In a report issued Monday, the Citizens Budget Commission said the main flaw with the state's debt cap is it can be circumvented through legislation.

"During the pandemic, the state exempted billions of dollars in new borrowing that should have been subject to the cap," the CBC said.

Citizens Budget Commission Director of Housing & Economic Development Studies Sean Campion shares his findings from a review of past tax incentives to convert unused office space in Manhattan into housing.

“There are some savings that we have called illusory, in that they have basically added spending and then turned around and taken savings,” said Ana Champeny, vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission.

The Citizens Budget Commission, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, previously urged Hochul to veto the bill, saying that if the bill takes effect, it will not help the state government to persuade car owners to pay their fees on time; The precedent of on-time payment has led car owners to believe that late payment penalties can be avoided, thus increasing the delinquency rate.”

The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan watchdog group, argued the bill would have impeded the state’s ability to convince drivers to pay their overdue tolls. The organization urged Hochul to veto the measure.

As the city faces similar levels of office vacancy now, plus a housing shortage and skyrocketing rent, the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) examined that tax break, known as 421g, and tried to consider whether officials should be crafting a new office-to-residential tax incentive program.

Adams ordered a series of belt tightening measures including agency budget cuts and eliminating vacant city worker positions.

“If the feds don’t pick up that share of the burden, it’s going to be on the back of the city’s budget,” warned Citizens Budget Commission president Andrew Rein.

The city has issued fewer building permits per resident over most of the past decade than Boston, Austin and San Francisco, according to a recent study from the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit research group.

A 2021 report from the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) using data from fiscal year 2018 had NYC Ferry’s subsidy at $10.37 per ride behind only the city’s express bus system, which has an $11.79 subsidy per ride. That year, the Staten Island Ferry, which is free to riders, had a subsidy of $5.46, according to the CBC.

New York City is staring down billions of dollars in budget gaps in the coming years, and those gaps could balloon quickly without action to rein in spending, the Citizens Budget Commission warned in a budget briefing on Tuesday.

“The top 1% of income earners pay about 40% of state operating funds,” says Andrew Rein of the Citizens Budget Commission. “We should not be losing or driving away high income earners because who pays for our schools, medical, police, parks, you name it.”

“Costs continue to increase, and having fare increases to cover some of those increased costs makes a lot of sense,” Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said. “It keeps the M.T.A. stable and strong.”

“What it needs to do,” he added, “is figure out both how to reduce its costs and make sure it gets the revenue it needs to operate.”