The State Capitol in Albany, where Budget Director Blake Washington said Nov. 9 that tax-increase talks for the next budget are premature. Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
State Budget Director Blake Washington told reporters on Nov. 9 that serious talk of tax increases for the next state budget is premature, pointing to an improved fiscal outlook after the annual quick-start budget meeting, Spectrum News reported. “The governor doesn’t see taxation as an ideological exercise. It’s one that we deploy when necessary to meet challenges,” Washington said. “We just did our quick start report and we are $8 billion up this year, so that will help us to approach any of these discussions with the temperance it requires.”
The comments came after Democrats strengthened their majorities in last week’s election and after Gov. Kathy Hochul, speaking with reporters at the SOMOS retreat in Puerto Rico, signaled she is open to new revenue sources to help fund an expansion of childcare. The current childcare program, Spectrum reported, has been funded for two years and is viewed as a step toward a more fully universal system. Hochul has long resisted a broad tax increase on wealthy New Yorkers. She pointed to this year’s pied-à-terre tax, adopted to help New York City during budget negotiations, as an example of a narrower approach. “When it came to helping the city out with the crisis the mayor inherited, I came up with a creative way to do that,” she said. “I’m telling you I want to come up with a creative way to make sure we have the resources necessary.”
Washington declined to name a threshold at which higher taxes might be used to pay for the childcare plan, Spectrum reported, and said the administration would keep looking for ways to control spending in expensive programs, including Medicaid. Hochul is expected to outline her budget priorities early next year, ahead of the April 1 deadline.
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