Three weeks after his Jan. 1 swearing-in ceremony, New York’s new governor will have to lay out his plan for the 2011-12 state budget, which is expected to have a $8.2 billion hole.
The fiscal outlook gets worse from there.
Even if the deficit next year is closed, the Division of Budget estimates there will be a $13.5 billion gap in 2012-13 and a $15.6 billion deficit in 2013-14.
But the two candidates for governor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Carl Paladino, have offered varying measures of detail on how they plan to approach the potentially bruising budget battle, fiscal watchdogs say.
“Both of them want to persuade us that they can make the tough decisions,” said E.J. McMahon, executive director of the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy. “The main difference between them is Paladino seems to want to make it clear that he’s willing to cut anything and doesn’t care and Cuomo is a holding the line guy on spending and on taxes.”
McMahon said Cuomo’s budget proposals boil down to vague pledges of reducing costs and rooting out inefficiencies. Paladino has been more specific, but does not have a mastery of the facts, McMahon said…
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