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What States and the Economy Lost When the Senate Jobs Bill Failed

Data on How Much Medicaid Aid Each State Lost

The Senate’s failure to pass its version of jobs legislation, which would have extended federal assistance to states, will force the states – which are struggling with an unprecedented drop in revenues due to the recession – to make even deeper spending cuts and raise taxes even more than otherwise in order to balance their budgets.  These actions will slow the economic recovery and raise the risk of a double-dip recession as the loss of spending power ripples through the economy.

Due to the deep and long recession, states are about to begin a third consecutive year of severely depressed revenues (fiscal year 2011 begins July 1 in most states).  Under the Recovery Act (ARRA) passed last year, states received additional federal funding to support their Medicaid programs.  This additional support is scheduled to expire on December 31st of this year, right in the middle of state fiscal year 2011.  The legislation that the Senate defeated this afternoon would have provided a 6-month extension of the additional support.

The table below shows the estimated benefits that states would have received under the 6-month extension of federal assistance in the failed jobs bill.  States would have received just about $15 billion in fiscal relief in total. 
 

Estimated State Medicaid Savings Under a Six Month Modified Extension of
The FMAP Provisions in the Recovery Act (ARRA)

State

Jan. 2011 – June 2011

State

Jan. 2011 – June 2011

UNITED STATES

$14,981,000,000

Missouri

$292,000,000

Alabama

$133,000,000

Montana

$38,000,000

Alaska

$64,000,000

Nebraska

$69,000,000

Arizona

$351,000,000

Nevada

$79,000,000

Arkansas

$125,000,000

New Hampshire

$54,000,000

California

$1,869,000,000

New Jersey

$399,000,000

Colorado

$159,000,000

New Mexico

$126,000,000

Connecticut

$199,000,000

New York

$2,228,000,000

Delaware

$48,000,000

North Carolina

$343,000,000

District of Columbia

$54,000,000

North Dakota

$29,000,000

Florida

$784,000,000

Ohio

$492,000,000

Georgia

$228,000,000

Oklahoma

$188,000,000

Hawaii

$86,000,000

Oregon

$156,000,000

Idaho

$51,000,000

Pennsylvania

$667,000,000

Illinois

$545,000,000

Rhode Island

$72,000,000

Indiana

$227,000,000

South Carolina

$138,000,000

Iowa

$128,000,000

South Dakota

$27,000,000

Kansas

$100,000,000

Tennessee

$240,000,000

Kentucky

$155,000,000

Texas

$858,000,000

Louisiana

$375,000,000

Utah

$57,000,000

Maine

$86,000,000

Vermont

$47,000,000

Maryland

$273,000,000

Virginia

$289,000,000

Massachusetts

$506,000,000

Washington

$338,000,000

Michigan

$380,000,000

West Virginia

$81,000,000

Minnesota

$346,000,000

Wisconsin

$229,000,000

Mississippi

$151,000,000

Wyoming

$22,000,000

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' estimates using Medicaid spending projections from February 2010 and unemployment rate projections from February 2010. Expenditures for childless adults shifting from CHIP to Medicaid also would qualify for the higher matching rate. ARRA would be modified such that the base FMAP increase would be lowered from 6.2 percentage points to 3.2 percentage points in FFY2011Q2 and 1.2 percentage points in FFY2011Q3. Figures are rounded.

Note that CBPP’s estimates may differ somewhat from estimates conducted by the Congressional Budget Office (which estimates a total of $16 billion under the extension rather than $15 billion) as well as state-specific estimates generated by state officials because of differences in the methodology, or in the underlying data related to Medicaid spending and projected state unemployment rates.