ALBANY – Facing a projected $3.6 billion budget gap, the Spitzer administration expects to propose increasing spending next year “at no more than 5.3 percent.”
And that’s before the Legislature gets hold of the spending proposal in an election year.
“The pressure will be that much more intense in ’08 to spend more,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for Public Policy.
Spitzer acknowledged that he must close the gap, though he promised not to raise taxes. He warned that “the profligate ideas that have emanated from others in the past simply won’t even be on the table to be considered.”
McMahon said that, while the state is not facing a financial crisis at this point, a 5.3 percent increase is still too high after spending jumped 8 percent this year.
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