Watchdog Groups Urge Legislature to Reject Extraordinary Budget Powers

March 2, 2022

Citizens Budget Commission

Citizens Union of the City of New York

Common Cause New York

Empire Center for Public Policy

League of Women Voters of New York State

New York Public Interest Research Group

Reinvent Albany

 

March 2, 2022

Hon. Andrea Stewart-Cousins
President Pro Tempore and Majority Leader
New York State Senate
Legislative Office Building
188 State Street, Room 907
Albany, NY 12247

Hon. Carl Heastie
Speaker
New York State Assembly
Legislative Office Building
188 State Street, Room 932
Albany, NY 12248

Dear Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Heastie:

We urge you to reject the Governor’s Fiscal Year 2023 Executive Budget proposals that would give the Executive broad and unilateral powers, and amend other proposals to better define their uses and oversight.   

The Executive Budget includes new and continued provisions that give the Executive broad, unilateral spending and borrowing authorities that are unnecessary, especially given the progress made in pandemic response. Specifically, we recommend the following: 

Reject: 

  • A $6 billion “Special Public Health Emergency Appropriation;” 
  • Universal appropriation transfer and interchange authority within the State Operations bill; 
    • This provision allows for any State Operations appropriation to be “… increased or decreased by interchange or transfer without limit, with any appropriation of any other department, agency or public authority or by transfer or suballocation to any department, agency or public authority…”  
  • Authority to issue up to $3 billion in revenue anticipation notes; and 
  • Authority to utilize a $2 billion line of credit.  

Amend:  

  • A $2 billion “Special Emergency Appropriation;” 
    • Prior to the pandemic this appropriation totaled $1 billion and was subject to Comptroller procurement oversight. The proposal exempts the fiscal year 2023 appropriation from Comptroller oversight. If continued, it should be in the same amount and with Comptroller oversight as was the case in fiscal year 2020. 
  • A $2 billion appropriation for “Reserve For COVID-19 Public Health Response;” and 
    • This appropriation is presumably related to the unprogrammed $2 billion COVID relief pot proposed by the Governor for negotiation with the Legislature, but in its current form authorizes spending of $2 billion for almost any purpose. If enacted by the Legislature, this relief spending should be appropriated as clearly defined line items with oversight, much like other programs in the budget.  
  • A transfer of $1 billion from the General Fund to the “Health Care Transformation Account.” 
    • This proposal sets aside $1 billion for unspecified programs. If enacted by the Legislature, this spending should be appropriated as clearly defined line items with oversight, much like other programs in the budget. 

Some of these proposals were originally enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the Fiscal Year 2021 Budget in April 2020. At that point, the State faced an uncertain fiscal future, estimating annual tax receipts losses averaging $15 billion and possible temporary cash shortfalls due to 3-month delay of the federal personal income tax filing date. The broad appropriation, budget management, and borrowing authorities enacted then gave the Governor authority and flexibility to manage a dire fiscal situation.  

Today, the State’s fiscal situation is vastly different. Its outlook is stable and positive. The authorities identified above are no longer necessary to manage the State’s fiscal condition. In fact, nearly all of them proved unnecessary even throughout the height of the pandemic to date, though the State utilized $4.5 billion in short-term “liquidity financing” borrowing that was expeditiously and appropriately paid off within the year. Enacting these authorities would give the Executive unchecked authority to spend billions for nearly any purpose, generally without Comptroller oversight or Legislative input. The State Operations interchange authority was proposed by the Executive last year and rejected by the Legislature. We recommend rejecting this proposal again because it grants the Executive unilateral authority to re-program spending authorizations without Legislative input. These proposals are unnecessary and create significant fiscal risk.  

We recommend that you reject or amend these proposals in your forthcoming one-house budgets and the enacted budget.  

Thank you for considering our recommendations. 

Sincerely,  

Andrew S. Rein 
President
Citizens Budget Commission

Betsy Gotbaum 
Executive Director 
Citizens Union of the City of New York

Susan Lerner 
Executive Director 
Common Cause New York 

Tim Hoefer
President & CEO
Empire Center for Public Policy

Laura Ladd Bierman 
Executive Director 
League of Women Voters of New York State 

Blair Horner 
Executive Director 
New York Public Interest Research Group 

John Kaehny 
Executive Director 
Reinvent Albany

cc:
Robert Mujica, Director of the NYS Division of the Budget
Liz Krueger, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee
Helene Weinstein, Chair of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee

A PDF of the letter is available here.