“For the better part of the past year, gas prices; rising inflation and violent crime have been among the major quality-of-life concerns keeping New Yorkers up at night. Each of these issues has now reached crisis-level. But somehow, Assembly Majority has managed to develop a massive $226.4 billion spending plan without properly addressing any of them.

Today’s proposal would shatter all spending levels we’ve ever seen and spends $73 billion MORE than the state budget of just five years ago. The Majority lawmakers’ proposal has taxpayer money going in almost every direction - from electric school buses, to college tuition for inmates, to tax credits for undocumented individuals. 

A proposed budget of this size obviously contains programs that Assembly Minority’s support. We have consistently fought for tax cuts, greater investment in education, helping a strained healthcare workforce and delivering effective rental assistance to tenants and landlords. However, setting a new record for spending year after year is simply unsustainable. The previous 2% spending cap at least attempted to give the illusion of fiscal restraint. Not only has that spending cap been ignored, it’s been exceeded five times over.

The reality that the Majority refuses to acknowledge is that if tax-and-spend was the right approach, New York wouldn’t lead the country in residents leaving for more affordable options. Our longstanding cost-of-living crisis is being exacerbated in today’s current climate, but no immediate answers are found in Assembly Majority’s budget plan. Their runaway spending priorities have left no stone unturned, except the ones that matter most.”