Gov. David Paterson has apparently included $775 million in cuts to state funding for health care services in his latest budget extender bill, making good on his pledge to try to force the Legislature’s hand on some of his proposed spending reductions.

State Budget Director Robert Megna is briefing members of the LCA this afternoon about Paterson’s latest between a rock-and-a-hard-place gambit.

(Recall that he tried the same thing with the furloughs, forcing the Legislature to choose between a government shutdown and approving a measure that turned out to be, according to US District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn, unconstitutional).

UPDATE: Rick Karlin has more details on this plan. Apparently, $391 million of the $775 million is estimated Medicaid fraud recouperation, which is really a moving target.

In the meantime, HANYS President Dan Sisto is making his displeasure crystal clear, accusing the governor of continuing his “BP approach” to addressing the state’s fiscal crisis, and insisting the cuts will result in lost health care jobs and some $1 billion worth of economic activity.

“We have a revenue shortfall in this state that has created a broader fiscal crisis. From a public policy standpoint, however, Governor Paterson’s ongoing reaction to the state’s crisis is no different from BP’s reaction to the Gulf oil spill,” Sisto said in a press release.

Instead of thinking through a comprehensive plan that will fix the problem the first time, he is simply rolling out one desperate idea after another in hopes that one might actually work. Like his furlough and layoff plans, this extender is just another version of ‘top kill.’ It’s another ‘junk shot’ and it won’t work.”

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