Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled his budget plan which called for
proposed cuts of $8.9 billion. Schools ($1.5 B), state funds for
Medicaid ($3.6 B), public safety funding ($343 M) and transportation
funding ($99 M) were the budget line items that are expected to
receive the biggest cuts.
Mr. Cuomo though increased funding to the MTA by $43million but his
budget still revealed a $100 million budget gap for the MTA which he
vowed to fill without service cuts or fare hikes. Really - - how else will
it be achieved. Fare hikes, although no one wants them, makes the most
sense. Subway transportation is one of the biggest bargain in NYC.
Certains cuts in transportation are ok because they can be made up with
increase revenue inflow.
School budget cuts - really. Tread very lightly Mr. Cuomo and make sure
that your numbers especially the $1.5 B that you are planning to cut are
truly non-essential aka "nice to have" services and not something that is
critical for students to achieve educational excellence.
Governor Cuomo opened his budget presentation with the statement that
NYS has long been operating in a deficit and that "you can't spend what
you do not have." This is so true and seems to be the operational norm
for many budgets - Federal, many, many States, certain Corporations
and, unfortunately, some Households and Individuals. The more you
look at it, the more obvious it becomes: the principles of budgeting are
unviersal for all - larger entities just have many more line items and a
lot more areas that can get overspent. This drives the need for analysis
in all that we spend because our alternative is that we could be saving it.
THE FIFTH RULE OF SMART MONEY IS:
YOU SHOULD NOT SPEND MORE THAN YOU HAVE.
THE SIXTH RULE IS:
ANALYZE ALL OF YOUR SPENDS TO SEE IF THOSE
DOLLARS COULD BE BETTER USED TOWARDS YOUR
FINANCIAL GOALS.
Sheila McKinney
