Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) President Andrew S. Rein released this statement on behalf of the CBC: 

"Governor Hochul rightly highlighted the importance of ensuring New York is attractive and affordable to businesses and residents and the need to protect New Yorkers from more tax increases.  

But New York’s looming fiscal instability poses a major threat to its competitiveness, ability to serve its people, and affordability. While the brightening economy improves the short-term budget outlook, the use of temporary resources to support ongoing spending masks a structural budget gap of $17 billion. It was encouraging to hear the Governor’s commitment to not 'spend money we don’t have' and to address the structural budget gap in next week’s budget proposal. 

The new spending outlined in the State of the State does not appear particularly exorbitant, though we will wait for the Executive Budget to reveal the bill. Spending restraint is needed to put New York on a path to fiscal stability. Furthermore, ongoing costs for migrant and asylum seeker services and rapid growth in health care and education spending create additional pressures.  

Fortunately, the Governor also said taxes should not be raised. New York’s combined top personal income and business tax rates are already the nation’s highest. This threat to competitiveness should not be sharpened. 

We await next week’s budget proposal to see the details behind the outline drawn today."