A Bad Budget at the Worst Possible Time

State Capitol
Statement from Senator Anthony Palumbo

            This year’s late State Budget is a fiscal disaster for New York’s pandemic-weary businesses and families and will cause irreparable harm for years to come. While the massive $212 billion spending plan provides important funding to many worthy programs, including historic school aid to Long Island schools, its hefty price tag, which is more than the State budgets of Florida and Texas combined, will inevitably place crushing burdens on Long Island’s already struggling middle class families.

            Worse, the budget provides $2.1 billion in funding for illegal immigrants in the form of unemployment checks of up to $15,600. This taxpayer giveaway for illegal immigrants comes at a time when so many New Yorker’s are hurting from the pandemic and economic shutdowns.  This radical proposal is out-of-touch with the needs of New York’s taxpayers and an affront to the countless new citizens who have immigrated to New York legally.

            At a time when the federal government has provided New York State nearly $13 billion in additional pandemic relief, the last thing we should be doing is raising taxes. Sadly, that is exactly what progressive lawmakers demanded—including over $3 billion in new taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and job creators, one of the largest tax increases in State history.  

            This reckless budget will force more New Yorkers to flee the state and place additional burdens on those that remain here. Instead of providing businesses and families with much needed relief and economic opportunities, it further compounds New York’s unaffordability crisis and at the worst possible time.

             For these reasons and others, I voted NO on the majority of this year’s State Budget.