>NY is unique in that the state bucks Medicaid
>down to the city. This is long-standing. I don't
>know if any other cities have this responsibility.
NYC also picks up a big share of welfare costs, and a lot of other responsibilities that in other jurisdictions are the responsibility of states or independent authorities. Rightwingers love to cite Census figures on municipal employees per 1,000 population that purportedly show NYC is massively overstaffed, but they never correct for this. Once you do correct for this, NYC's staffing is in line with other places.
Doug