NY State budget increases in spending will mean increases in the cost of living
A weekly COLUMN by NY State Senator Tom O’Mara,
From the outset of this year’s state budget adoption process, which began back in late January when Governor Hochul unveiled her proposed 2026-2027 Executive Budget, many of us started warning that the governor’s call for even higher state spending would only skyrocket once the Legislature’s Democrat majorities, the biggest spenders in state history, got their hands on it.
Of course, that’s been the standard mode of operation over the past seven years of all-Democrat, one-party control of New York government – and it’s exactly where we’re headed once again this year.
The Legislature’s Democrat majorities showed their hands late last week when they approved their respective, “one-house budget resolutions” that traditionally stake out legislative priorities for a final state budget scheduled to be in place by April 1. They’re essentially the blueprints that legislative Democrats intend to take into final budget negotiations with the governor over the next several weeks.
The Senate Democrat majority approved a blueprint calling for spending far beyond the governor’s approximately $262.7 billion proposed plan. Assembly Democrats followed suit by approving an equally large blueprint.
The Senate Democrats have called for a nearly $270-billion state budget this year or more than $7 billion higher than Hochul’s proposed budget and more than $16 billion above current spending. If enacted, it would mark the highest ever state budget.
Senate Democrats are also calling for nearly $6 billion in higher personal income and corporate taxes, while rejecting any proposals to delay or eliminate green energy mandates and timelines under the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” (CLCPA) of 2019. As I’ve written in this column so many times, our Senate and Assembly conferences have prioritized the elimination of numerous CLCPA mandates, including all-electric buildings, all-electric school buses, Cap-and-Invest, and, under legislation I sponsor, providing immediate relief to ratepayers through the return of unspent funds currently being held by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority ((NYSERDA) and utility corporations.
Any way you slice it, any way you view it, it’s clear that whether the governor or legislative Democrats wins out after final negotiations, the new state budget is going to result in higher government spending, and higher taxes and fees to try to afford it.
Yet it goes far beyond even that. The quickest reaction to the Senate Democrat plan, then, is simply this one: it’s an out-of-control, tax-and-spend disaster. It remains irresponsible, unaffordable, and unsustainable.
Is it affordable and is it sustainable for the citizens of New York State to continue down this road of spending and taxing? Governor Hochul’s proposal contains plenty of misguided and misplaced priorities, but the Senate Democrats try to correct it with higher taxing and even higher spending as their own overriding, misguided, and misplaced priority.
This Senate Democrat plan will do nothing but make living in New York State more expensive. While affordability is the buzzword of the year, every action the Democrats take in this Legislature makes New York State more expensive. It defies any kind of common sense.
There’s no hesitation by the Democrats, for example, to go full steam ahead with the CLCPA. In fact, the Senate resolution actually doubles down and explicitly supports moving forward with a Cap-and-Invest program that will make absolutely everything more expensive in this state. It’s not just going to be your utility bill. It’s going to be everything you buy in your everyday life, across the board.
The state’s energy agency, NYSERDA, just two weeks ago declared that the likely costs of compliance with the CLCPA would: 1) increase the average New Yorker’s household natural gas or oil heating bill by over $4,100 a year, 2) increase the cost of a gallon of gasoline by $2.23 above today’s price, 3) increase utility costs for small and medium commercial businesses by 46%, and 4) increase trucking costs by over 60%. Those increased business costs will most definitely be passed along to consumers with increased costs of every good or service purchased.
Overall, under this Democrat plan, it’s full steam ahead with the CLCPA that will further crush ratepayers, property taxpayers, homeowners and home builders, school districts, businesses and industries large and small, farmers, and numerous others.
It keeps sending a message that we don’t care about business in this state.
There’s going to be less jobs and more exodus from New York if this is the direction the Democrats continue to take.
It ignores the need for greater accountability in government spending, especially within the exploding Medicaid system that demands a revitalized, all-out effort to combat abuse, fraud, and waste costing state taxpayers billions of dollars.
It doesn’t respond to the issues of affordability for everyday New York families, taxpayers, and workers. It will accelerate the exodus of New York taxpayers and employers to other states, and it risks further devastating already hard-hit state and local economies.
The Senate Democrat budget symbolizes this entire era in state government under complete and total Democrat control: It’s a fantasy, but it’s a very scary and concerning fantasy for the future of New York.
