{"id":210459,"date":"2021-03-25T02:15:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T23:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/albanys-big-splurgers-are-floating-a-budget-stuffed-with-boondoggles\/"},"modified":"2021-03-25T02:15:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T23:15:28","slug":"albanys-big-splurgers-are-floating-a-budget-stuffed-with-boondoggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/albanys-big-splurgers-are-floating-a-budget-stuffed-with-boondoggles\/","title":{"rendered":"#Albany’s big splurgers are floating a budget stuffed with boondoggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Albany’s big splurgers are floating a budget stuffed with boondoggles<\/strong>”
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It\u2019s the perfect storm of perfect storms: A pandemic socks the economy, erodes tax revenues and widens already gaping budget holes. Spend-happ<\/a>y Democrats win control of both houses of the state Legislature, with veto-proof majorities. Radical progressives are emboldened. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a relative moderate, is hobbled by scandal.<\/p>\n

Short-term, multibillion-dollar shortfalls are on course to grow only worse, perhaps threatening the state\u2019s fiscal solvency down the road.<\/p>\n

Washington Democrats race to the rescue and rush boatloads of cash to the state, wiping out the short-term crisis \u2014 but whetting the appetite of Albany\u2019s big splurgers.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s long-term fiscal outlook: dicey. Yet for the radicals, it\u2019s time to spend, spend, spend.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next week, lawmakers are to finalize a budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1. Early signs suggest it\u2019ll be a doozy.<\/p>\n

The plan could boost general<\/a>-fund outlays a mind-numbing 22.6 percent. And tax hikes supposedly to pay for them \u2014 to the tune of $7 billion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a disastrous combination. As spending spirals ever higher, tax revenue will fall as wealthy residents and businesses move out of state, as 250 major employers warned in a letter Tuesday. And that\u2019s more likely given that, post-pandemic, many employees will continue to work from homes outside the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about our people voting with their feet,\u201d the executives told Albany. \u201cThese new taxes may trigger a major loss of economic activity and revenues as companies are pressured to relocate operations to where the talent wants to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would Albany\u2019s drunken sailors shower money on? Brace yourself \u2014 some of the ideas aren\u2019t just unaffordable but positively ridiculous:<\/p>\n