Kathy Hochul blasted by watchdog for lack of detail on $229B NY budget deal
ALBANY – A government watchdog is blasting Gov. Kathy Hochul over her $229 billion “conceptual” state budget announced Thursday, saying it’s meaningless without providing numbers showing the true costs to taxpayers.
“The announcement was made without providing even the most simple financial information needed to understand the budget’s basics, such as how much new recurring spending will be added and how much it will increase the State’s already massive structural budget gap,” Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said Friday.
“The Governor did not mention any effort to restrain spending so that it can be supported by recurring receipts; this is discouraging. However, she reported that her plan to increase reserves is included, which is positive,” he said.
The record-high $229 billion budget will contain ten bills’ worth of details about how Albany Democrats plan on paying for a range of policy items included in a final spending plan.
Hochul said Thursday the conceptual deal includes $34.5 billion in school aid, $2.4 billion in new capital spending at public colleges, and $1 billion in new funding for mental health services as well as $191.1 billion in additional spending.
Full details will not become publicly known until budget bills are formally introduced sometime in the coming week unless the Hochul administration acts in the meantime to fill in the details.
“The State should publish basic financial plan tables with the final agreement in the next few days to provide New Yorkers the information they need to understand how the State plans to spend and afford their $229 billion,” Rein said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a “conceptual” agreement on a new state budget on Thursday, which she claims is fiscally sound. Governor Kathy Hochul/YouTube
Republican lawmakers have called on the Democratic supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly to refrain from budget votes for at least a couple days in order to give all legislators and the public a chance to dive into the numbers and policy details.
“The only way to ensure a transparent budget and bring trust back to this process is to allow bills to age properly per the constitutionally required three-day aging period following the introduction of a bill,” Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Garden City) said Friday while urging Democrats to avoid using “messages of necessity” – a parliamentary maneuver allowing bills to be considered before three days have passed.
Hochul said Thursday that the pending budget will increase state reserves to “a record level of 15%” while arguing that she, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) had developed a “fiscally responsible plan.”
Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, says the Hochul administration needs to details its spending plan before state lawmakers start voting. BCNYS
“It is balanced. It supports our bold vision for the future without spending beyond our means, the percent of State operating funds in reserves, and I pointed out last year with my first budget, this was very important to me because you do not know what’s going to happen,” Hochul said of the forthcoming budget.
But rhetorical assurances have limited value compared to laying out all the dollars and cents, according to Rein.
“Over the coming days, CBC will analyze the final budget bills and other information—hopefully including basic financial plan tables—as they become available,” he said.
Source: New York Post
