SC New York News

Senator O'Mara offers his weekly perspective on many of the key challenges and issues facing the Legislature, as well as on legislative actions, local initiatives, state programs and policies. This week, he discusses "Nickel-and-diming New Yorkers to the breaking point."

State government’s spending habit has become so addictive that, eventually, every move that everyday citizens make in New York will come attached with another tax or a new fee or a higher cost.

Already we find out, directly from Governor Hochul’s own Division of the Budget (DOB), that the cost of the recently enacted 2024-25 state budget has already increased by at least $2 billion. When legislators voted on the budget in late April, they were told that the new state spending plan would total $237 billion. The DOB’s new report -- which was quietly released on a recent Friday afternoon -- now essentially says it is actually $239 billion.

That means state spending has increased by $10 billion over last year. It will have an enormous impact on the future for all residents.

The DOB now projects that current state spending will far outpace revenue in the coming years: $2.3 billion in the next fiscal year, $4.3 billion the following year, and $7.3 billion the year after that, totaling roughly a $14 billion deficit overall.

Fiscal watchdogs, including the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), argue that New York’s structural deficit could exceed $16 billion in fiscal year 2028 alone.

From the CBC: “State leaders basically have two choices. They can either try to bring spending growth down to what it was in the teens or they can continue to kick the can down the road.”

From the DOB: “The State’s financial position is expected to remain strong over the multi-year plan. However, out-year budget gaps are projected as spending is expected to exceed available resources and will need to be addressed in future years.”

Senator O'Mara criticizes this analysis: Since 2018, Albany Democrats have shown no ability or willingness to stop their out-of-control spending addiction. They have done nothing but kick the can down toward fiscal disaster.

He argues dire fiscal forecasts keep arriving under one-party control while Democrats initiate additional state spending commitments without knowing their final price tag: a burgeoning illegal migrant crisis, increased Medicaid spending, a multi-billion-dollar Unemployment Insurance debt, and costs associated with Albany's Green New Deal mandates.

This year’s final $239 billion spending plan is just another chapter of this trend. Since 2018, they have increased state spending by nearly $70 billion -- an increase exceeding 41% in five years of one-party control in Albany.

According to Senator O'Mara: The ink is barely dry on this latest Democrat budget and already warns that New York State is set for many years ahead of being financially strained.

New York State’s budget in 2018 totaled $170 billion when Republicans held majority control in the Senate. Following this year's nearly $240 billion budget indicates an approximate increase of $70 billion since then.

Governor Hochul and her Democrat allies have cemented what Senator O'Mara describes as "the defining action of this era in state government: out-of-control spending that is nickel-and-diming New Yorkers to breaking point."

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