April 14 – 2025 — As the Trump administration continues to cut jobs and services from the federal government, states are preparing for the likelihood that less money will flow from Washington and what that means for public sector services and jobs.
About $90 billion of New York’s $252 billion budget last year was funded by federal dollars. Last year, $56 billion went solely to Medicaid. Now, with potential cuts to Medicaid, other healthcare programs, education and more, the services and jobs that come with that money are at risk as well.
To help combat any cuts, PEF has launched a “Stop the Cuts!” campaign on social media. The campaign features short, personal videos about the critical services delivered by PEF members in New York and the negative impact cutting these services will have. The union is sharing the videos on its social media channels and collecting them on this page.
Scott Dobe works as a Physical Therapist Supervisor at OPWDD Western New York DDSO. His team makes sure people with disabilities have accessible living spaces.
“If services were cut for my agency, we would have difficulty providing safe access to group homes for a very vulnerable population who can’t live on their own,” Dobe said. “And we also serve the community. We help folks live independently.”
George Howard is an Information Technology Specialist at ITS in Queens. He worries that cuts to his agency will mean that all public services will be in jeopardy of being inaccessible due to system failure and errors.
“If we are not funded, basic services will fail,” Howard said in his video. “We had an issue this spring, we had a computer failure, and we had to react. We were able to get public services back online in a few hours. I am afraid in the future, if we don’t have the funding, those kinds of outages can become more endemic.”
Members from the Department of Health, State Education Department, the Office of General Services, and more have shared their stories with PEF. You can add yours by getting in touch with Comms@pef.org or recording a selfie video and tagging the union on Facebook, X, Instagram, or Bluesky.
If you don’t want to be “on camera,” a phone call to your elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives will get noticed, too. Just dial the House switchboard at (202) 224-3121.