O'Mara on Cuomo budget: Aggressive enough on root causes of Upstate NY decline?

Albany, N.Y., January 13—State Senator Tom O’Mara (R-C, Big Flats) today delivered a wait-and-see reaction to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2016-2017 state budget until the Legislature’s fiscal committees have had the opportunity to fully examine the governor’s proposed fiscal plan in detail.   

O’Mara, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said, “It’s an ambitious and a necessary agenda in a number of fundamental areas, including schools, agriculture-based industries, Upstate jobs and infrastructure, and public safety.  But the governor is proposing billions upon billions of dollars of new spending on everything from A to Z.  How are we going to pay for it all?  I’m concerned about the state’s ability in the current economy to afford it all or to go deeper into debt while, at the same time, imposing added costs on employers like a $15-an-hour minimum wage on small businesses, farmers, schools and others in already struggling regions like the Southern Tier.  I’ve been saying it and I’ll keep on saying that New York government needs to stay focused on taking action after action to jump-start Upstate manufacturing job growth and eliminate 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 going aggressively enough after 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 devastates family budgets and keeps New York’s business climate one of the worst in the nation.

In Albany today, Cuomo delivered his sixth State of the State message to the Legislature and, at the same time, proposed a $144-billion spending plan for 2016-17, including a nearly $1-billion increase in aid to public school districts statewide.

O’Mara 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.  O'Mara and his Senate Republican colleagues have already approved legislation and staked out top budget priorities to eliminate the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) for local school districts this year (the governor proposes a two-year phase out of the remaining GEA) and impose a permanent cap on future state government spending.

Details on the governor’s budget proposal can be found on the state Division of the Budget (DOB) website, www.budget.ny.gov

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 Wednesday, January 20.  The legislative hearings will continue through early February and can be viewed on the State Senate website at: www.nysenate.gov.  See the full hearing schedule HERE.    

The state’s new fiscal year begins on April 1, 2016 and state leaders are aiming, for the sixth year in a row, to have a new state budget in place before that April 1st deadline.