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Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the FY 2021 Enacted Budget last week. The Governor said that the budget is "balanced, includes no new taxes, continues to phase in tax cuts for the middle class, enacts the strongest Paid Sick Leave program in the nation, and advances other progressive priorities including the legalization of gestational surrogacy."

"The budget was difficult because the State has no money, and how do you do a budget when you can't really forecast revenues, and we came up with a somewhat novel budget that actually is calibrated to future revenues or losses," Cuomo said. So we really start with an assumption and then what we're saying is when we see how much revenue the state makes, how fast the economy comes back, what the expenses are, we'll calibrate accordingly."

With an approximately $6 billion deficit the budget would have been difficult enough. But legislators and State Comptroller Thomas P. Dinapoli said that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on New York would have to be considered.

"The state Legislature and Governor agreed on a new budget during an extraordinarily difficult time," Dinapoli said. "The economic and budgetary impact from the coronavirus public health emergency presents our state with unprecedented risks. Unanticipated healthcare costs, dramatically increased unemployment and depressed business activity affects all state and local government finances. Moving forward, the Comptroller's office will continue our role of monitoring revenues, spending, debt and cash flow trends. Our analysis of the new budget will be forthcoming."

NYS Senator Pam Helming released a statement calling on state legislators to reconvene, saying the budget fails to provide resources needed to fight the coronavirus. She charged that rather than taking a bipartisan approach to dealing with health issues, "the downstate Democrat leaders conducted 'worse than the usual' behind the scenes negotiating and scheduled voting for the middle of the night. The public was completely shut out."

"We all understand that sacrifices need to be made in order to deal with the reality of New York’s current healthcare crisis and financial situation," she said. "However, this budget cuts necessities. It is bad for our community healthcare providers and hospitals, our schools and infrastructure. The budget provides no relief to small business and working people. It shifts more financial burden from the state to local government. The bottom line is this budget fails the people we were elected to serve, which is why I voted against it."

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