{"id":106773,"date":"2026-01-21T03:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106773\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:19:09","slug":"hochuls-reckless-260b-budget-plan-spend-now-worry-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/106773\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul’s reckless $260B budget plan: Spend now, worry later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> was pretty open about her approach in drawing up the $260 billion \u201cbudget\u201d she rolled out Tuesday: Spend it while you\u2019ve got it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state\u2019s long-term fiscal challenges persist,\u201d warned her fellow Democrat, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, yet \u201cspending growth remains above inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He flagged \u201cthe heightened uncertainty in the economy and the prospect of even more\u201d cuts in federal aid to New York.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, Hochul all but said: Revenues are up! Time to spend, spend, spend. <\/p>\n

Betting that Wall Street will continue to shed big profits and fat bonuses for the state taxman, she and Budget Director Blake Washington want to boost state-funded outlays by 5.7%, or more than twice inflation. <\/p>\n

Be happy!<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

Yet Medicaid funding<\/a> alone is to rise 11.4% and school funding 4.3% \u2014 even though New York already spends more per resident on both categories than any other state (and school enrollments are falling).<\/p>\n

This plan isn\u2019t about budgeting for New York\u2019s future prosperity; it\u2019s about boosting Hochul\u2019s re-election drive: Prudence and restraint would jeopardize her standing with the left, particularly fans of socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Not that the tax-the-rich mayor is exactly content: \u201cIt is time to ask New York City\u2019s wealthiest and large corporations to pay their fair share,\u201d he huffed after Hochul dropped her plan.<\/p>\n

Never mind that the gov aims to shell out $4.5 billion to support his push for \u201cuniversal child-care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Never mind that she essentially does raise taxes on businesses, by extending a corporate-tax surcharge (set to expire this year) for three more years, scarfing up about hefty $1.3 billion a year.<\/p>\n

Even so, Albany still faces a $27.5 billion cash shortfall through 2030.<\/p>\n

And the Legislature will insist on more (unaffordable) outlays than in her plan, as it does every year, while Washington may well trim aid further.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s \u201cplan\u201d is to worry about all that after she\u2019s re-elected in November.<\/p>\n

But whether or not she wins, regular New Yorkers get stuck with the bill. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul was pretty open about her approach in drawing up the $260 billion \u201cbudget\u201d she rolled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34858,3365,304,67,4739,19777,862,426,7050,9,24,55,54,56,13895,299,5271,4281,2780,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-106773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-corporations","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-editorial","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-federal-funding","13":"tag-government-spending","14":"tag-governor","15":"tag-kathy-hochul","16":"tag-medicaid","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","20":"tag-new-york-city-news","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-ny-governor-election-2026","23":"tag-opinion","24":"tag-schools","25":"tag-state-budget","26":"tag-taxes","27":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}