Friday, May 23, 2025
Remember the cabin porch scene in “My Cousin Vinny,” when Marisa Tomei frantically complains about the “tick-tick-ticking” of her biological clock?
I’ll never forget Joe Pesci’s exasperated response. “I’ve got a judge that’s just aching to throw me in jail, an idiot who wants to fight me for $200, slaughtered pigs, giant loud whistles. I ain’t slept in five days. I got no money, a dress code problem, and a little murder case which, in the balance, holds the lives of two innocent kids.”
Then he pointedly asks, “What else can we pile on?”
That’s what the state budget process feels like this year. Despite all of New York’s very serious financial problems, we have Gov. Kathy Hochul and the majority just piling more on.
Our State Legislature has one job: pass a balanced state budget by April 1. As of now, that budget is over two weeks late, and counting. And not only is it late, it’s also a total failure.
At a time when millions of New Yorkers are worried about the stock market, their jobs, runaway government spending and skyrocketing taxes, the governor has actually proposed a budget totaling more than a quarter of a trillion dollars.
Her $252 billion spending plan is a staggering $8.6 billion larger than this year’s. And incredibly, even that level of spending isn’t enough for the Senate majority. Their disconnected proposal pushes that number even higher, to a whopping $259 billion. Even if you flunked math in high school, this budgets flies in the face of any common sense.
It’s not monopoly money. A 13 percent spending increase has to be paid for somehow. That means higher taxes on your income, higher taxes on businesses and higher taxes on fuel. It conveniently ignores that we already bear the highest combined tax burden in America. They’ll tell you that there are no tax increases, but every dollar the government spends comes out of your pocket — including their proposed increase. And frankly, their unwillingness to acknowledge how much this is going to hurt us sends a distinct message: They simply don’t care.
New Yorkers hear that message loud and clear as they flee to states with lower taxes. As a result, our state has already lost a congressional seat. If the trend continues, we’ll lose two more after the 2030 census. Yet no one bats an eyelash.
I happen to remember when Republicans were in the Senate majority, because I was there. At the time, both sides worked with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to control growth by operating under a self-imposed 2 percent spending cap. We held ourselves to the same limits that we require of our schools and municipalities. Unfortunately, there is no appetite for self-restraint in Albany today.
In 2018, state spending amounted to $8,597 per person. Today that number sits at $12,986, an additional cost of $4,389 per New Yorker in just seven years. With these spending increases, one could reasonably expect substantial improvements in services and infrastructure.
Instead we see the opposite: crumbling roads, struggling and unsafe transit systems, underfunded schools and strained health care systems.
Their readiness to pass such a budget, while pushing rising costs onto everyday New Yorkers, belies a troubling disrespect for the working people of our state.
There is virtually no accountability, and they seem content to let that be. Where does this end?
My simply calling this budget irresponsible would be an understatement. It yet again takes more from New Yorkers beyond what they can afford, and fails to make our state any safer or more affordable.
Spending increases without an improvement in services and infrastructure is just adding insult to injury. If what’s past is prologue, the governor and the majorities in Albany are set to pile on.
Jack M. Martins represents the 7th State Senate District.
