EDITORIAL ROUNDUP
Feb. 5 Advance Media New York Everything but tax relief
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed $227 billion state budget, her first as the elected leader of the state, takes big swings at affordable housing, public safety and mental health.
However, with an economic slowdown likely, the pandemic job recovery lagging and people leaving the state for lower-cost places, Hochul missed an opportunity to restrain spending. This budget is the largest ever — $5 billion bigger than last fiscal year’s record budget. Spending over the long term continues to outpace revenues, leaving deficits for future budget years.
Nor did she propose any tax relief or serious proposals to reduce the total tax burden on New Yorkers, another wasted opportunity. Yes, the governor promised not to raise income taxes on ordinary New Yorkers. But the budget would extend a “temporary” corporate tax and would raise payroll taxes on Downstate businesses to fund the troubled MTA.
Here are some more topline thoughts on Hochul’s budget priorities, with more to come as the details are fleshed out and negotiations begin with lawmakers who have their own ideas.
Crime and safety
Hochul got the message from her thinner-than-expected margin of victory in November. Voters are feeling less safe and, fairly or not, they blame changes to the state’s bail laws. The governor wants to give judges more leeway to set bail in violent felony and high-level misdemeanor cases. Hochul also wants to remove the requirement that judges set the “least restrictive conditions” to get a defendant to return to court, saying it conflicts with a judge’s latitude to consider a defendant’s history of violence. These appear to be sensible changes that chart a middle course between progressive Democrats who don’t want any changes, and Republicans who want to roll back bail reform entirely.
As a community reeling from gun violence, we welcome Hochul’s proposal to put $337 million toward reducing it through both prevention and enforcement.
Education
Hochul’s $34.5 billion in school aid is the largest ever — a 10% increase over last year in a state that already spends the most per pupil in the nation. The budget would fully fund Foundation Aid for the first time ($24 billion), putting the state into compliance with a decade-old court ruling that the state aid formula was short-changing high-needs districts like Syracuse. The governor also is putting $250 million toward helping students catch up from the Covid-19 pandemic and $125 million to expand full-day pre-K to cover 95% of the state’s 4-year-olds.
The state’s generous support for public education should free local school districts to rely less on property taxes — and to cut them.
Affordable housing
Remember “The rent is too damn high”? Well, it is – pricing poor people and young people out of decent apartments and driving New Yorkers out of the state in search of a lower cost of living. We’re still digesting the governor’s bold proposal to give the state the power to override local zoning laws that prevent housing development. But for now, we’re glad to see the long-simmering housing affordability crisis on the front burner — and generating lots of debate and conversation.
Also …
— $1 billion to “transform” the state’s approach to mental health sounds nice. Where are we going to get the mental health professionals to provide expanded inpatient, outpatient and wraparound services that Hochul proposes?
— There’s a big fight brewing over funding Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and elderly. Hochul proposes to take a larger cut of federal assistance that currently flows to counties. That’s going to blow a hole in county budgets that have already been adopted, including Onondaga County’s. We’ll see what the Legislature says about that.
— The New York State Fair has lost money for seven out of the past 12 years, due to the pandemic and aggressive ticket discounts to draw fairgoers back. Hochul wants to double ticket prices from $3 to $6 and parking fees from $5 to $10. That’s still way cheaper than a lot of other state fairs. However, by substantially raising rents for vendors and exhibitors, causing them to drop out, fair management may be worsening the revenue spiral by giving fairgoers even less reason to attend.