who earns $50,000 annually, and by $2,622 for an individual earning $100,000. 

Taxes would increase by $5,091 annually for a married couple with two children and a household income of $150,000; the same couple earning $250,000 would owe $9,320 more. Those scenarios omit 401(k) contributions and other deductions, but the calculator can adjust for those, as well as other household sizes. 

“There are over 3 million people in this country who are able-bodied adults, without dependents, who refuse to work.”

Lawler is referring to Medicaid coverage. A provision in the House’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill requires that able-bodied recipients between ages 19 and 64 who don’t have dependents work at least 80 hours monthly or be participating in a “qualifying activity,” such as job training. 

The work requirement would increase the ranks of the uninsured by 4.8 million people by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Although the CBO did not specify why people would lose coverage, Republicans have equated the figure with people who chose not to work. 

According to the KFF, 64 percent of the 26.1 million adults between ages 19 and 64 receiving Medicaid in 2023 worked full-time or part-time and 29 percent were not working because they were caregivers, ill or disabled or attending school. The remaining enrollees reported that they were retired, unable to find work or not working for other reasons, according to KFF. 

An analysis by the Brookings Institute of 2022 data concluded that of 36.7 million recipients between 19 and 64, an estimated 300,000 did not work by choice. Critics argue that most of the people who will lose coverage are eligible but will be removed for failing to meet verification deadlines. 

“The utility costs in our region have skyrocketed precisely because we shut down Indian Point without a replacement.”

Utility costs are rising across the U.S. While Central Hudson’s average prices for supply have been falling, its fixed-rate charge for delivery continues to rise and routinely makes up the biggest portion of electricity bills. 

The Indian Point nuclear power plant near Peekskill, which supplied electricity to Westchester County and New York City, shut down on April 30, 2021. When the supply rate rose to 21 cents per kilowatt-hour in February 2022, Central Hudson blamed a greater reliance on natural gas because of Indian Point’s closure, as well as heightened demand from colder temperatures and diminished gas supplies. Russia also invaded Ukraine that month. 

The supply prices for Central Hudson’s 315,000 electricity customers, including 6,853 in Beacon, 3,646 in Philipstown, 1,270 in Cold Spring and 326 in Nelsonville, averaged 7 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2021. They rose to an average of 11.2 cents in 2022 amid a harsh winter, but the average price fell in 2023 and again last year, to 8.3 cents per kilowatt hour. 

Through June 11, Central’s Hudson’s average monthly prices are higher than the first six months of 2024, with the Energy Information Administration forecasting price increases nationally through next year. 

Meanwhile, Central Hudson has announced a tentative agreement on a three-year rate plan that would raise monthly delivery costs for a typical customer by $5.43 per month in the first year (beginning July 1), and by $6.25 and $6.62 per month in subsequent years.