“It’s disappointing to see them extending these programs, especially since some of them have been found to be ineffective in spurring economic activity,” said Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the commission.

“The budget weakens the state’s financial footing,” risking “massive program cuts or economically harmful tax increases,” warns Citizens Budget Commission head Andrew Rein.

State budget watchdogs with the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission estimate the change will increase property taxes between 7 and 14%.

The Citizens Budget Commission has been waiting since the start of the state’s fiscal year, on April 1, to crunch the numbers but all there is are a few words from the governor. The money watchdog is only asking for basic financial plan tables. A budget of any size should have those, let alone spending $229 billion, $2 billion more than Hochul had proposed.

“The total dollar figure of $229 billion means we're landing pretty much right between what the governor put forward, $227 billion, and the Legislature's response, $230 billion,” said Patrick Orecki of the independent Citizens Budget Commission.

A government watchdog is blasting Gov. Kathy Hochul over her $229 billion “conceptual” state budget announced Thursday, saying it’s meaningless without providing numbers showing the true costs to taxpayers.

"With budget gaps widening despite billions of dollars of additional revenues, the city should immediately start to prioritize essential programs, increase its operational efficiency, speed up critical hiring, and shrink lower impact programs," the group said. "Absent these actions, the likely alternative is to substantially cut services in the next year or two."

"Adding the costs of under-budgeted programs and continuing programs funded with one-time federal COVID and city money — the fiscal cliffs — reveals the future shortfalls are extremely large — $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2025 and $10 billion by fiscal year 2027."

The independent Citizens Budget Commission called for the program to be shrunk during budget talks, noting that New York’s 25% credit is already higher than those in other states, such as California and Georgia, which officials here see as top competitors.

Budget watchdogs, meanwhile, are also eager to review the details of the fiscal side of the budget. The back-of-the-envelope numbers unveiled Thursday by the governor — $229 billion in combined state and federal spending — barely skimmed the surface of understanding New York's financial picture like structure budget gaps, said the group's president, Andrew Rein.

"Unfortunately, the announcement was made without providing even the most simple financial information needed to understand the budget's basics, such as how much new recurring spending will be added and how much it will increase the state's already massive structural budget gap," he said.

“This is like almost blind people who can see parts of an elephant but no one knows if it is going to stomp on their heads,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission fiscal watchdog group.