Last night, under typical late-night cover, the Fiscal Year Year 2022 Budget was passed by the New York State Legislature. The budget, which includes heavy tax increases for high wage earners, has ballooned by nearly 10% over the 2021 budget - the largest since 2007 - and 22.5% over 2020.
The spending highlights include:
- $111 billion for the State Operating Fund, a nearly 10% increase;
- $29.5 billion for school aid, a $3 billion increase;
- $29 billion in public and private green economy investments;
- $385 million for the State and Municipal Facilities Program (SMFP), a stimulus slush fund that can be used for any state or local capital improvement projects.
Cody Anderson, Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York, while decrying Albany’s lack of fiscal responsibility, was not surprised by these increases.
“Of course Albany is spending more without regard for impact on local communities,” Anderson stated. “Albany has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to the SMFP in an attempt to woo constituents and influence their own re-election, yet their continued acts of wage theft are causing more than one hundred thousand residents per year to take their earning and spending power to other states. Our per-student expenditures are already the highest in the nation, school age enrollment in our public schools continues to drop, yet Governor Cuomo and the Legislature increased education spending by over eleven percent in continued support of a bloated state bureaucracy which produces mediocre outcomes. Nearly fourteen percent of the State Budget subsidizes unprofitable renewable energy projects, prioritizing excess takings over economic sense, local control and energy diversity.
“The politicians in Albany fund their bloated vanity projects with continued tax increases that chase away those businesses and individuals who drive our economy. Albany needs to reset their expectations, exercise a modicum of fiscal responsibility, and give the citizens of New York State a chance to thrive and more reasons to stay.”
For more information about the Libertarian Party of New York, please visit lpny.org. You may also visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/
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