The New York State Legislature and the governor are looking to finalize a budget that will easily exceed the $252 billion that the governor proposed.
This is a remarkable 42% increase from just five years ago, when it was just $178 billion. Equally alarming is that, in this very year, when Covid is long in the rearview mirror, the Legislature is looking to increase the operating budget by almost 14%, according to the Citizen Budget Commission.
This is exactly why state legislators must implement a state spending cap. They imposed a cap on schools, counties and local governments in 2011. But they exempted themselves. Time is up.
As we stated in our Center for Cost Effective Government white paper, had the state imposed a cap on themselves when they did for other levels of government, the budget today would be $75 billion lower.
What are they waiting for? Perhaps for us to fall off the fiscal cliff?