New York State’s budget process determines how the state allocates funds for public services, yet it frequently misses its statutory April 1 deadline and lacks sufficient transparency regarding fiscal planning. This page covers CBC’s work on budget timeliness, the release of multi-year financial plan tables, structural budget deficits, spending growth, and the use of budget extenders.
This page was created with AICBC Insights uses AI to group, analyze and present data and recommendations from CBC's publications. Always reference the cited sources to verify important details..
State leaders should focus on enacting a smart, future-proofing budget that curbs ballooning spending growth and holds the line on New York’s nation-leading taxes.
The State should adopt the smart choices the Governor proposed to streamline SEQRA and reduce auto insurance costs, and they should recalibrate the CLCPA.
Lawmakers should be on the job and enact a budget.
In April 2025, the CBC highlighted that state budget proposals featured the largest spending increase in recent history, ranging from 10.9 percent to 13.8 percent.
New York State has failed to pass a budget on time for the seventh consecutive year, leaving the Legislature on recess during a critical period. Lawmakers must prioritize enacting a responsible budget that controls spending and addresses key policy reforms like streamlining SEQRA and recalibrating the CLCPA.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
State leaders should focus on enacting a smart, future-proofing budget that curbs ballooning spending growth and holds the line on New York’s nation-leading taxes.
The State should adopt the smart choices the Governor proposed to streamline SEQRA and reduce auto insurance costs, and they should recalibrate the CLCPA.
Lawmakers should be on the job and enact a budget.
Key Data
7th
— The New York State budget is late for the 7th consecutive year.
six
— The Legislature has missed the same critical deadline for the past six years.
New York's state budget has missed its deadline for the fifth consecutive year, raising concerns about fiscal stability and the potential for short-term decision-making to cause future crises. To ensure long-term financial health, the state must curb spending growth, protect reserves, and avoid unnecessary pension enhancements while focusing on affordability.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The State should hold the line on spending, ensuring any additional expenditures are offset by savings elsewhere.
Lawmakers should hold the line on taxes, as New York State and its local governments already collect the most taxes per person in the country.
The State should reject costly, unnecessary Tier 6 pension enhancements that may drive property tax increases or service cuts.
The State should bolster and protect reserves, as current levels are less than half of what is needed to withstand a recession.
The State should relieve the class size mandate to save New York City $1.2 billion and help the City increase savings.
Key Data
$30 billion
— Amount spending has increased more than inflation in the last decade.
$5 billion
— Amount the Legislature proposes to add to the budget next year.
$3 billion
— Amount the Legislature proposes to add to the budget annually thereafter.
$12.8 billion
— Size of the Executive Budget's gaps in fiscal year 2030.
$14 billion
— Current amount in principle reserves.
$1.2 billion
— Potential savings for New York City if the class size mandate is relieved.
The current state budget process lacks transparency because the detailed financial plan is released up to 30 days after the budget is enacted, leaving legislators and the public without necessary information during critical voting periods. To improve this, the state should codify a requirement to publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables alongside one-house budget proposals and the final budget agreement.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
Publish at least one financial plan table each for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund.
Each of these three tables should provide reasonably disaggregated and totaled lists of receipts, disbursements, transfers, annual bottom-line results, and allocations of fund balances for the budget year and three out-years.
Codify in State law the requirement to publish these tables.
Key Data
30 days
— The amount of time after enactment that the Division of the Budget’s Enacted Budget Financial Plan is currently released.
400-page
— The length of a full financial plan report that is not being requested for production at the time of budget agreement.
New York's delayed release of the financial plan five weeks after budget adoption exemplifies a pattern of poor fiscal management that resulted in $49 billion being spent without public transparency. State leaders must now make difficult budgetary choices to re-balance finances, including preserving core programs and protecting reserves, while maintaining tax competitiveness.
Key Data
Five weeks
— The amount of time that passed after lawmakers adopted the budget before the State released the financial plan.
$49 billion
— The amount of money the State spent before releasing the financial plan to New Yorkers, illustrating the impact of the late budget and post-adoption delay.
New York State lawmakers have missed the budget deadline for the fourth consecutive year, leaving the state with an $18.2 billion structural gap and proposed spending increases of up to 13.8 percent. To ensure a sustainable fiscal future, the state must restrain spending growth, reject tax increases, and set aside at least $2 billion to prepare for potential federal funding cuts.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The budget should restrain exploding spending growth, prepare for looming federal cuts, reject tax increases that risk the State’s competitiveness, and fairly fund MTA capital investment.
The budget should set aside at least $2 billion to mitigate potential federal cuts and not spread $3 billion so thinly among taxpayers that it won’t help affordability.
The State’s leaders should publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables with the enacted budget bills.
The budget should reject tax increases that risk the State’s competitiveness.
The budget should fairly fund MTA capital investment.
Key Data
10.9 percent and 13.8 percent
— The range of the largest spending increase in recent State history featured in the Governor’s and Legislature’s proposals.
$18.2 billion
— The size of the structural gap left by the Governor’s and Legislature’s budget proposals.
$2 billion
— The minimum amount the budget should set aside to mitigate potential federal cuts.
$3 billion
— The amount that should not be spread so thinly among taxpayers that it fails to help affordability.
New York State's budget process lacks transparency because the Enacted Budget Financial Plan is released up to 30 days after the budget is enacted, leaving legislators and the public without critical data during the voting process. To address this, the State should publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund alongside one-house and enacted budget bills.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The State should publish at least one financial plan table each for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund whenever new budget bills are introduced.
Each of the three required financial plan tables should provide reasonably disaggregated and totaled lists of receipts, disbursements, transfers, annual bottom-line results, and allocations of fund balances for the budget year and three out-years.
The State should codify in State law the requirement to publish these financial plan tables to ensure transparency.
Key Data
30 days
— The amount of time after budget enactment that the Enacted Budget Financial Plan is typically released, leaving legislators and the public without data while bills are being voted on.
Weeks after the state budget agreement was announced, the public still lacks access to basic financial plan tables detailing how funds are being spent and the future implications of budgetary decisions. Immediate publication of these multi-year financial plan tables is necessary to ensure transparency and provide New Yorkers with the information they deserve.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The State should publish at least one, multi-year financial plan table each for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund.
The State should include reasonably disaggregated and totaled lists of receipts, disbursements, transfers, annual bottom-line results, and allocations of fund balances for this year and three out-years.
The New York State budget, totaling nearly a quarter-trillion-dollar, was finalized weeks after the statutory deadline. This discussion also covers the outlook for ongoing negotiations concerning the city's budget.
New York State lawmakers approved the fiscal year 2025 budget three weeks late without providing essential financial plan tables, leaving the state with a structural deficit likely exceeding $16 billion. This budget adds unaffordable spending that increases future gaps while failing to provide the transparency and accountability New Yorkers deserve.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
State leaders should produce basic financial plan tables immediately to provide transparency regarding how money is being spent.
The State should use short-term funds to restructure the Medicaid system to be more sustainable rather than using them to support recurring spending.
The State should deposit all reserves into the Rainy Day Reserve to protect them from potential squandering.
Key Data
$237B
— Total amount of spending approved in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
$16 billion
— The likely amount by which the future structural budget deficit will exceed.
$4 billion
— The amount added to the State’s pension liabilities by the addition of Tier 6 retirement-plan sweeteners.
$377 million
— The amount of unnecessary costs imposed on state and local government budgets next year due to Tier 6 retirement-plan sweeteners.
New York State's budget is once again late, necessitating another extender while the state faces a structural budget gap of over $16 billion. To ensure long-term fiscal stability, the state must restrain spending growth, avoid relying on speculative federal funds, and reject tax increases or expensive retirement plan enhancements.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The Governor and legislative leaders should publicly commit to this being the last extender.
The State should restrain spending growth to reduce the structural budget gap that already is $16+ billion.
The State should include basic financial-plan tables to give New Yorkers a clear-eyed view of how their money is being spent next year and the truth about the future fiscal implications of this year’s budget decisions.
The State should not include speculative, short-term federal money derived from a Medicaid/MCO tax to pay for ongoing costs.
The State should reject proposed Tier 6 retirement-plan enhancements because these sweeteners are expensive and unnecessary.
The State should reject tax increases because New York and its localities already collect more taxes per person than any other state.
The State should boost housing production to address the housing-supply and affordability crisis.
The State should defer decisions on the Heat Act until there is a full analysis and proposal about the consumer and economic impact of capping household utility bills.
Key Data
$16+ billion
— The structural budget gap that the state needs to reduce by restraining spending growth.
3.5 percent
— The proposed increase in adjusted State Operating Funds spending for the current year.
32 percent
— The growth in adjusted State Operating Funds from FY 2020 to FY 2025.
$33.8 billion
— The dollar amount of growth in adjusted State Operating Funds from FY 2020 to FY 2025.
$6.4 billion
— The inflation-adjusted increase in State Operating Funds from FY 2020 to FY 2025.
New York State's budget agreement process currently lacks transparency, as detailed financial information is typically withheld until four weeks after the budget is enacted. To address this, the state should publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables immediately upon reaching a budget agreement to ensure legislators and the public understand the fiscal implications.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
Publish at least one financial plan table each for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund with the enacted budget.
Publish reasonably disaggregated and totaled lists of receipts, disbursements, transfers, annual bottom-line results, and allocations of fund balances for the budget year and three out-years.
Codify in State law the requirement to publish these financial plan tables for both the one-house budget bills and the enacted budget.
Fix critical transparency deficiencies by releasing enacted budget tables at the time an agreement is reached.
Key Data
4 weeks
— The time delay between the Enacted Budget and the release of the detailed financial plan.
400-pages
— The approximate length of the financial plan document released by the Division of the Budget.
The 'Quick Start' budget meeting serves as a vital mechanism for New York State to reach an early consensus on revenue projections, which is essential for passing a timely budget. By addressing the projected $4.3 billion gap in the upcoming fiscal year, this process helps prioritize spending and increases transparency in government financial planning.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The State should continue holding 'Quick Start' budget meetings to increase transparency and keep the budget centered on spending priorities.
The State should prioritize achieving an early consensus on revenue projections as a crucial part of passing a timely State budget.
Key Data
$4.3 billion
— Estimated gap in the FY 2024-2025 budget without increases in revenue or cuts in spending.
New York State's failure to enact a budget 20 days into the fiscal year creates uncertainty, with a structural budget gap estimated between $15 billion and $20 billion. This delay threatens local governments and school districts, potentially forcing New York City to account for nearly $1 billion in additional spending without clear state policy guidance.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The State’s leaders should enact a Fiscal Year 2024 Budget that makes New York more competitive, affordable, and fiscally stable.
The enacted budget should fund programs critical to New Yorkers’ lives and the state’s economic future, while restraining spending growth and paving the path to sunsetting temporary tax increases.
Lawmakers should give the public a reason to have faith in their government by providing basic multi-year financial plan tables that reveal the fiscal impacts of the budget when there is an agreement.
The State's leaders should adopt the budget soon, as the people deserve to know how their money will be spent.
Key Data
20
— The number of days into the fiscal year that the budget remained un-enacted.
$15 billion to $20 billion
— The estimated range of the State's massive structural budget gap.
$1 billion
— The amount of additional City spending that could be required due to the lack of knowledge about State policies.
The current budget process provides insufficient information to the public and legislators at the time of agreement, often delaying detailed financial plans by four weeks. Watchdog groups are calling for the immediate publication of basic, multi-year financial tables alongside budget agreements and one-house proposals to ensure transparency regarding the state's fiscal condition.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The state should publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables when agreeing on the Fiscal Year 2024 Enacted Budget.
These tables should include at least one financial plan table each for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund.
The financial plan tables should include reasonably disaggregated and totaled lists of receipts, disbursements, transfers, annual bottom line results, and allocations of fund balances.
The state should codify the requirement to publish financial plan tables in State law for both the one-house budget bills and enacted budget.
The Legislature should include these financial plan tables with their one-house proposals to provide transparency.
Key Data
4
— Number of weeks after the Enacted Budget that the Division of the Budget typically releases the detailed financial plan.
400
— Approximate number of pages in the detailed financial plans that include extensive data and narrative descriptions of the State’s fiscal condition.
New York State officials are urged to publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables immediately upon reaching a budget agreement to improve transparency. Currently, detailed fiscal information is not released until approximately four weeks after the budget is enacted, leaving the public and legislators without essential details on the state's financial condition.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
We urge you to publish basic, multi-year financial plan tables when you agree on the Fiscal Year 2024 Enacted Budget.
These should include at least one financial plan table each for All Funds, State Operating Funds, and the General Fund.
These tables should include reasonably disaggregated and totaled lists of receipts, disbursements, transfers, annual bottom line results, and allocations of fund balances.
We recommend that this requirement be codified in State law for both the one-house budget bills and enacted budget.
We urge the Legislature to include these tables with their one-house proposals.
Key Data
four weeks
— Timeframe after the Enacted Budget when the Division of the Budget currently releases a detailed financial plan.
400-pages
— Approximate length of the detailed financial plans that are released after the budget is enacted.
New York State’s First Quarter Financial Plan Update revealed $2.2 billion in additional tax receipts, with projections suggesting potential for even higher revenue. While the state is encouraged to bolster its Rainy Day reserves, there is a continued emphasis on the necessity of releasing financial plan updates on time to ensure public transparency regarding the state's fiscal health.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The State should ensure that future financial plan updates are released on time, as they are critical for the public to assess the State’s fiscal condition.
Watchdog groups are calling on the New York State Division of the Budget to publish timely, detailed information regarding funds withheld or advanced during the fiscal year. This transparency is necessary to help the public and stakeholders understand the impact of these financial adjustments on agencies, local governments, and nonprofits.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The Division of the Budget should publish on its website timely and complete information about funds that have been withheld or advanced as part of the state budget adjustment process.
The Division of the Budget should provide this information ideally on a monthly basis to ensure transparency.
The Division of the Budget should break out the withheld or advanced funds by agency and major program to allow for proper assessment of impacts.
Key Data
$1.5 billion
— Amount in advanced payments announced at Governor Cuomo’s December 16 press conference.
$2.4 billion
— Total withholdings through September in ten broad categories.
$500 million
— Subset of withholdings that were withheld beyond a statutory payment date through August.
3,000
— Number of layoffs of adjunct professors at the City University of New York (CUNY) resulting from the lack of payment.
1,800
— Number of nonprofit social service providers reportedly at risk of closure.
New York State's fiscal year 2012-13 budget was passed on time and responsibly, featuring a modest 2 percent spending increase and limited reliance on fiscal gimmicks. While the budget includes positive measures like coordinated capital planning and Medicaid financing reforms, it also contains misguided elements such as the expansion of economic development programs and the use of fiscal gimmicks for certain local governments.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
Performance metrics and evaluative analysis should be systematically employed to identify failing programs for elimination or redesign before new programs are grafted onto to an already fragmented economic development governance structure.
Instead of being subjected to additional parochial constraints, the power programs should be completely overhauled.
The State should pursue a full State assumption of Medicaid costs in the future to alleviate the local tax burden.
State leaders should avoid authorizing fiscal gimmicks like AIM spin-ups that push problems down the road.
The State should maintain limited growth in state spending, as the modest 2 percent increase represents a significant departure from past trends.
Key Data
$1.9 billion
— Additional revenue raised by a package passed in December 2011.
2 percent
— The increase in state-financed spending proposed in the Executive Budget.
$900 million
— The projected fiscal year 2013-14 budget gap.
$770 million
— Capital support requested by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
$6 billion
— The total annual cost of economic development spending in New York State.
$7.85 million
— The amount by which the payment in lieu of taxes for the City of Albany is being advanced in fiscal year 2013.
New York State's budget process, despite reforms in 2007, continues to suffer from last-minute deliberations and a lack of transparency that obscures the true fiscal condition of the state. To improve accountability and accuracy, the state should adopt broader measures of spending, transition to accrual-based accounting, and implement systematic performance reporting.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
The basis for reporting and budget reform should be broadened to encompass all of the activities of state government to improve transparency.
All documents and budget reform requirements should be based on the newly denominated “State Operating Funds” to ensure a more accurate reflection of spending.
The State’s capital budget should be separated from its annual operating budget plan to better cover the activities of public authorities and State agencies.
More detailed GAAP reporting requirements should be adopted to provide a truer picture of State obligations.
A simpler, more transparent budget format that tracks cash disbursements should be developed to make the relationship between appropriations and disbursements understandable.
Key Data
$121.6 billion
— The total All Funds cash amount for the previous year.
$54.6 billion
— The portion of the budget represented by the General Fund.
$3 billion
— The amount of personal income tax revenues transferred out of the General Fund to support the School Tax Relief program (STAR).
$13.5 billion
— The deficit the State ran on a GAAP basis last year.
$1.9 billion
— The positive year-end balance shown in the State’s cash report.
New York State's budget process has been chronically late for nearly two decades, with the state failing to pass a budget on time in every one of the past 19 years. This persistent lateness, often exacerbated by a short legislative deliberation window, hinders effective planning for state agencies and local governments.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
Change the budget calendar to allow more time for deliberation on the Executive Budget by the Legislature.
Require that independently prepared revenue projections be used in the adopted budget, if the Governor and Legislature do not agree on revenue projections in a timely way.
Create a professional, non-partisan Legislative Budget Office to provide fiscal information to both houses of the Legislature and to the public.
Require that the adopted budget be balanced in accord with generally accepted accounting principles.
Strengthen the committee process of the State Legislature to allow more participation by members in budgetary decisions.
Key Data
208 days
— The number of days late the state budget was in 2002, which was the worst year for budget lateness.
19 years
— The number of consecutive years the state budget has failed to be passed by the April 1 deadline.
10 weeks
— The amount of time the Legislature has to consider the budget after the Governor proposes an Executive Budget.
13 to 33 weeks
— The range of time eight competitor states have for legislative deliberation, which is longer than New York's 10-week period.
New York State's persistent budget lateness, which has occurred in 23 of the last 28 years, stems from structural and political dysfunction within the state's governing institutions. Meaningful reform requires constitutional changes to the budget process, including establishing a firm deadline and creating a more inclusive, accountable legislative framework.
Recommendations related to State Budget Timeliness
New York should shift the beginning of the fiscal year to July 1 to allow the legislature more time to consider the executive budget proposal.
The state should establish an authoritative and politically disinterested consensus process for revenue estimating to improve fiscal accuracy.
The legislature should adopt a staged, more inclusive process for legislator participation in budgetary decision making, including the use of conference committees to resolve inter-house differences.
New York should implement a requirement for the adoption of a balanced budget, certified by an outside body, to ensure greater fiscal accountability.
The state should pursue the adoption of legislative redistricting by commission to mitigate the appearance of self-interest in the design of districts.
Key Data
23 of the last 28
— Number of years in which the New York State budget was adopted late.
-76
— Average number of days late for the New York State budget between 1995 and 2003.
$170 million
— Amount appropriated in 2003 to fund projects advanced by Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats.
$1.5 billion
— Total funds available to the Governor, Assembly Speaker, and Senate Majority Leader to separately allocate in the 1998 election year.
$10,750,658
— Proposed budget for legislative fiscal staffs for the 2003-2004 fiscal year.
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