O’Mara on Cuomo budget: Is he staying focused on root causes of upstate decline, right priorities?

Albany, N.Y., January 16—State Senator Tom O’Mara (R-C, Big Flats) today delivered a wait-and-see reaction to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2018-2019 state budget proposal until the Legislature’s fiscal committees have had the opportunity to examine the governor’s proposed fiscal plan in detail.   

But O’Mara warned that he’s concerned that Cuomo is not staying focused on the right priorities.

Today in Albany, the governor unveiled a roughly $168-billion proposed spending plan for the state’s new fiscal year beginning on April 1, with the state facing what the governor estimated to be a $4.4-billion budget deficit.

O’Mara, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said, “It’s an ambitious agenda in a number of fundamental areas.  I’ll keep on stressing that New York government needs to stay focused on taking action after action to revitalize Upstate manufacturing job growth and relieve the crushing burdens of unfunded state mandates, overregulation, and high taxes.  It begins and ends with addressing these priorities.  At this point, I just don’t know if the governor’s blueprint is staying focused enough on the root causes of upstate’s decline, which means high taxes, overregulation, and unfunded state mandates that keep local property taxes high.  I was hoping to hear more of a focus on these broad-based economic and fiscal priorities for our local communities, local economies, and local taxpayers.”

O’Mara said that he would keep working with his legislative colleagues across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions to keep attention focused on unfunded state mandates, job-killing state regulations, and a state tax burden that hurts family budgets and keeps New York’s business climate one of the worst in the nation.

He said that the next step in this year’s budget adoption process is for state legislators, local leaders, and the public to begin analyzing the details of the new Cuomo plan and assessing its impact on specific programs and services. 

Full details on the governor’s budget proposal are on the state Division of the Budget (DOB) website.

The Legislature’s fiscal committees – the Finance Committee in the Senate, and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee – will begin a series of public hearings on the Cuomo plan next week.  The legislative hearings will continue through February and will be streamed live on the State Senate website.  The schedule of hearings was released today and can be viewed HERE.

O’Mara also reminded area residents that his 2018 “Community and Legislative Survey” offers opportunities to offer opinions on specific state budget-related issues.

The state’s new fiscal year begins on April 1, 2018.  State leaders are aiming, for the eighth consecutive year, to have a new state budget in place before that April 1 deadline.