Government Relations
Albany Update Denise Murphy McGraw Hill, Gosdeck & McGrawE LLC
O
n January 21, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo proposed slowing the growth of state spending to deal with a $6.1 billion state budget gap, reducing aid to localities, trimming the state workforce and authorizing a range of other initiatives, including legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana. Cuomo, a Democrat in his 10th year in office, proposed an overall budget of $178 billion for New York’s 2020-’21 fiscal year, which begins April 1. That would amount to a more than a $2 billion increase over this year’s budget. But Cuomo said his proposed budget is actually $6-billion less
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than the state will spend if he and lawmakers do nothing to slow spending growth rates he and lawmakers approved in the last budget. Cuomo also proposed boosting aid to local school districts by $826 million, or 3 percent. About 80 percent of that increase would go to high-needs districts under Cuomo’s plan. The overall budget gap isn’t due to declining tax receipts; New York actually is on course to see them grow by nearly 7 percent. Instead, the deficit is due largely to growth in enrollment and spending on Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor and disabled, as well as
steady spending increases in other areas. To tackle it, Cuomo said he’s banking on tax receipts increasing by $2 billion. He’s said he’s aiming to reduce aid to local governments by $1.8 billion, through a variety of savings and “efficiency” initiatives. He proposed abolishing a state agency, the office of Real Property Tax Services, and cracking down on the trafficking of illegal cigarettes. He wants to trim the state workforce by 1,000 (less than 1 percent). As expected, Cuomo also proposed legalizing recreational marijuana. It’s a plan Cuomo and the Democrat-controlled legislature
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