Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie grumbled to reporters last week that state budget talks are “kind of at a standstill” because of policy disagreements with Gov. Kathy Hochul. Good.
Because Hochul and the Legislature’s Democratic majorities are in accord on plans that will push New York to further ruin.
That is, on a gargantuan $260 billion in spending — a spree that completely ignores the clear fact that major cuts in federal aid are coming.
The big spenders plainly figure that denial works in their favor: Lock in the outlays now, wait until the federal cuts are official — then hike state taxes to make up the difference and blame it all on the Republicans in Washington.
The longer any disagreements delay the budget past the April 1 deadline, the less defensible their denial becomes.
Even as-is, the plan threatens to add a staggering $18.2 billion in red ink through 2029.
By “rapidly” jacking up spending, “unwisely” increasing taxes and failing “to address the structural budget gap,” the Citizens Budget Commission recently warned, Albany’s proposals “weaken New York State’s financial future and economic competitiveness.”
The longer they’re at loggerheads over policy issues, the greater the chance some power player will admit to these dangers and reopen the fiscal debate.
For what it’s worth, Hochul is plainly right on those policy disputes, above all on the need for modest changes to the disastrous “discovery” reforms and beefing up the involuntary commitment statutes.
Her push for a statewide ban on smartphones in schools is also common sense.
Albany is a bizarre bubble, so cut off from the real world that lawmakers from the city can oppose changes backed by their constituents and even fellow progressives like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
It’s perversely appropriate that the state’s leaders are supposed to settle on the budget by April Fool’s Day — because the plans they’ve already agreed to amount to a nasty pack of lies.
