NY State Senator Tom O’Mara doesn’t mince words about the state budget process
From NY State Senator Tom O’Mara,
The word on the street out of Albany is that Governor Hochul and the Democrat-led State Legislature could be on the doorstep of enacting a new state budget that’s already a month behind schedule.
Yet that’s the point. It remains just a word on the street. Which means that whenever the governor and legislative leaders get around to finalizing a new budget, New Yorkers are still going to be left with a broken budget adoption process.
It’s a process that every step of the way keeps the public in the dark about fundamental decisions on this state’s short- and long-term future. It’s a process in desperate need of accountability.
As the ranking member on the Senate Finance committee, that’s the point I’ve been making over the past several weeks since April 1, when a final 2025-2026 state budget was supposed to be in place. While New Yorkers may hear and read about a “conceptual agreement” out of Albany, there’s never any concrete legislation for the public to review beforehand. It’s always a “take my word for it” deal before the taxpayers get handed the bill for yet another unaffordable state spending plan.
Keep in mind that the enactment of a new state budget is the most impactful action that state legislators take every year. It reaches into the pockets and the everyday lives of all New Yorkers. That will be especially true this year when Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats put the finishing touches on a budget pushing spending to its highest level in state history and one that will once again include far-reaching, non-budget policy initiatives that many good government groups believe should not even be considered as part of the budget adoption process.
Negotiations take place entirely behind closed doors. That becomes especially troubling – and dangerous — in this era of complete one-party control of New York government where there is an unprecedented lack of legislative checks and balances. The public is kept in the dark like never before. We know that taxpayers will soon be shouldered with their heaviest-ever burden for a nearly $260-billion spending plan. We know it will be one of the world’s largest governmental budgets! We know that there will be tax and fee increases, and new mandates and debt obligations. We know there will be winners and losers.
New Yorkers just don’t know the details. New Yorkers still do not know, with any specifics, exactly how Governor Hochul and legislative Democrats intend to carry it all out – or, for that matter, what surprises are still in store.
The bottom line is that New Yorkers don’t know, and they should. Our Senate and Assembly Republican conferences have been making this point throughout the past several budget adoption cycles that have headed this state in the wrong direction, according to most New Yorkers: Before we take the votes on a final budget, our constituents deserve to know what’s in it. They deserve to know more than a word on the street.
Specifically, we have continually called on Governor Hochul and legislative Democrats to reject the use of so-called “messages of necessity” once the budget legislation is printed and ready for a vote. The State Constitution includes a vital “aging” provision that essentially requires a three-day waiting period (commonly called “aging”) before legislation can receive a final vote. While three days is not nearly enough time in the context of a stack of budget legislation as thick as dictionaries, it at least gives individual legislators, the press, the public, and all interested parties the chance to review the plan’s details.
However, a longstanding loophole in the law authorizes governors to issue a “message of necessity” to bypass this three-day waiting period and allow for an immediate vote on any piece of legislation once it’s introduced.
It’s time to bring this state’s budget adoption process into the modern day, especially at this time when one-party control keeps on producing skyrocketing state spending plans that are increasingly chock-full of policy initiatives that should, for accountability’s sake, be given stand-alone consideration.
Fundamental checks and balances have effectively been thrown out in this state government. Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities go on working behind closed doors to allocate state taxpayer dollars and set in motion far-reaching public policies impacting our local citizens, communities, and economies in consequential ways.
The state budget demands a full public airing and the appropriate time for review and debate, but that’s never what we get. It’s a broken process that blindfolds the public and keeps producing bloated state budgets that taxpayers will never be able to afford.
