New York has not always had the distinction of being the only state with a fiscal year that begins April 1. The start date was changed from Oct. 1 to July 1 in 1916. It has been April 1 since 1943, but now there is a push from some lawmakers to change it to June 1.

What difference does it make? A big one, said Senate Select Committee on Budget and Tax Reform Chairwoman Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan. Having a fiscal year that begins before the April 15 filing deadline for income-tax returns means the governor and lawmakers put together the budget without the most complete information on state revenues, she said.

The senator is leading a push in the Democratic-led Legislature to shift the start of the fiscal year to June 1 and hopes to get legislation passed this year. Additional proposals she and other lawmakers are supporting would create a non-partisan legislative budget office and require two-year state budgets so there would be more fiscal planning.

“We have a great deal of trouble actually getting our arms around what our revenues are for a state budget and when we get it wrong, we have to constantly go back into ‘battle’ to fix the state budget,” Krueger said.

Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, D-Manhattan, said Friday that changing the fiscal year would help prevent late budgets. He is sponsoring Krueger’s bill in the Assembly. Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Albany, is sponsoring another bill with Kavanagh that would also establish a June 1 to May 31 fiscal year.

“Disputes with late budgets often start with a very strong difference of opinion about how much money is available,” Kavanagh said.

New York state gained notoriety for having 20 consecutive years of late budgets, from 1984 to 2004. A spokesman for Gov. David Paterson did not respond to a request for comment on the issue Friday.

Assembly members Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, Monroe County, and Sandy Galef, D-Ossining, Westchester County, and Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, have legislation to create a non-partisan legislative budget office.

The Legislature should set up an independent, non-partisan budget office, similar to the Congressional Budget Office, said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest ResearchGroup.

“The public needs to have an independent fiscal watchdog that is non-partisan and responds to all fiscal issues facing the state,” he said Friday.

The governor has his Division of the Budget and the state comptroller is an elected official, so they cannot be non-partisan, Horner said.

As for changing the state’s fiscal year, a concern would be that school districts wouldn’t have the information they would need to pass their budgets in May, he said. “It’s a reasonable thing to move it. There are unintended consequences and they have to be addressed,” he said.

Counties and most cities and towns in New York are on a calendar-year budget, school budgets run from July 1 through June 30, and the federal government is on an October through September schedule.

A 2005 ballot proposal that failed would have amended the state constitution so the fiscal year would have started May 1, the Legislature would have had more authority during budget stalemates, and a legislative budget office would have been established.

A spokesman for Senate Democrats said they’re confident a constitutional amendment wouldn’t be necessary because previous changes in the dates of fiscal years have been done by legislation.

Changing the constitution requires passage of legislation during two separate two-year sessions of the Legislature and by voters. It can also be changed during a constitutional convention.

Stephen Acquario, head of the state Association of Counties, said a July 1 start to the fiscal year makes the most sense. It would allow the Legislature more time for debate, public hearings and analysis, and New York would be aligned with most other states. There would be less time for the state to shift costs onto counties mid-year, he said.

“I think the reason we currently have an April 1 budget was a fiscal gimmick to begin with,” he said.

Three states besides New York — Alabama, Michigan and Texas — don’t have a July 1 through June 30 fiscal year. Fiscal years start in October in Michigan and Alabama and September in Texas, according to Krueger’s office.

The Association of Counties is also pushing for a rolling two-year state budget.

The Citizens Budget Commission recommended during a December public hearing held by Krueger’s committee that the state should operate on an accrual basis rather than a cash basis so bills are recorded when liability is incurred, not just when funds are spent.

The Empire Center for Public Policy also criticized the state’s cash-basis accounting, and it recommended beginning the fiscal year July 1, shifting to a two-year budgeting cycle, and establishing a legislative budget office.

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