New York State lawmakers closed their legislative session last week, but State Senator Tom O’Mara says they left behind a growing crisis that continues to drive families and businesses out of the Empire State.
In a sharply worded column, O’Mara accused Albany Democrats of failing to deliver on their January promise to make New York more affordable. “The bottom line is that the state Legislature finished this year’s regular legislative session late last week exactly where it started the session in January: New York State remains one of the least affordable states in America,” he wrote.
O’Mara pointed to national rankings as evidence of the problem, citing a U.S. News & World Report study that placed New York 45th in affordability and a USA Today Homefront report that ranked the state last overall. He said the reality of rising costs has hit families, workers, and small business owners especially hard in regions like the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes.
“They are worried about making ends meet and they have been for a long time now,” he said. “They have watched this state become less affordable. They have felt it become less free. They believe it to be less economically competitive, less responsible, and far less hopeful for the future.”
O’Mara said the session was defined by high spending, heavy regulation, and an absence of meaningful relief. “Albany Democrats remained true to out-of-control spending, high taxes, exorbitant costs and fees for everything under the sun, and burdensome regulations and unfunded state mandates.”
He warned that the fiscal outlook is growing worse, citing projections from state watchdogs of rising deficits caused by what he called the “inability of Governor Hochul and an all-Democrat Legislature to stop overspending.” He added, “State budget deficits always equal higher costs for all New Yorkers.”
The column also criticized Democrats for passing what he described as “massive increases in state spending,” while failing to pursue long-term tax relief or improve economic competitiveness. Instead, he argued, “New Yorkers got more of the same: An Albany Democrat commitment to a fundamentally far-left, extreme-liberal, out-of-touch agenda.”
A recent Newsday investigation also drew fire from the senator. He highlighted findings that the state’s $254 billion budget includes new limits on financial oversight. According to O’Mara, the measures “make it harder for taxpayers to know what they are paying for,” including exclusions from review by the state comptroller, the use of non-competitive contracts, and large “lump sum” appropriations.
“In other words, Albany Democrats are spending taxpayer dollars like never before AND working overtime to ‘make it harder for taxpayers to know what they are paying for,’” he wrote.
O’Mara concluded by calling the current direction “not sustainable” and said the state has become “a tax-and-spend addict, a haven for lawbreakers, unaffordable for taxpayers, less attractive to job creators, and facing a dire economic future.”
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