Andy Goodell
State Assemblyman Andy Goodell is criticizing the $212 Billion spending plan recently approved by the New York State Legislature. Goodell said the increased spending, the over 4-billion dollar tax increase, and the 9-to-10 billion dollars in additional borrowing makes for a very bloated budget,
“That’s going to cost everyone in New York State a lot of money out of their pocket. But also, unfortunately, makes New York State income tax the highest in the nation if you’re in New York City, and that will result in an increased exodus of high wage earners from New York State. New York State already leads the nation, by the way, in people relocating.”
Goodell said the budget is unsustainable with the almost 35-billion dollar increase in spending from last year. He said the amount of debt payment authorized in the budget is 16-billion dollars, or 30-percent of the entire income tax collections,
“Now the actual amount that we’ll pay will be less than the $13-billion, that’s just an authorization, but it’s still in the range, probably in the range of 15% of our entire income tax collections will go for debt. ”
Goodell said one of the most controversial aspects of the budget was the 2-point-1-billion dollars set aside for the Excluded workers fund. He said receiving the funds is not based on income lost or how many days someone was unemployed,
“Instead, if you can establish that you worked in New York State at the beginning of the pandemic and you can establish that you’re a resident both at the beginning and the end, and that you’re an illegal immigrant, you’d be entitled to a cash payment of $15,600 regardless of how much you were unemployed.”
Goodell said he was in favor of a number of items in the budget including spending related to education,
“There’s an increase in spending for school aid by $3 billion, library aid went up by $7 million, we saw an increase in the tuition assistance program for students, the 2-1-1 program run by the United Way got increased funding, there’s a multi-billion dollar cash transfer, or pass-through if you will, for federal child care assistance.”
Goodell also supported the funding for “CHIPS” which is a transportation infrastructure program for local streets and highways.
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