XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans, ny.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: gov.slut@ny.gov   
      
   Edward Blum  wrote in   
   news:uo7nbn$1s0ur$9@dont-email.me:   
      
   > This stupid Democrat whore is more interested in black dicks than   
   > doing her job.   
      
   In her presentation of the $232.7 billion state budget for the upcoming   
   2025 fiscal year, which starts in April, Gov. Hochul channeled St.   
   Augustine: She wants New York to be less profligate, but not quite yet.   
      
   Hochul said some good stuff about New York “not spending the money we   
   don’t have.”   
      
   But she offers no solutions, neither for the state’s newest intractable   
   spending problem — shelter for migrants — nor for the old rising costs,   
   Medicaid and education.   
      
   The governor said “we can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow, because   
   tomorrow always comes.”   
      
   So she proposed a spending hike of just 0.5%, well below the nation’s   
   still-elevated 3.4% inflation rate.   
      
   That’s lower than Hochul’s spending hikes of the past two years, when   
   the budget rose by 10.7%, slightly higher than the nation’s 10%   
   inflation over the same two years.   
      
   And it means the upcoming budget is balanced.   
      
   Top taxpayer exodus   
   But: That’s largely because we’re reaping revenues from income-tax hikes   
   the state enacted three years ago, under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.   
      
   The top rate rose from 8.82% to 10.9% — a hike Hochul could reverse to   
   stem the loss of wealthier earners to other states.   
      
   As the state comptroller reported in December, nearly 4,000 taxpayers   
   with incomes above $500,000 left the state in 2021, double the 2019   
   level.   
      
   Instead, Hochul will attempt to sustain the unsustainable.   
      
   Federal aid to the state budget after the COVID-19 years is finally   
   falling — from a high of $89.3 billion this year to $84.6 billion.   
      
   Most of that extra federal funding went to education and Medicaid, which   
   have grown by double-digit percentages in recent years (even, in the   
   case of the former, as statewide school enrollment has declined 10%).   
      
   Rather than reduce spending on these programs as extraordinary federal   
   aid disappears, she wants to increase state taxpayer spending to make up   
   for lost aid.   
      
   So Hochul proposes that spending by state taxpayers will actually rise   
   by 4.5% over the next year, to $136.2 billion, above the inflation rate.   
      
   (The remainder of the state budget is infrastructure, largely funded   
   with debt.)   
      
   At least state-funded education spending will rise by “only” 2.7%.   
      
   Medicaid is a different story.   
      
   With 39% of state residents covered by the program, Medicaid spending is   
   projected to rise another 10.9%, to $30.4 billion, for a total increase   
   of 38% over three years (plus another $52 billion from the feds).   
      
   Hochul’s plan to control Medicaid spending is to plan to come up with a   
   plan.   
      
   It’s true that New York’s outsized education and health-care spending   
   predates Hochul.   
      
   And it’s true that she’ll face pressure from a lefty Legislature for   
   even higher spending — meaning, though, she should start with an even   
   lower opening base.   
      
   Still, she is responsible for an entirely new spending item, which her   
   budget calls “extraordinary”: assistance to New York City for migrants.   
      
   For the next fiscal year, Hochul projects to spend $2.4 billion on the   
   migrant crisis, up from $1.9 billion this year.   
      
   Hochul is providing money to New York City for migrants in part as a   
   political calculation: A truly assertive Mayor Adams could say the   
   city’s supposed obligation to provide shelter to all comers is actually   
   a state obligation.   
      
   As long as Hochul keeps some money flowing to the city, she keeps the   
   mayor quiet on that front.   
      
   But Hochul proposes no policy to reduce this spending.   
      
   For example, she offers no official insight into whether she thinks the   
   state Constitution, as interpreted by a mid-level state court four   
   decades ago, actually does requires the state or the city to provide   
   shelter to everyone in the world.   
      
   And she offers no criticism of President Biden for opening the border.   
      
   Instead, she oddly singled out the GOP-led House of Representatives as a   
   hurdle against being able to “restore the rule of law at our border.”   
      
   This, when the mayor’s own budget, also released Tuesday, shows no end   
   in sight: The city actually projects the number of migrants requiring   
   city shelter will rise to 90,000 sometime this fall and stay there,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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