It's the same sentiment that Sarah Feinberg, then the interim president of NYC Transit, expressed at a forum with the Citizens Budget Commission in March 2021. “I would like to see a uniformed presence in every station and, frankly, on every platform,” Feinberg said, the New York Daily News reported. “We’re at a critical moment where people have to come back into the system and they have to feel like they’re safe.”

"It's not about defunding the police. Biden has made it clear that that is not the position of the Democratic party," she continues, emphasizing that the New York City Police Department's current budget is $11 billion. According to the Citizens Budget Commission — a non-profit organization based in New York City — more than $10 billion is planned in annual spending on the city's police force for Fiscal Year 2022.

"Both chambers of the state legislature have used budgets to expand care for undocumented immigrants, but budget estimates are lower than the conservative Citizens Budget Commission originally intended," said Richard Gottfried, chairman of the House Health Committee. The estimated amount is even larger; therefore, only a smaller budget can be passed to benefit thousands of senior citizens.”

Gov. Hochul's First State Budget Passes Over the Weekend

And then there's an accelerated tax cut for middle-class New Yorkers. It's a $1.2 billion package that could send hundreds of dollars back to a New Yorker who earns $65,000. Patrick Orecki of the Citizens Budget Commission expects it will have an impact.

"A lot of New Yorkers will get some benefit from it," Orecki said. "It's a pretty broad group of people who will benefit from it. It is temporary, it's relatively defuse across the whole state, but it is the most meaningful tax impact in this budget."

But Orecki warned the size and scale of the spending in the budget relies on a small number of very wealthy New Yorkers — money that could dry up if the economy goes into recession. The budget approved this year is roughly $4 billion more than what Hochul initially proposed.

"Which is one of the big questions: If there's some wrinkle in the story that changes tax receipts that have been so strong in the last couple of years, how do you accommodate that?" Orecki said.

“Both Houses had included larger health coverage expansions for undocumented immigrants in our budget proposals. But the Budget Division estimated a much higher price tag than even the conservative-leaning Citizens Budget Commission, based on extremely high enrollment assumptions,” said Assembly Health Committee Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan).

“In his first 100 days, he's both decided how to organize and started to really lay out how to implement activities to be a more customer service-oriented and efficiently-run government,” said Rein.



Rein said the mayor took a “good first step” with his preliminary budget by instituting a Program to Eliminate the Gap, which mandated every city agency identify at least 3% in savings to offer the mayor and his budget office. But, the PEG was achieved with cost re-estimates and few efficiencies at city agencies, which Rein said the mayor should tackle next. “There's very little restructuring of government in that budget,” he said.



What Adams has been effective at, Rein said, is showing people that New York is open for business. The mayor is the city’s loudest cheerleader and has sought to boost economic activity both through policy announcements and his consistent positivity about its prospects. “He's being public and vocal about welcoming businesses and residents here, that you should stay here, that you should come here…And he has shown the people of the city that New York is active and he’s going to be the hardest working man in the room. And that is really important. You want a leader who you know is all in. He's all in.”

“The budget repeatedly adds billions of dollars of recurring spending, with apparently no commensurate actions to restrain spending growth in other areas,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan city and state fiscal research nonprofit. “This would cause significant future fiscal stress, which is especially concerning given the rocky recovery, global instability and inflationary pressure.”

"Citizens Budget Commission" (CBC) Chairman Andrew S. Rein issued a statement on the 7th, criticizing the budget as too large, "although there are still many projects and basic financial information that have not been seen", but The added "billions of dollars in recurring spending" will lead to huge financial pressures in the future; in addition, the group also mentioned that the New York State budget has insufficient funds to prepare for future disasters, recessions or emergencies," New Yorkers should keep in mind that a 15% reserve (of funds from operations), while good, is not enough (needed) in a recession that averages $40 billion per year during the first three years of 2020. )half."

Hochul said her first budget focused on “kitchen table issues” of New Yorkers, while improving state services. But Andrew Rein, president of the independent Citizens Budget Commission, warns the budget “adds billions of dollars in recurring spending with apparently no commensurate actions to restrain spending growth in other areas. This would cause significant future fiscal stress.”

We hear insight on this year’s budget process from Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group and Patrick Orecki with the Citizens Budget Commission. “It was as secretive as I’ve ever seen it,” says Horner. “The Governor having the news conference right after the Senate Majority Leader came out and said we were in the letter N in ‘The End’ of the budget, so it wasn’t quite soup yet.” According to Orecki, the landscape of the budget process was very different this year, as is New York’s fiscal situation. “It was a lot of moving parts among certain areas compared to a typical year.”

Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein said there was both good and bad news in the new spending plan, but that many details were not yet available.



“While many stakeholders will be pleased with the significant funds allocated to an array of programs, the state does not appear to have sufficiently balanced priorities between relief and recovery now and protecting future New Yorkers from the next emergency or recession,” he said in a statement. “The reported set aside of reserves equal to 15% of state operating funds is important, substantial, and welcome; these funds all should be deposited in a locked Rainy Day Fund.”



However, he said the budget adds billions of dollars of recurring spending with apparently no commensurate actions to restrain spending growth in other areas.



“This would cause significant future fiscal stress, which is especially concerning given the rocky recovery, global instability, and inflationary pressures,” he said.