Good start to Hochul's balancing act

The state fiscal forecast is amazingly mild for this time of year. Massive federal pandemic aid and tax revenues way beyond projections gave Gov. Kathy Hochul a relatively lush range of options for meeting the needs and aspirations of many New Yorkers in her first budget proposal.

Safe to say, Hochul’s record $216 billion plan, presented early in this election year, covers the statewide terrain and then some.

The plan ramps up the education funding formula known as foundation aid, designed to establish some equity between wealthier and poorer districts. For Long Island schools, funding aid would top $4 billion for the 2022-23 academic year. That means Nassau and Suffolk schools would have an increase in state aid of 12%, or more than $400 million, for the second straight year.

Districts would not have to worry about finances while the pandemic continues to complicate teaching and activities. That's a relief.

The commitment to health care is also appropriately huge. While the health care industry would get $10 billion to upgrade facilities and grow the workforce by 20% over five years, there are billions of dollars for wages and retention bonuses. The balm it would bring is much needed.

In a meeting with the Newsday editorial board, the governor also wisely committed to focusing on the perennially troubled Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. "I’ve got the Department of Health and the budget department and my analysts ready to go in there and find out what the failures are related to," she responded, to a question of whether NUMC was on her radar screen. "We’re going to diagnose the problem, find out what the causes are and then we’ll talk about whether or not the state has a larger role or a role in stabilizing the current situation."

ENVIRONMENT, TRANSIT ARE KEY

Environmental remediation and resiliency are also key. Hochul seeks to one-up predecessor Andrew M. Cuomo by boosting his $3 billion environmental bond act proposal to $4 billion. She must make sure that sum gets into the final state budget and fully commit to specific programs and projects with clear priorities. Voters will then be more likely to approve the bonding in November.

Full funding for the region’s mass transit system, including the Long Island Rail Road, is crucial. Hochul rightly highlights the need to push the railroad's Third Track and East Side Access improvements to completion. She should add to the local list — and hear the benefits of — the initiative to move the Yaphank train station closer to the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The $25 billion commitment to develop badly-needed housing, coupled with a property tax rebate for 2.5 million New York homeowners are both warranted. Hochul's attention to transit-oriented development is welcome, too, and she should explore a wider housing effort, particularly on restrictive zoning, to better meet Long Island's needs.

All the big players in Albany will need to be reminded as budget negotiations for the April 1 fiscal year begin: Discipline, coordination and restraint — difficult to accomplish in big governments — can make these endeavors work.

That actually may be harder to do with dollars not being squeezed and cutbacks merely a memory. Without accountability, state history has proved, today's public investments can become tomorrow's wasteful scandals.

HOLD FIRM ON NO TAX HIKE

The governor sounds ready to resist any push — from her own political party within the two legislative houses — to raise tax rates on top earners, given concerns about the business climate and out-migration of residents. Backtracking on that pledge would be a mistake.

Hochul must also draw a line in the sand with legislators on the need to set aside a 15% reserve for the inevitable, unscheduled rainy day.

Careful and sharp program evaluations are an outsized part of the challenge ahead, making sure that programs new and old are tested and proved to work.

Another caution: The new dedicated $1 billion pothole-paving fund would help address a constant concern, but it would need to be coordinated closely with local officials. Hochul's idea to have residents identify potholes is a winner if that internet site also allows the public to keep track of when the axle-benders are filled.

Hochul's acceleration of plans to award up to three outstanding casino licenses, probably in and near New York City, makes sense. But it's smarter to make sure the process is legitimate and transparent from the start, rather than read about the deal making in indictments later.

And we are eager to hear more details of just how the governor and lawmakers would direct and allocate $2 billion worth of what are billed "pandemic recovery initiatives" included in her budget proposal.

Rhetorically, Hochul hit the right notes in her first budget outing.

"We have the means to immediately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as embrace this once-in-a-generation opportunity for the future with a historic level of funding that is both socially responsible and fiscally prudent," she said.

Now her administration needs to ensure that this balance between what is "socially responsible" and what is "fiscally prudent" survives the sharp-edged negotiations ahead.