Thanks to a gusher of federal pandemic aid, a booming Wall Street and a tax increase on millionaires, New York is projecting balanced budgets for the next five years, the first time ever that the Empire State has published a financial plan without a deficit.
Flush with cash, Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday proposed a $216.3 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 that calls for billions of dollars of one-time spending on property-tax cuts, pandemic relief and bonuses for health-care workers. At the same time, the Democrat, who’s seeking election to her first full term in November, proposed boosting budget reserves by almost $10 billion over three years, bringing the state’s rainy-day funds to 15% of spending.
