Deficit likely far less than $15 billion cited by Cuomo, state officials
ALBANY — While New York’s executive branch has repeatedly asserted the state’s budget gap is $15 billion for fiscal year 2021, fiscal policy experts say that figure is overstated and argue it is closer to half that number.
E.J. McMahon, founder of the Empire Center for Public Policy — a conservative-leaning think tank focused on state government — said the figure cited by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his budget officials represents the difference between what they had projected revenues to be in July versus what was projected in February. But more recent figures and promised federal relief could help reduce that number, he said.
“That’s not a budget gap or a deficit, that’s simply a comparison of his low-balled revenue estimate to his optimistic highball revenue estimate before all this happened,” he said. “When (Cuomo) says $15 billion deficit, that is just flat wrong. That’s a plain fact. There is an $8 billion gap, according to his numbers, and I think that figure is probably too high.”
McMahon points to the state’s mid-year update released in July which laid out general fund deficits of $8 billion for “budget balance reduction” and another $600 million for “economic uncertainties.”
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/New-York-deficit-likely-far-less-than-15-billion-15861484.php
(Albany Times Union)