By Jeremy Walsh
New York state has a budget, if not a very popular one. The state Legislature approved the budget Friday after four days of debate. Votes on the budget bill were split mostly along party lines.
Republicans blasted the $131.8 billion budget, accusing Democrats of raising taxes instead of cutting spending. The bill represents a 9 percent increase over last year’s $122 billion budget, but Gov. David Paterson has said that increase is all due to anticipated federal stimulus funding.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found that 60 percent of New Yorkers disapproved of the budget and 65 percent thought Paterson and the state’s legislators did not show the courage to make tough decisions.
But 64 percent of New Yorkers polled approved of the decision to raise state income tax rates on families making more than $300,000 per year, with 59 percent dismissing the argument that the tax hike will drive wealthier people to leave New York.
The state GOP also blasted the Democrats, who control both chambers of the Legislature, for reaching the budget agreement during closed−door sessions.
“There is absolutely no excuse for the governor, the speaker and Senate majority leader to advance a state budget that spends too much, taxes too much and was crafted behind closed doors away from the public and state Legislature,” state Sen. Frank Padavan (R−Bellerose) said in a statement. “Their budget will only succeed in worsening an already gloomy economic picture for our state.”
Democratic leaders said dire times called for extreme measures.
“The budget was far from perfect, and so was the process,” Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D−St. Albans) said. “But even more imperfect was the economic realities we inherited and a fiscal crisis in which no sector of the state was immune. Following years of spending at a rate the state could not afford, as well as an economic meltdown on Wall Street and in the housing market, the new Senate majority passed a budget in less than 90 days that contains the lowest spending increase in decades.”
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e−mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 154.
