Statement by Senator Borrello on the Senate’s One-House Budget Resolution

ALBANY – New York State Senator George Borrello issued the following statement on the Senate’s One-House Budget Resolution, which passed today:

“If we needed further proof that the Senate’s Democratic Majority doesn’t care about the concerns of everyday New Yorkers, we received it today in the form of the One-House Senate Budget Resolution.

Poll after poll have shown residents’ top concerns to be rising crime and the state’s lack of affordability. The Majority’s response? A record-breaking $236 billion budget and a back-breaking tax increase on the group of New Yorkers who already pay the largest share of taxes and who are fleeing the state in droves. Even more concerning is that the outrageous level of spending in this budget is unsustainable and sets the stage for deficits and big, broad-based tax increases in the years to come.

The pleas for help from small businesses across the state were ignored, once again. A minimum wage increase proposal even more aggressive than the one proposed by the Executive would devastate our economy, family farms and employers of every size. Despite a $10 billion revenue surplus, not a dime was allocated to help small businesses who have been unjustly burdened with paying the $8 billion in unemployment insurance debt caused by the state.

The Majority has a similar lack of interest in strengthening public safety, which is New Yorkers’ number one concern. To her credit, Governor Hochul has proposed repealing the “least restrictive standard” of the disastrous bail changes - one of the very worst provisions of this terrible law. The majorities have flat out rejected that proposal and have offered yet another present to New York’s criminal community by including their ‘Clean Slate Act’ in the budget, which would provide for the automatic sealing of criminal records.  

There are some notable improvements over the Executive Budget in this plan, including the restoration of the $625 million in enhanced federal Medicaid assistance to the counties – funds that the Governor proposed keeping. There are important restorations and increases I advocated for, in vital agriculture programs, including Nourish NY, and long overdue increases in the Medicaid rate for hospitals and nursing homes.

It is clear from this budget that the Majority has no intention of shifting away from the radical agenda of recent years, an agenda that has made New York into a showcase for the failures of the far left. The funding and policies in this plan would only worsen the problems New Yorkers are most concerned about, which is why I voted against it.”

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