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Statement From Senate Republican Leader Flanagan
March 5, 2019
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ISSUE:
- New York State budget
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Fresh off their rejection of the Amazon HQ2 project and its 25,000 new jobs and $27 billion in new revenue, Senate Democrats are now threatening to take the state budget process down a dangerous road of chaos and dysfunction.
In their very first budget in the Majority, Senate Democrats have failed to reach an agreement with the Governor and Assembly on available revenues. Rather than work toward passage of a responsible budget, they want to spend money the state doesn’t have. Their intransigence has already knocked state budget negotiations off schedule, and now it’s up to the Comptroller to attempt to step in and break the impasse – something that never happened with Republicans leading the Senate.
Negotiating the New York State budget is a serious undertaking that involves making tough choices based on the fiscal realities of the state. With a revenue forecast that exceeds the Executive by a whopping $900 million, the Senate Democrats are refusing to face up to those realities.
The last time Democrats controlled the Senate they raised taxes 124 times totaling $14 Billion, just so they could go on a $14 billion spending binge. They took STAR rebate checks away from seniors and homeowners. They enacted the job-killing MTA payroll tax. They put the interests of New York City ahead of the rest of the state. For the sake of hardworking taxpayers and their families, I hope and pray New York is not headed for a repeat of that fiasco.
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