“The long-awaited budget has finally been passed this week, but it’s far from a success. When we think about money, usually more means better. But in this case, all we got was more spending and economic damage.”

“New York’s ballooning state spending is bringing catastrophic harm to our state—small businesses are suffering, taxes are skyrocketing and residents are leaving in droves. Despite these detrimental effects, our budget continues to increase year after year and now sits at $229 billion, the second largest budget in the nation; only California, whose population is nearly double ours, has a larger state spending plan.”

“This massive budget plan will, of course, result in many advantageous expansions of programs such as free school meals and childcare assistance, as well as fully funding Foundation Aid. A big caveat to this, though, is that if our long-term spending does not match our revenues, those investments will be first on the chopping block.”

“While this budget increased tax breaks for Hollywood millionaires, and extended a “temporary” tax on businesses, it failed to address unemployment insurance debt assessments falling on our small businesses and did not provide any tax relief to middle-class New Yorkers struggling to deal with increased costs of everyday items due to inflation. What does this say to the people who are already on the verge of relocating? There’s no question that New York’s spending is out of control and unsustainable, what we have to grapple with is how to get New York out of the troubling path it’s on.”