Gov. Cuomo’s combined State of the State message and Executive Budget rollout this week showcased the governor at his best — and worst. Read More
Tag: Budgets
One of the biggest questions heading into New York’s fiscal 2016 Executive Budget presentation was how Governor Andrew Cuomo would choose to allocate an unprecedented, one-shot $5.4 billion windfall "surplus" originating with fines and penalties collected from financial institutions. Now we have the answer: under Cuomo's proposal, less than one-third of the money—barely $1.6 billion—would be absolutely, positively committed to core transportation infrastructure purposes. The rest would go to an assortment of stuff, only some of which would fit into even an extra-broad definition of “infrastructure.” Read More
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's 2015-16 budget proposal released Wednesday called for tax breaks for middle-class New Yorkers and small businesses as well as increasing the minimum wage and spending a third of a $5.4 billion surplus on New York City-area mass transit. Read More
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo Wednesday called for permanent extension of statewide "cap" limits that have held school-tax increases to record lows in recent years but did not reveal how much state-aid money would go to individual districts to help compensate for the loss in local tax revenues. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, weighs in on the Governor’s tax proposal and other possible budget issues. Read More
"The first year the governor came in with $6 billion in federal stimulus that just disappeared overnight," said E.J. McMahon of The Empire Center, a non-partisan think tank. "Federal cash propped up school aid, Medicaid, and it was coming to an end. It was foreseeable, but that doesn't lessen the fact that the governor had to cut spending...he simply could not afford to replace the federal stimulus." Read More
The property tax cap for New York counties, towns and villages with fiscal years starting January 1, 2015 will start at 1.56 percent, slightly lower than last year's starting rate of 1.66 percent. The cap in each locality will vary based on the amount of applicable allowable exclusions for growth in local property values. Localities also will be able to exclude the amount by which the change in pension contributions exceeds two percentage points Read More
Twenty-four school districts sought to override the state’s property tax levy cap in yesterday’s school budget votes. Nine districts, or 38 percent of those attempting, failed to garner the 60 percent supermajority vote needed to pass an override. The vast majority of school districts held their proposed tax levies below the statewide average of about 2.1 percent, including allowances for voter-approved capital spending, property taxes generated by new construction, and other factors. On a per-pupil basis, as detailed in the Empire Center’s annual School Budget Spotlight, the average proposed tax levy hike came to 2.6 percent. Spending growth in proposed budgets was 3.2 percent per pupil, one and a half times the inflation rate. Read More