By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
ALBANY — State Sen. George Borrello criticized the Senate’s one-house budget resolution, passed Thursday along party lines, which adds $7.1 billion to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed $263 billion executive budget.
Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voted no on the budget resolution, along with the rest of the Senate Republicans.
Hochul can now begin budget negotiations with Assembly Speaker Carl Hestie and his Democratic Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Borrello said that after months of proclaiming they are laser-focused on “affordability,” Senate Democrats have now shown exactly what their twisted version of it looks like: more spending, more taxes, more mandates, and more pain for the people who actually pay the bills in this state.
“Their one-house budget is a fiscal train wreck,” Borrello said in a media statement.
“The Senate is pushing a $269.8 billion spending plan — more than $7 billion higher than the governor’s proposal and $11.5 billion above last year’s enacted budget,” he said.
State operating funds, he said, is up $16.1 billion, nearly 11% in a single year, which is more than four times the rate of inflation. “That is not restraint,” Borrello said. “That is Democrats’ spending addiction on steroids. And of course, runaway spending means higher taxes.”
State taxpayers are looking at $5.6 billion in higher taxes if the budget passes unchanged, “targeting employers, higher-income taxpayers, and many small business owners who already pay a disproportionate share of the taxes that keep this state running,” Borrello said.
“Businesses are not going to quietly eat those costs,” he added. “They will pass them on through higher prices, or they will take their jobs and investment to states that actually welcome growth.
The governor acknowledges changes are needed to the state’s Climate Act, Borrello said, even as Democrats double down and increase green energy spending and mandates. “New Yorkers are being crushed by utility bills that have doubled over the past year,” he said.
“Democrats also rejected the Executive Budget proposal to crack down on car insurance fraud and lawsuit abuse — reforms that could help lower premiums in a state where drivers already pay among the highest rates in the nation,” Borello said.
“New York leads the nation in outmigration because people are being taxed too much, regulated too heavily, and priced out of the state they call home,” Borrello said. “They are fleeing to places like Florida, Texas, and North Carolina because those states understand what Albany refuses to learn: lower taxes, lower costs, sane energy policy, and a government that does not treat taxpayers like an endless ATM is the real path to affordability.”
Senate Republicans “have proposed a package of targeted income, property, and small business tax cuts that would provide real relief and begin changing both the reality and the perception of New York as an unaffordable, high-tax state,” Borrelo said.
Every budget season, I hope common sense will finally break through in Albany,” the Chautauqua County Republican said. “Every year, I am disappointed.”
IN THE ASSEMBLY, Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, also voted against that budget. The Democrat-backed plan would add $9.2 billion to Hochul’s record $262.7 billion executive budget.
The budget proposed by Assembly Democrats would increase state spending to $271.96 billion in the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
“This isn’t fiscally a responsible budget. The majority has delivered another bloated, over-the-top budget, that will drive more people and businesses out of New York,” Sempolinski said.
“In the coming weeks, I’m going to work with Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra and my colleagues in the Minority Caucus to propose cuts and provide real relief to New York’s struggling taxpayers,” Sempolinski said.
“New York has no future as the tax and spending capital of the country. We can’t tax our way out of the affordability crisis,” Sempolinski said. “The only way to make New York a more attractive place to live and work is to cut taxes and cut spending. More taxes and bigger government aren’t the answer.”
