The Empire Center’s Explore Your State Budget app has been updated to reflect financial data in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2014-15 Executive Budget.

The online 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 2018. Additionally, the tool contains annual disbursements dating back to 1984 and tax receipts since 1976.

“Our state budget app is an important tool for New York taxpayers to review the governor’s proposed $137 billion state budget,” said E.J. McMahon, the Empire Center’s president. “It can be used to analyze past budget trends and choices to assess the ongoing debate about how the state will raise and spend taxpayer money.”

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 budget trends revealed by the Explore Your State Budget database:

• The proposed state aid to K-12 public schools has risen by $1.8 billion, about 8 percent, in the past two years, and under current law is projected to rise another $3.4 billion, about 14 percent, during the next three years.
• The proposed total state tax collections are up more than $6 billion, or 10 percent, from Cuomo’s first state budget. New York’s total state tax collections are projected to be $9 billion higher in three years

The direct web address for Explore Your State Budget is www.seethroughny.net/nysbudget/#

Learn more about the Empire Center and its efforts to make New York a better place to live and work by visiting www.empirecenter.org.

Contact: David Lombardo, (518) 434-3100, dlombardo@empirecenter.org