Joseph Hernandez, republican candidate for NYS Comptroller
By Joseph Hernandez, https://x.com/hernandezforny/status/2056843223557939572
Spending up 90% since 2022.
Tax revenue up 21%.
The difference was covered by emergency COVID money from Washington. Those checks stopped. The spending never did.
The budget hole grows every year. $6 billion short in 2028. $9 billion in 2029. $12.5 billion in 2030. That is $34.3 billion in the red over three years, a number that got $7 billion worse in a single month.
New York’s own Comptroller compares it to the worst point of the 2008 financial crash. The economy is fine. Albany did this to itself.
Medicaid is $112 billion, 44 cents of every dollar spent, doubled since 2016.
If spending had kept pace with inflation since 2017 the budget would be $30 billion smaller today. Albany expanded permanent programs on emergency money that was never going to last.
The debt is just as bad. New York owes $68 billion today, headed to $86.5 billion by 2028, up 40% in six years. There is a law capping state borrowing to protect taxpayers. Albany rewrote the rules, exempted $20 billion from the cap, and blew past the legal limit by $17 billion.
Now Washington cuts another $27 to $29.6 billion in aid on top of a deficit that already exists. Albany’s answer is to raise taxes on people already leaving for Florida and Texas.
New York needs a Comptroller in 2026 who will ring the alarm bells and hold Albany accountable for every one of these numbers.