As the deadline nears for a state budget, Albany is racing to jeopardize NY’s fiscal futureBy NY Post Editorial Board
March 21, 2022
With just over a week to go before the new budget year begins April 1, one big question is how much damage Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders will do to the state’s fiscal future.
Awash in cash from DC and last year’s massive state tax hike, Hochul proposed shelling out a whopping $216 billion for the new year. Yet lawmakers make her look like a piker: The Assembly calls for spending $226.4 billion, up a stunning $53 billion, or 31%, from just three years ago.
Assembly Dems want billions (on top of Hochul’s outlays) for child care, universal pre-K, tuition assistance and other goodies. The Senate, too, would hemorrhage cash: $250 million for pre-K, millions more for higher ed, $278 million to expand home-care eligibility . . .
Both chambers aim to boost minimum wages for home-care workers to $22.50 from $13.20, at a cost of as much as $2.5 billion a year. Lawmakers even set aside millions for longer inmate phone calls and to extend the state Earned Income Tax Credit to people who lack Social Security numbers (illegal immigrants, that is). The parties were reportedly still at least $9 billion apart over the weekend.
Meanwhile, despite their newfound cash, they did virtually zilch to ease New Yorkers’ tax burden, the nation’s heaviest. Likewise, despite the struggle of restaurant and bar owners to recover from lockdowns, the Legislature omits provisions to let them sell booze to go (much to the liquor-store lobby’s delight, no doubt).
* * *
Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/03/21/as-the-deadline-nears-for-a-state-budget-albany-is-racing-to-jeopardize-nys-fiscal-future/
