Albany’s Broken Budget Process Is Robbing New Yorkers Blind

By Assemblyman Ari Brown (R-Cedarhurst)

It’s May 6, and New York’s budget, legally due on April 1, is still being negotiated behind closed doors. By the time this article is published, maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get to see what’s in it. But don’t hold your breath.

Once again, a handful of Democratic leaders are cutting deals in secret, leaving other state legislators—including many of their fellow Democrats—completely in the dark. This isn’t the old “three men in a room” cliché. It’s worse. It’s a small inner circle deliberately excluding both the public and most elected representatives from the most important decisions affecting our state.

What’s being hidden from us? A reported staggering $254 billion in spending—a record amount of state funding that is negotiated without public input. And while the public and press are locked out, lawmakers are left waiting in the halls, and bills are being rammed through without time to read or debate them. This isn’t a representative government. It’s government by ambush.

The dirty little secret is that even many Democratic legislators have no idea what’s being negotiated. They’ll be handed hundreds of pages of budget bills at the last minute, told to vote immediately, and expected to rubber-stamp whatever the insiders cooked up.

Republicans—the loyal opposition—have been the only ones raising alarms. Every time Republicans push back, demand answers, or threaten to expose the dysfunction, Democrats rush to patch over the worst parts of the deal. It’s only because Republicans are willing to stand up and fight that any amendments or corrections get made at all. Without that pressure, the insiders wouldn’t even bother.

Gov. Kathy Hochul promised a “new era of transparency” when she took office. Instead, she’s perpetuated the same secrecy and backroom horse-trading that’s driven New York to the brink. For 35 days past the deadline, she and her allies have shown contempt for the public and for the very idea of open government.

New Yorkers deserve better. They deserve a budget written in the open, debated in the light of day, with real input from their elected representatives—not a small cabal deciding the fate of millions behind closed doors.

Until that happens, expect more spending, more taxes and more people packing up and leaving. The only hope for change is electing more Republicans who will fight to restore transparency, accountability, and fiscal sanity to Albany.

Because right now, New Yorkers are getting robbed blind—and the thieves aren’t even trying to hide it. n

Assemblyman Ari Brown represents the 20th Assembly District, which includes Cedarhurst, East Rockaway, Hewlett, Woodmere, Inwood, Island Park, Lawrence, and Oceanside, along with the barrier island from Atlantic Beach to Point Lookout. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter.