The fiscal gauntlets have been thrown down. The proposals are in. Now Democratic New York State lawmakers have a tight, tight window in order to pass an on-time budget by April 1st.
First, New York Governor Kathy Hochul released her proposed $233 billion spending plan in her 2025 Executive Budget.
Next, both the New York State Senate and Assembly floated their respective spending plan for next year. There would be an additional $7 billion in new taxes for New York taxpayers, $2.4 billion for illegal immigrants, and $175 million in health insurance for them.
“The Senate one-house budget would put New York State in even more dire financial straits than it is currently in,” said New York State Senator Dan Stec.
The big question is: can both sides wrinkle out any fiscal differences in order to approve a budget by April 1st, which is required by the The New York State Constitution.
Since Democrats hold a supermajority of both the Senate and the Assembly, and the Governor is a Democrat, Republicans are on the outside looking in and for the most part have zero input on budget proposals and final negotiations.
The two major financial issues to be addressed: how much in taxes they’re going to raise and how much funding to give to school districts across the state.
Governor Hochul proposed funding schools to the tune of $35.3 billion, an increase over last year’s budget. Communities across New York cried foul, claiming they were expecting more. The Legislature’s proposed spending plan hikes education aid by another $1.2 billion.
“Tax the rich” is the rallying cry for the Legislature. They proposed a one-half-percent tax increase for New Yorker’s earning more than $5 million as well as an overall increase in the corporate tax.
“Overall, this is a bad budget for New Yorkers. In spite of the fact that millions of New Yorkers are currently tightening their belts, and struggling to make ends meet, this Legislature continues year after year to have a spending spree using taxpayer money,” said New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt.
Throwing a monkey wrench into future negotiations is one of pure chance: this year the deadline to come to a budget agreement, March 31st, happens to land on Easter Sunday.
This means lawmakers have the potential choice of leaving Albany on Friday March 29th without a budget deal in order to head home to be with their families on Easter. This appears far more likely than Democratic lawmakers crammed in offices, hammering out a budget deal over that weekend, and skipping the Easter holiday at home with their families.
Either way, some lawmakers pointed to higher taxes and higher spending in New York as the main reason why the Empire State experienced the highest level of people leaving here for greener pastures. According to the Census Bureau, more than 884,000 New Yorkers hit the road for good and left for other states in 2020.
"Economists were invited to the revenue meeting and testified people are leaving because of the high taxes--how is raising billions of dollars of taxes going to help NY?" questioned New York State Senator Tom O’Mara.