Presenting her budget this week in Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered more than just a financial plan. She gave the state a refreshing dose of fiscal honesty.
“The truth is,” Hochul said, “we can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow, because tomorrow always comes.”
But the last three budgets did spend like there was no tomorrow – two of which were crafted by Hochul. In those budgets, spending, not including federal aid, rose roughly twice as quickly as before the pandemic. Put another way, state spending increased 24% between 2010 and 2020. Then it rose another 27% between 2020 and 2023. At the current trajectory, state spending would exceed state revenues by several billion dollars in the fiscal year beginning April 1.
This year, however, the governor proposed a 4.5% increase (with about half allocated for the migrant crisis) without raising taxes or draining the state’s reserves – moves Hochul has explicitly ruled out.
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