Cuomo says NY can help Puerto Rico on health costs

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that he had not yet formed an opinion about how exactly Puerto Rico should confront all its dire financial problems, even as the governor is set to embark on an overnight trip to the commonwealth on Monday.

"We're going to go and listen first, understand the financial situation, see what advice we have there," said Cuomo, when asked whether he favored bankruptcy for Puerto Rico or its utilities. "And also part of it is the expenses, right? There's two ends to the equation."

He said New York can help Puerto Rico confront its spiraling health care costs – something Cuomo's administration tackled in 2011 with its Medicaid Redesign Team.

Cuomo noted that state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and state Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson — the key player in reining in New York's own Medicaid costs — would be going on the trip. "If you have financial problems, one of the reasons is that the revenue's not high enough, and one of the reasons is that the expenses are too high," Cuomo said. "So we're also going to talk to them about the expense side of the equation, primarily health care."

Puerto Rico is struggling with a $72 billion mountain of debt. The country's governor, Alejandro García Padilla, has declared that the territory is unable to pay its debts and is seeking to declare bankruptcy, but the U.S. Congress has balked. The country has already had to slash public services and raise its sales tax.

Also expected to accompany Cuomo are New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Brooklyn Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.

Notably absent is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was not invited and with whom Cuomo has feuded with recently.

The governor said the Puerto Rican government asked for officials to visit the commonwealth that have particular expertise, including in finance.

Cuomo is paying for his portion of the trip's cost with campaign funds, as he has on other trips, according to spokesman Rich Azzopardi.

Though many of the issues facing Puerto Rico will be decided either by the commonwealth itself or by Congress, Cuomo said he is going to the country to push politicians in Washington, D.C., into some sort of action. After the territory itself, New York is home to the largest population of Puerto Rican people in the world, according to the governor's office.

Critics of Cuomo, however, have seized on the trip.

The progressive coalition Hedge Clippers has noted that several major Cuomo campaign contributors are also holders of Puerto Rican debt. A subset of these Cuomo donors happen to be charter school supporters that have seen eye-to-eye with Cuomo on education issues, and have battled teachers' unions — labor groups that are among the supporters of the Hedge Clippers effort.

Thursday morning on the steps of City Hall in New York City, several groups allied with Hedge Clippers rallied and called on Cuomo to return nearly $1.3 million in campaign donations before he travels to Puerto Rico. According to the activists, Cuomo has taken the money from 47 donors associated with 17 "vulture" funds that have "purchased and speculated on" Puerto Rico's debt.

"All New Yorkers, especially the estimated 1 million Puerto Ricans living here, need to know their governor is working for the people, not hedge fund managers who buy off politicians," the group wrote in a letter to Cuomo first reported by the Daily News. "Debt restructuring may represent the last best hope for Puerto Rico to build a stable and sustainable future. But it would require debt holders, including many of your high-rolling hedge fund donors, to put people before profits — something they have been unwilling to do thus far."

Azzopardi, Cuomo's spokesman, responded that the "governor's commitment to the Puerto Rican government and its people speak for itself."

He added that he had no comment on the Hedge Clippers' "AstroTurf ... antics" — political slang for a phony grass-roots campaign.

Cuomo says visit will include discussion of soaring health costs

By Chris Bragg

Cuomo says NY can help Puerto Rico on health costs