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Letter
State Budget
Importance of Immediately Publishing Financial Plan Tables
A Letter to Governor Hochul
May 02, 2024
Weeks after announcing the budget agreement, New Yorkers still do not know most of the basics about how their money is being spent and the future implications of decisions made while enacting the budget.
Statement
State Budget
NYS Late Budget Fails to Reduce Structural Gap
$237B of Spending Approved without Providing Financial Plan Tables
April 20, 2024
Three weeks late, State lawmakers finally approved the budget and again have failed to publish basic financial plan tables that show New Yorkers essential details about how their money is being spent this year and the budget’s future impacts.
Statement
State Budget
Conceptual Budget Agreement Appears to Take State Further in Wrong Direction, Increasing Structural Gap above $16B
Lawmakers Should Show Basic Financial Plans
April 15, 2024
The two-week late “conceptual” budget agreement leaves New York State with a significant future structural budget gap likely exceeding $16 billion.
Statement
State Budget
Statement on Late NY State Budget for FY 2025, Need for Another Extender
April 11, 2024
Late budgets should still be good budgets. This final stretch should be short and produce a budget that is good for New Yorkers now and in the long run.
Statement
Pensions & Benefits
Statement on Proposed Tier 6 Benefit Sweetener as Part of State’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget
March 27, 2024
The proposed change to Tier 6 pension benefits, which will cost the State and local governments in New York nearly $400 million per year, is unnecessary, expensive, and should be rejected.
Letter
State Budget
Publish Basic Financial Tables with Budget Agreement
A Letter to Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Heastie
March 27, 2024
When the budget agreement is reached this year, we urge you to publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables along with the budget bills.
Statement
State Budget
Statement on Medicaid/Managed Care Tax Proposal in NYS Budget Talks
March 26, 2024
The proposal to levy a new tax on Medicaid and other managed care plans to leverage $4 billion of federal money relies on speculative, temporary revenue to seed permanent spending increases.
Letter
State Budget
Watchdog Groups Thank Legislative Leaders for Rejecting Extraordinary Powers in Exec Budget; Urge Them to Hold Firm
A Letter to Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Heastie
March 25, 2024
We write to urge you to hold firm on rejecting the extraordinary budget powers during negotiations and ensure that they are omitted from the enacted budget.
Statement
State Budget
Statement on State One-House Budget Proposals
March 12, 2024
The Legislature's one-house proposals shift the budget discussion in the wrong direction. Both houses propose tax increases that would weaken New York’s already precarious competitive position.
Testimony
Transportation
Public Comment on the Proposed Structure For the Central Business District Tolling Program
Submitted to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
February 29, 2024
While the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) has long held the position that there should not be credits for bridge or tunnel crossings, we believe the Traffic Mobility Review Board’s (TMRB) congestion pricing toll recommendations, as a whole, are reasonable.
Letter
State Budget
Watchdog Groups Urge Legislators to Publish Basic Financial Tables with One-House Proposals
February 26, 2024
We urge Legislators to publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables with their proposals to for the Fiscal Year 2024 Enacted Budget.
Letter
State Budget
Watchdog Groups Urge Legislators to Omit Extraordinary Budget Powers in One-House Proposals
A Letter to State Legislative Leaders
February 20, 2024
Reject proposal in Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Budget that gives the Governor extraordinary powers to spend and borrow unilaterally and without oversight by the Comptroller.
Op Ed
City Budget
Taking Control of New York’s Budgetary Future
Vital City
January 25, 2024
Budget season kicked off with an Albany-New York City doubleheader last week, with brightening skies in both places thanks to proactive efforts to cut costs (especially in the city) and a resilient economy that is bringing in higher-than-projected tax receipts.
Statement
State Budget
Statement on the New York State Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2025
January 16, 2024
While the budget takes some important initial steps to reduce spending growth, significant additional restraint will still be needed to close the State’s structural budget imbalance.
Statement
State Budget
Statement on Governor Hochul's 2024 State of the State Address
January 09, 2024
Governor Hochul rightly highlighted the importance of ensuring New York is attractive and affordable to businesses and residents and the need to protect New Yorkers from more tax increases.
Op Ed
Transportation
How to Fill the MTA's Budget Gap
November 18, 2014
Nearly six of every 10 of the 3.7 million people entering New York’s central business district each weekday rely on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s commuter rails, subways and buses.
Letter
Pensions & Benefits
CBC Encourages Governor Cuomo to Veto Five Benefit Sweetener Bills
November 11, 2014
In 2012, Governor Cuomo achieved significant pension reforms that curbed taxpayer costs and provided appropriate benefits for retirees. The CBC urges the Governor to protect those savings by vetoing these bills.
Statement
Education
Statement Urging City Council to Reject Proposed Grants for School Transportation Employees
August 20, 2014
The City Council should reject proposed legislation that would provide grants to pay higher wages and benefits to certain school transportation service employees than those required by the City's contracts with the private bus companies that employ them.
Op Ed
Capital Spending
What New York Should Do With $4B
July 23, 2014
New York State will soon receive more than $4 billion in settlements from large financial institutions. It is an unprecedented windfall and it is generating discussion about what to do with the money.
Testimony
Transportation
Testimony Before the MTA Reinvention Commission
July 16, 2014
The CBC Board believes strongly that a well-financed and well-functioning mass transit system is a vital element in the regional economy, and a failure to support and enhance that system can be economically fatal.