If state lawmakers intend to pass a budget before the April 1 deadline, they’ve got their work cut out for them.
Because Gov. Cuomo’s $154.6 billion spending plan is so full of holes, gimmicks and “structural challenges” that even usually mild state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is sounding alarms.
He has slammed the plan on multiple fronts. “We cannot count on extraordinary one-time windfalls to pay our bills down the road,” he warned, referring to recent multibillion-dollar legal settlements. He also:
- Demanded “greater clarity” on how Cuomo would pay for all his new road, bridge, transit and other project.
- Fretted over a $10 billion, or 20 percent, spike in debt over the next five years.
- Noted that state revenues are set to drop in coming years — with budget gaps projected to climb to $3.6 billion by 2020.
DiNapoli couches his warnings in praise for other pols. But it’s the alarms that count.
After all, you certainly can’t fund a budget forever with legal settlements. And growing debt means trouble down the road.
DiNapoli also poked holes in Cuomo’s claim to have kept spending within his self-imposed 2 percent growth cap. In fact, he said, the gov’s done that with smoke and mirrors — specifically, adjusting the “timing of various payments” and shifting spending to “Capital Project funds or off-budget.”
In coming battles over spending, taxes and other issues in the budget, lawmakers’ top priority should be to face the “challenges” DiNapoli cites, fill in the holes — and come clean publicly about it all.