FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 22, 2020
CONTACT: Peter Giunta, 347.621.8031
The following is a statement from Assemblymember Michael Reilly (R-South Shore) on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2020-2021:
“New York faces a $6 BILLION budget deficit this year, but you wouldn’t realize that hearing Governor Cuomo talk about his agenda. Between his Executive Budget proposal yesterday, and his State of the State Address two weeks ago, it is now obvious that this Governor and his Administration are totally out of touch with reality.
Despite this deficit, which he had been warned about for several years, the Governor’s proposals would bring state spending to an all-time high of $178 BILLION — a $2 BILLION increase from the last fiscal year. Quite frankly, I just don’t understand how this Governor can even have the audacity to claim that this is a “balanced” or fiscally “conservative” budget.
His proposal to increase education funding, which I would normally welcome, was tied to a proposal that would change the formula used to distribute those funds, potentially impacting many of the New York City public schools that have grown heavily reliant upon them. As a matter of fact, we’ve already started to see the effect that these sorts of changes have had on our schools, like in my district, where cuts to Career and Technical Education programs have become a real threat.
I commend the Governor for acknowledging that his government is the problem when he stated that it is because of its bureaucracy that state capital projects take a long time to complete — it’s more than just that though, and the Governor knows it. That’s why the Governor is proposing an increase to the budget for infrastructure projects throughout the state. The cost of doing business in New York has grown to an all-time high thanks to his policies, and that’s why New York will continue to be the least friendly state for business in the nation.
I find it insulting, however, that while announcing a new five-year, $33 BILLION investment to combat climate change, the Governor decided to stress the importance of the matter by stating that the “clock is ticking” “faster and faster” to take action and address it; but what about fixing bail reform and the ticking clock that has counted each of the past twenty-one days that this Governor and Albany Democrats have refused to act? How many more New Yorkers must become the victim of a repeat criminal before these supposed leaders decide to act?
I am so sick of hearing the Governor and other Democrats exclaim that New York is the first to do this or the first to do that — instead we should focus on being the smartest, regardless of whether we are first or fiftieth, because until then, we have nothing to be proud of.”
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