The American Rescue Plan provides some breathing room for New York to make some good, or bad, choices.

“This moment gives the state an opportunity to take stock and figure out how to correct the structural imbalance that even predated the pandemic,” Patrick Orecki, senior research associate for the Citizens Budget Commission told Capital Tonight.

Nearly $24 billion in total is earmarked for various levels of government in New York. Orecki says state leaders need to think about the $12-plus billion in unrestricted money coming to New York state as “an opportunity” to address both immediate and long-term problems.

The state’s annual spending plan is due April 1. 

As soon as tonight, each house of the legislature will introduce their alternatives to the governor’s executive budget. These one-house budget bills will be the basis for the budget negotiation that will take place over the next few weeks.

Not surprisingly, Orecki thinks the biggest battles will be over revenues.

“Given that a lot of the members of the legislature, individually or in groups, have supported specific revenue measures, broader in scope and depth than what the governor proposed in the executive budget, suggests that revenues are going to be a big part of the discussion,” he said. 

“I think the legislature will also have priorities, too, on how to invest the new funds they have proposed. There could be a broad array of purposes that new investments could be spent on.”

There are already areas of contention between lawmakers and the governor over possible new marijuana and mobile sports betting revenues.

Another important decision, according to Orecki, is how the state approaches using the federal money it’s receiving that is not part of the unrestricted aid from the American Rescue Plan. 

“There is still the $4 billion in education funding that was passed in the December bill that the state has to finalize its approach on,” he explained. “So, there’s still a lot to be determined over the next two-plus weeks of budget negotiation.”