State tax receipts have fallen by billions of dollars, while at the same time, state spending has gone up during the pandemic. 

It has left New York with what E.J. McMahon, founder and research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, calls a recurring gap.

“They (the Cuomo administration) are making up the difference with money from the feds,” McMahon explained. 

McMahon uses the education budget to illustrate his point.

“The political and fiscal driver of the budget is education. (Cuomo) is basically using federal funding to increase education by 7.1 percent,” McMahon said. “But when the federal aid goes away, he will need to cut school aid.” 

To offset the budget deficit, the governor has included some revenue raisers in his budget, including a temporary tax increase on high earners that he estimates will yield $1.5 billion, and new revenue from both the legalization of recreational cannabis and mobile sports betting.  

According to State Budget Director Robert Mujica, the two new revenue sources will take three or four years to yield promised cash.   

As for the temporary tax increase, E.J. McMahon isn’t buying its temporary status.

“(Cuomo) is setting up a situation in that it will never be temporary,” he said.