NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) — New York state’s cumulative three-year budget gap has swelled to $34 billion, rising 25% from Governor Kathy Hochul’s estimate in January as federal funding slows, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
The projected deficit as a share of total spending would be the biggest since the financial crisis in 2009, DiNapoli said in a report Friday. The shortfall is driven by spending growth in Medicaid and education, and as New York and other states grapple with billions of dollars in cuts to safety-net programs from President Donald Trump’s budget and spending bill.
“This is likely just the beginning; the relationship between the federal government and the states is being restructured, and state governments will be facing drastic reductions in federal aid that could force difficult decisions about state revenue and spending priorities,” DiNapoli said…