Hochul stresses importance of ‘responsible’ budgeting

With just a few days left until the start of a new fiscal year, Gov. Kathy Hochul says she is working with legislative leaders to find the “right balance” of spending for the state budget.

The executive proposal unveiled in January relied on about $216 billion in spending, but the one-house budgets advanced by the Democratic majorities in the state Legislature called for billions of additional spending, some of it on recurring costs.

In order to bridge the gap in proposals, Hochul told reporters at the Capitol on Friday, “We’re having very responsible conversations about what we’re capable of doing.”

She argued that her initial proposal addressed the state’s needs. “We don’t need to go to extreme numbers to accomplish making lives better for New Yorkers. We just have to find the right balance,” Hochul said.

The governor’s spending plan projected balanced budgets for the next five years, with the proposed spending levels for the next fiscal year based in large part on an influx in federal cash, higher than anticipated tax revenues and a fully implemented tax increase on millionaires. The additional spending proposed by Democratic lawmakers was based mostly on unallocated federal aid, decreasing deposits into the state’s reserves and a readjusted revenue forecast, but it’s not clear where the funding will come from for their outyear spending increases.