Latest news with #CitizensBudgetCommission
New York Post
6 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
To plug New York's massive budget gaps, Gov. Hochul should focus on growing the economy for a change
Here's a novel idea for Gov. Kathy Hochul: Focus on growing the state's economy — keeping taxes low, unleashing fracking, easing regulations — and generating new revenue to avoid painful cuts and tax hikes as she closes her massive budget gap. President Donald Trump's federal budget restructuring popped a hole Hochul's own $254 billion spending plan, so she's already directed state agencies to cut $750 million. She'll have to come up with another $3 billion in savings, or new revenue, next year. And the Citizens Budget Commission flags a $22 billion long-term structural imbalance. One way to plug the hole is to supercharge the economy. A growing economy means a growing tax base. This week, Politico Playbook declared that 'Wall Street could be the state budget's savior next year — or a major headache.' But it's dangerous for the state's economic fortunes to be dependent on the ebb and flow of the financial markets. (Wall Street provides about a fifth of state tax revenue.) New York has so much more to offer: Tech companies, like AI, are certainly growing. But energy-intensive industries and large companies won't locate here unless New York offers reliable, reasonably priced energy. And Hochul, pandering to green extremists, has been downright hostile to traditional sources of energy, particularly natural gas. The state's climate law, which then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo put in place and Hochul adopted, sets all kinds of rules for emissions that discourage new tech business. And renewables, like wind and solar, won't cut it. Contrast that with the way investors view Pennsylvania: Just last week, they — along with Trump — announced a whopping $90 billion injection of funds to turn Pittsburgh into a major AI hub. Meanwhile, another economic-bonanza-in-waiting in New York is the Southern Tier's Marcellus Shale Formation, with its massive quantities of natural gas. That gas has sat idle ever since Cuomo banned fracking (the process of extracting the gas) about a decade ago. Hochul has zero interest in lifting the ban, but if she did it could jumpstart the region — kicking off a new flow of revenues to help with her budget woes. In Pennsylvania, fracking has been a major boon — for jobs, businesses and the state's balance sheet. Hochul can also boost New York's economy by making the state more business friendly overall. That means lowering taxes, not raising them. And scrapping many of the state's endless regulations; its minimum-wage laws alone are surely deterrents to businesses. Such steps will help the state in countless ways. They'll open up more jobs to New Yorkers (and the rise in demand for labor will itself push up wages). They'll boost economic activity, creating more prosperity for everyone. And they'll generate new revenue to help close the state's budget gap, reducing the need for cuts or tax hikes. Hochul can stick to the old ways — laying off workers, reining in spending (both of which are necessary, in any case) and/or hiking taxes. (How she'll justify her $400-a-family refunds, meant to goose her reelection chances, is beyond us.) Or she can make New York a pro-growth state, by lifting the fracking ban, holding down taxes, promoting new energy production and relaxing regulations. We won't hold our breath waiting for that, but when her budget cuts and tax hikes hit, just remember: She had other options.
New York Post
20-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
The city and state's fiscal pain just got real —and it was all so avoidable
Albany and City Hall are now staring at some wicked fiscal headwinds, a key watchdog reports — but it's not like they weren't warned. The Citizens Budget Commission is flagging both the city and state's massive budgets, slamming them as 'unaffordable and unprepared' in light of federal funding cuts and a possible economic slowdown down the road. With passage of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which aims to (slightly) curb the growth of federal outlays, including aid to New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul is directing state agencies to cut $750 million from their budgets. When folks gripe, she'll just point her finger at Trump. Convenient, no? But about reckless and dishonest as can be. And she'll still have to find another $3 billion — and that's assuming no further cuts from Washington in the short term and an economy that remains robust. Plus, the long-term structural gap, CBC says, is now a monstrous $22 billion. It was all sadly predictable, but Hochul and state lawmakers nonetheless decided to blithely run up the tab — to a whopping quarter of a trillion dollars–plus — figuring they can blame the GOP when they have to make cuts or raise taxes. Take health care: Lawmakers boosted spending on it by 17%, even as the Empire Center's Bill Hammond predicted federal Medicaid cuts would shift over $3.3 billion in costs to the state. In April, budget expert E.J. McMahon slapped Hochul and the Legislature for 'whistling in the dark' instead of anticipating likely changes to the state's 'nearly out-of-control Medicaid program.' Now the gov's budget director won't rule out raising taxes, even though Hochul vowed she wouldn't. The CBC instead urges to keep her promise and instead shred her $2 billion 'inflation reduction checks' (i.e., reelection bribes), for starters. The group also called out the city's $116 billion spendapalooza and hit both Albany and City Hall for not squirreling away enough reserves. Whoever become mayor in November, it noted, will have to fill a $6 billon to $8 billion budget gap in just 16 days of taking office. It also ripped mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani's planned tax hikes to cover his ludicrous plans for $10 billion in new outlays. He'd be setting a record for irresponsibility. New Yorkers are now sure to be hit with some pain, whether it's spending cuts or tax hikes. The pols will try to shift blame, of course, but the public wouldn't be in this mess if their leaders had acted like adults from the start.
Mint
01-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
New York City passes $115.9B Budget with boosts for migrants, childcare ahead of Mayor Eric Adams' re-election bid
New York City Mayor Eric Adams reached a deal with the City Council on a $115.9 billion budget, adding new funding for legal services for migrants and more money for early childhood education. The spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, which the City Council approved on Monday, is the final one in Adams' first term. The budget is more than $3 billion larger than the $112 billion spending plan the city approved last year, and it comes as the mayor, who was elected as a Democrat, is seeking reelection as an independent in November. While Adams' previous budgets had been marked by dire predictions for the city's future — and what some critics decried as overly conservative revenue forecasts — the new plan adds funding for city services that the mayor had previously targeted for freezes or cuts. It passed unanimously— a rare moment of concord between the mayor and Council in a relationship that has mostly been acrimonious in previous years' budget negotiations. Adams branded the spending plan as the 'best budget ever' earlier this year. The plan adds roughly $50 million for legal services for immigrants, and will pay for a $10 million pilot program to provide free childcare for children ages 2 and under. It also fully funds the city's childcare program for 3-year-olds. The new funding represents a starkly different tack by Adams. Two years ago, he implemented unpopular cuts in response to the costly influx of thousands of migrants, which he estimated would cost the city billions of dollars. He slashed service hours at some libraries in response to the migrant crisis, cuts he partially restored last year after migrant arrivals slowed and costs sharply declined. The new budget adds seven-day service at 10 more city libraries, with locations to be announced at a future date. Some fiscal watchdogs criticized the new budget, which comes as the city faces potential funding threats from President Donald Trump's administration. The new plan is 'unaffordable' and 'unprepared for federal cuts,' said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group. The Trump administration has already paused or terminated nearly $400 million in federal grants the city received in the current fiscal year, and $134.5 million in funding for the next one, according to an analysis from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office.
Mint
01-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
New York City passes $115.9B Budget with boosts for migrants, childcare ahead of Eric Adams' re-election bid
New York City Mayor Eric Adams reached a deal with the City Council on a $115.9 billion budget, adding new funding for legal services for migrants and more money for early childhood education. The spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, which the City Council approved on Monday, is the final one in Adams' first term. The budget is more than $3 billion larger than the $112 billion spending plan the city approved last year, and it comes as the mayor, who was elected as a Democrat, is seeking reelection as an independent in November. While Adams' previous budgets had been marked by dire predictions for the city's future — and what some critics decried as overly conservative revenue forecasts — the new plan adds funding for city services that the mayor had previously targeted for freezes or cuts. It passed unanimously— a rare moment of concord between the mayor and Council in a relationship that has mostly been acrimonious in previous years' budget negotiations. Adams branded the spending plan as the 'best budget ever' earlier this year. The plan adds roughly $50 million for legal services for immigrants, and will pay for a $10 million pilot program to provide free childcare for children ages 2 and under. It also fully funds the city's childcare program for 3-year-olds. The new funding represents a starkly different tack by Adams. Two years ago, he implemented unpopular cuts in response to the costly influx of thousands of migrants, which he estimated would cost the city billions of dollars. He slashed service hours at some libraries in response to the migrant crisis, cuts he partially restored last year after migrant arrivals slowed and costs sharply declined. The new budget adds seven-day service at 10 more city libraries, with locations to be announced at a future date. Some fiscal watchdogs criticized the new budget, which comes as the city faces potential funding threats from President Donald Trump's administration. The new plan is 'unaffordable' and 'unprepared for federal cuts,' said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group. The Trump administration has already paused or terminated nearly $400 million in federal grants the city received in the current fiscal year, and $134.5 million in funding for the next one, according to an analysis from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office. City budget officials warned in financial documents released in May that Trump's immigration policies, federal spending cuts and proposed tariffs could create a 'severe downturn' in New York's economy, impairing the still-struggling office market, damping tourism and costing as many as 63,000 jobs in the current year, even under a mild recession scenario.
New York Post
25-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
NYC's rent board must ignore the politics, obey its own math — and OK a hike
When the city's Rent Guidelines Board votes Monday on adjustments for one- and two-year leases of rent-stabilized apartments, it must tune out the politics — and increase rents at the highest end of the preliminary range they set last month. The math, and the health of New York City's housing stock, demands it. The RGB's own research data and reports show that a minimum rent increase of 6.3% is necessary for small-property owners to meet their increased operating costs and expenses. Advertisement But the board ignored its own math last month when it set a preliminary adjustment range of 1.75% to 4.75% for a one-year lease. They have a chance to make it right — by voting for the higher number. Independent housing policy experts at the Citizens Budget Commission and NYU Furman Center warn that decades of rent adjustments failing to keep pace with inflation and rising costs have taken a heavy toll, and the pattern is no longer sustainable. Advertisement Too many buildings, they say, are in economic distress. Just look at the staggering number of mom-and-pop, family-owned buildings in last month's Department of Finance lien sale. Those buildings are now in danger of foreclosure, abandonment or takeover by corporate landlords and predatory profiteers. It's simple math. Advertisement When property taxes, water and sewer rates, insurance, utilities, labor, construction materials and every other cost needed to maintain and operate rent-stabilized housing go up, rents should increase commensurately. But with a cap on rent increases, and no ceiling on taxes and expenses, small rent-stabilized building owners are pushed off the cliff — leaving less affordable housing for NYC families. Our lawmakers have worsened the problem. Albany saddled small rent-stabilized buildings with the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which effectively made upgrades unaffordable by severely limiting rent increases to recoup costs. Advertisement The City Council continually adds burdensome and costly government mandates — most recently the broker-fee law that will likely force many owners to keep apartments empty. The backlog in eviction proceedings in Housing Court allows deadbeats to skip without making good on arrears after living rent-free for months, sometimes years. No cavalry is on the horizon for economically distressed small rent-stabilized building owners — the largest providers of affordable housing to millions of New Yorkers in low-income, brown, black and immigrant neighborhoods. Their only hope — the only hope, really, for the families we house and for the very preservation of affordable housing — is the RGB, which must deliberate amid an irrational rent-freeze chorus from shouting activists. Message to the Democrats' mayoral candidate: Freezing rents without freezing property taxes and operating costs doesn't work. Bill de Blasio's eight years of rent mismanagement have caught up with us. In its vote on Monday, the RGB must send a clear message to all candidates and politicians: That it's an independent board not swayed by political pressure. Housing policies that punish small building owners — who are mostly people of color and generational owners of immigrant backgrounds — also punish the families they house, shaking the foundation of the city's affordable housing landscape. Anti-owner policies are anti-tenant policies. Advertisement We don't expect the city to freeze property taxes, water bills and other government-driven costs. And if Zohran Mamdani becomes our next mayor, his platform points to an anti-small-property-owner scenario worse than the one de Blasio created. That leaves the RGB as the first, last and only champion for small rent-stabilized building owners. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Advertisement Will this panel be able to shut out the background noise and abide by its own math, so that small-building owners can provide safe, affordable housing to the New Yorkers counting on them every day? And what if this RGB panel blazed its own trail and did some thinking outside the box? For example, the board could try to rescue the most deeply distressed buildings by considering separate, higher rent adjustments for apartment leases in such situations. Advertisement It would be a sensible first step in keeping small owners off the city's next lien sale — and walking the affordable housing crisis off the ledge. Does the RGB have the courage to proceed where other panels in the past have failed? Ann Korchak is board president of the Small Property Owners of New York, where Jan Lee is a board member.
