The Empire Center’s unique online “Explore Your State Budget” app has been updated to reflect data in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed Executive Budget for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins April 1.

The database of New York state budget information, which is accessible through the Center’s SeeThroughNY website, includes actual results, estimates and projections for major spending and tax categories from 2012 until fiscal 2021. In addition, the tool contains annual disbursements dating back to 1984 and tax receipts since 1976.

Historical spending and tax data are presented both in nominal and inflation-adjusted terms. In addition, data can be downloaded and saved in spreadsheet form. Here is a small sampling of important Executive Budget trends revealed by the Explore Your State Budget database:

• State aid to public schools will rise by 5.1 percent, roughly double the expected rate of inflation, going from $24.4 billion in fiscal 2017 to $25.6 billion in fiscal 2018.
• The state’s debt payments, fueled in part by the Legislature’s decision to borrow to pay for economic development and pork-barrel projects, are expected to climb from $5.3 billion in fiscal 2017 to $7.4 billion in fiscal 2021.
• The state will collect $4.6 billion in taxes and fees on health care services and health insurance during fiscal 2018, under the proposed renewal of the Health Care Reform Act, now set to expire at the end of 2017.

The direct web address for Explore Your State Budget is SeeThroughNY.net/nysbudget.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank dedicated to promoting policies to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.