We have a state budget. Rather, we will have a state budget as soon as the legislature passes it in the next day or two. The budget is written, agreed to and now sits atop legislators desks waiting for the obligatory three days for it to “age” before passage begins.
Details about the budget will dribble out over the next few days as people try to figure out what is in the budget. While there are usually a few surprises in the budget, this year’s version was developed in unprecedented secrecy. The NY Post’s Fred Dicker blasts the process here. The actual budget, with details lauded by the Executive, is here.
Budget overview stories are available from, among others, the Albany Times Union and the New York Times.
The vital statistics are that this budget will spend $131.8 billion, which works out to about $12 billion in new spending. The Governor and legislative leaders also claim the budget deals with a projected budget deficit of $17 billion. It is not apparent how this works mathematically.
Included in the budget are $7 billion in new taxes, which critics say will make state revenue reliance on the income taxes of high earning New Yorkers even more disproportionately acute. There are also $170 million for new pork projects. The largest budget cuts, about $2.3 billion, will fall on the health industry. Total cuts come to $5.2 billion.
Ominously, the current year budget problems were handled with non-recurring federal stimulus money. Temporary federal money will account for $7.2 billion of the new spending, and another $6.2 billion to plug the projected budget gaps. Since most of this money will expire in 12 to 24 months, and the Governor’s budget director only projects a one percent growth in the state economy over that time, everyone should expect that very tough budget decisions lie just over the horizon.
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