{"id":3235,"date":"2025-08-18T07:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3235"},"modified":"2025-08-18T07:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:07:10","slug":"new-yorks-finances-get-bleaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/new-yorks-finances-get-bleaker\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Finances Get Bleaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, state Comptroller DiNapoli released his office\u2019s analysis<\/a> of New York\u2019s finances. His observations were sobering: State government faces a three-year aggregate budget deficit of $34.3 billion. The Comptroller specifically pointed to Washington\u2019s federal budget cuts and a weakening economic outlook as the bases for his assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His findings tracked those issued<\/a> late last month by the Hochul Administration, which also predicted growing state budget deficits over the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to both, the federal cuts that impact the current year\u2019s state finances are manageable, no more than $1 billion out of an overall budget<\/a> of nearly $255 billion. The current state fiscal year runs through the end of next March, seven months away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Comptroller\u2019s report also predicted that the state\u2019s financial picture will get more \u201cproblematic\u201d as the phase in of the federal cuts hit, as well as expected future actions that could further deepen those cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One program that was targeted is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which used to be called food stamps, which is the federal program<\/a> that helps low-income families with their grocery bills. The federal changes to that program will hurt right away. The federal government has always funded 100 percent of SNAP benefits. Yet the federal actions will shift some of those costs to the state, resulting in as much as $1.9 billion<\/a> annually in additional costs for the state and local governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impacts to New York don\u2019t stop there. According to estimates, as many as 1.5 million New Yorkers<\/a> will lose their health coverage. In particular, the cuts<\/a> to Medicaid and other health insurance programs are deep and there is every reason to believe that state lawmakers will attempt to minimize the number of New Yorkers who lose their government coverage. But in order to do so, they may have to reduce spending on other<\/em> areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This robbing \u201cPeter to pay Paul\u201d approach could impact programs in areas that were untouched by the federal cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One option would be for the state to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers to help cover at least some of the upcoming shortfalls. After all, the federal budget plan advanced by President Trump and approved by the Congress enacts massive tax cuts with the benefits flowing overwhelmingly to the wealthiest Americans\u2014thereby increasing<\/a> the tax burden for the poorest while enhancing the incomes of the richest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thinking goes \u201cwhy not claw back<\/a> some of those benefits to offset the impact of the cuts to services?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Hochul has thrown cold water<\/a> on that idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the Legislature ultimately agrees with her, or she changes her mind, only time will tell. There are other options that the state should consider as lawmakers grapple with reducing expenses and generating revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area to examine is the state\u2019s economic subsidies. A recent report<\/a> found that New York spends billions of dollars on tax incentives and gets too little in return. In some cases, the subsidies run counter to the state\u2019s established public priorities. For example, through tax expenditures and other economic benefits, the state provides annual subsidies<\/a> to the climate crisis contributors\u2014the fossil fuel industry. Should the state be providing tax benefits to the enormously profitable<\/a> oil and gas industry? And aren\u2019t benefits to the industry that causes the world\u2019s climate catastrophe at odds with New York\u2019s Climate Law<\/a>, which promises to end reliance on that power source?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clear answer is a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Hochul is beginning<\/a> to develop her plans for next year\u2019s budget. As her plans come together, one important measure should be whether she has thoroughly vetted the state subsidies to the oil and gas industry, as well as the billions more spent on controversial tax and economic development benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the President and his Congressional allies, millions of New Yorkers\u2014and tens of millions of Americans\u2014will be poorer, unhealthier, and more at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York should take steps to do all it can to reduce that unnecessary suffering and to do so by eliminating questionable\u2014or ineffective\u2014tax programs, as well as steps to offset some of the federal benefits going to the well to do in order to reduce some New Yorkers\u2019 misery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, state Comptroller DiNapoli released his office\u2019s analysis of New York\u2019s finances. His observations were sobering: State government faces a three-year aggregate budget deficit of $34.3 billion. The Comptroller specifically pointed to Washington\u2019s federal budget cuts and a weakening economic outlook as the bases for his assessment. His findings tracked those issued late last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3236,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235\/revisions\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}