Gov. Kathy Hochul can use her budget presentation Tuesday to prove she’ll be a responsible governor — by avoiding new expenses that lack funding down the road, and instead plugging existing out-year holes.
Yes, New York is flush with cash now: Washington OK’d a whopping $13 billion in aid for the state last year, Albany raised taxes and revenue is running higher than projected. Yet the radicals in the Legislature — with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s blessing — jacked up spending by an outrageous $24 billion, from $187 billion to $211 billion, or about 13%.
And this year, the radicals are looking to spend even more, and not just on wholly unaffordable items like single-payer health care. Hochul’s No. 1 task: Don’t dig the hole deeper.
As the Citizens Budget Commission notes, state government is using its windfall funds “to accelerate already high spending growth.” The CBC warns that “imprudent use” of COVID-related federal aid is “creating a ‘fiscal cliff,’ with approximately $3.5 billion in recurring program spending supported” by aid only through 2025. Where will the state find the cash to fund those programs after that?
To her credit, the gov has opposed more tax hikes: “I’m not interested in driving people out of this state,” she’s said. So unless the economy grows far faster than projected, she faces only one other choice: roll back spending.
Another recession is inevitable sooner or later, the CBC also rightly warns, yet the state’s rainy-day reserves are insufficient to weather the storm. Hochul needs to shore them up.
The good news: Cuomo left a target-rich environment. He let Medicaid outlays spin out of control, for example, using budget gimmicks to cover up the mess. Hochul needs to end those gimmicks and rein in spending that’s meant for the poor but that’s soon expected to cover costs for 40 percent of residents.
School aid, too, is off the charts: New Yorkers spend double the national average per student on education, yet student achievement is far from the top. (Hochul can get far bigger bang for the buck by supporting charter schools.)
Another fat target: misguided “economic development.” State and local governments shell out more than $10 billion a year to companies to get them to invest here (or keep them from leaving), yet much of that is wasted. Remember Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion boondoggle, which produced more corruption than jobs? Or the $420 million in checks Albany writes each year to film and TV moguls, the last people to need it?
If Hochul wants to attract business and promote growth, her best bet would be to lower taxes and roll back counterproductive regulations.
Again, her biggest problem will be left-wing, spendaholic lawmakers and groups whose backing can help her as she runs to keep her job. But if she caves to these irresponsible voices calling for even more outlays, she won’t deserve to remain governor.
