Today the governor laid out his vision for our state in this new year, and while I believe many of the programs he outlined have great potential to improve our public health, the governor offered no details on how we will pay for them.

Our state is facing a $15 billion budget deficit, and the governor placed the blame solely on the federal government, while offering few solutions other than a federal bailout. Let's be clear, the fiscal problems our state is facing existed before the pandemic when we had a $6 billion budget deficit.While the pandemic has increased our state’s fiscal issues, the overspending has long been a problem. Instead of making cuts, the governor introduced more programs that would cost New York taxpayers. 

The governor stated that “elected leaders must lead,” but still has not returned power to the Legislature that he removed at the beginning of the pandemic and has continued to govern by executive order. If the governor truly wants elected leaders to lead, he must restore power to the Legislature to make it the equal branch of government it once was.