Cuomo’s Budget, Is It Really As Good As The TV Ad?

Legislative Column from Assembly Minority Leader Pro Tem Tony Jordan (R,I,C-Jackson)

March 5, 2013

“You see it everywhere…” begins Gov. Cuomo’s feel-good television ad promoting his 2013-14 Executive Budget proposal, which is being broadcast everywhere. In the ad, the narrator lists what the governor says are accomplishments in his budget, but is his spending plan as good as the advertising team would like you to think?

That very question was posed to me by one of the moms in my son’s Boy Scout troop.

When I was first elected in 2008, our state budgets were notoriously wasteful, with the biggest year-to-year growth in spending in 2010-11. When the economy was rolling and revenue was coming in easily, Albany spent big and frivolously. In the span of three short years, the budget grew from $120.9 billion in 2007-08 to $133.8 billion 2010-11, which is an astonishing growth rate, especially during difficult economic times. Time and time again, I warned my colleagues this wasn’t sustainable.

When Gov. Cuomo took office, I was happy to work with him to keep spending under control, but now we must do more to lower the spending, taxes and fees that burden our families, job creators and communities. When the economy was stronger it may have been enough to simply hold the line on spending, but knowing our economic recovery is lagging, and our revenue and residents are dwindling, our state must do more with less.

The Cuomo ad touts controlled spending, lowered income taxes for the middle class and a property tax cap as the crux of his jobs agenda. I am proud of these accomplishments, and I helped get our state there, but as a plan to revitalize private-sector job growth and communities, it’s not going far enough. I consider those steps just one-half of what must be done. Even with these items in place, families and our local businesses are still feeling the crunch. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, fluctuating over the last year from 8 percent to mid-7 percent.

We should focus our energies on policies and budget items that will allow our economy and communities to thrive, not feel-good commercials. A complete jobs agenda must center itself on meaningful unfunded mandate and regulatory relief. This is where Gov. Cuomo’s budget really falls short.

His budget offers little in an unfunded mandate relief plan. Mandates are programs that Albany demands exist, but doesn’t want to pay for; instead, local governments and schools are stuck with the bills. Over the years, mandates have built up to the point that they are no longer affordable. Nearly 90 percent of your local property tax levy is consumed by nine state mandates. This means higher taxes and limited services for our communities. I have offered 12 pages of proposed mandate relief initiatives that are a compilation of suggestions gathered from municipal and school governments throughout my district. These have been submitted to the governor and legislative leaders for inclusion in the budget.

Any comprehensive “jobs plan’ must include regulatory reform. Thousands of pages worth of regulations on small businesses, manufacturers and other job creators cost time and money that could instead be invested into creating jobs. Limited opportunities are only made worse by New York’s unfriendly attitude toward business. In this budget, we must remedy these issues. New York ranks near or at the bottom of nearly every credible survey of business-friendly states. This must change for our economy to recover.

Over and over again, I am seeing throughout this budget policies and “special interest” agenda items that are going to limit our opportunities for growth and change. The governor is making a competition out of our school aid and economic investments, giving himself unprecedented control of over $1.3 billion in pork barrel spending and adding more burdens on jobs creators, when judicious spending and income tax reductions would help families universally.

So, is Gov. Cuomo’s budget as good as the ad makes it out to be? If you’re content with an incomplete jobs plan and no meaningful mandate relief initiatives, sure, but I hope that you agree – we can do better for our friends and neighbors and, most importantly, our children.

Winston Churchill once said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” I will remain optimistic and work vigilantly to create opportunities for all of us during these difficult economic times.

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