As he likes to do every summer once the smoke from the annual state budget battle clears, NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is touring the state traveling to corners far away from his district in the Bronx.
One of the stops for Heastie on Tuesday was the Town of Amherst Veteran’s Memorial where he announced $300,000 had been included in the state spending plan to assist with repairs and improvements at the memorial.
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“I’d say it’s $300,000 plus, with a question mark. So if it’s more than that, Karen will gladly make sure we put up the funding for it,” said Heastie, referring to NYS Assemblywoman and fellow democrat Karen McMahon, who accompanied Heastie on his visit.
“Sometimes things end up costing more than you originally expect,” McMahon said with a slight laugh.
McMahon’s comment might especially hold true in New York where state spending, far in excess of the rate of inflation, has now double in just last 12 years after Heastie and his colleagues in the legislature passed a record high budget of nearly $280 billion which is larger than the state budgets for two larger states – Florida and Texas- combined.
Asked by 2 On Your Side when Albany might reign in spending Heastie replied, “I think it’s a difference of opinion. If you look at spending, Texas and Florida don’t provide the type of services that we do.”
Heastie cited Medicaid spending, indeed one of the largest expenditures in the state budget, as an example.
“Medicaid involves one in every three residents, I think, here in the state,” said Heastie who added that he thought New York does a better job in providing health care services.
Yet Florida and Texas in particular have become popular destinations for New Yorkers fleeing the state which leads all others in outward migration and has the highest combined tax burden for its residents.
New York also leads the nation in its rate of homelessness which is three times the national average.
“Outward migration is something that’s been happening since the 1960’s,” insisted Heastie. “We’re not happy about people leaving. We want to make sure that people, you know, stay in New York. But I’d say it’s just a natural migration of movement throughout the country that didn’t just start a couple of years ago.”
There is no doubt in Heastie’s mind, however, that a primary driver of more than one million New Yorkers leaving the state in the past five years is the high costs of living here.
“I think the biggest reason people leave is the cost,” said Heastie. “Before it was a New York City issue, but I think the cost of housing all over makes it difficult. And if you have a people having to pay fan outsized student loan that’s the size of a mortgage, it’s difficult to pay your student loan and then try to get a mortgage as well, so I think we could do a better job. I think the taxes on middle class people is probably more of an issue, but that’s a different conversation.”
Heastie cited efforts through the state budget to try and create more affordable housing.
“I think when we talked about an affordable affordability agenda, trying to build more housing, I think that’s what you do,” he said.
According to Governor Kathy Hochul the budget also contains provisions attempting to reign in the cost of auto insurance and utility rates which, for New Yorkers unfortunately, are also among the highest in the nation.
A recent Siena Poll, however, indicated that 67% of New Yorkers think the state’s efforts on cost of living are headed in the wrong direction.
“the budget just passed,” said Heastie. “The things that are going to happen are going to take a little time, to filter down. So, I think the Siena poll is more of the reaction of people, just in general. People around the country are not happy. “