ALBANY—The Business Council has unveiled a new Web site, www.hightaxesnewyork.com, that is designed to help voters understand how New York's fiscal problems would be significantly worsened
by a proposed Constitutional amendment fundamentally altering New York’s budget process.

"This Web site will give New York and its taxpayers a steady stream of information explaining why Proposal One would worsen New York's already huge problems with high spending and high taxes," said Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh. "New York needs budget reform, but this isn't it—as this Web site will show."

The Business Council's Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose the amendment, Proposal One on the November 8 ballot, last spring.

Between now and election day, when New York's voters will accept or reject Proposal One, the Web site will be updated daily with information from a variety of sources, including news stories, op-ed commentaries, other institutions' reports and studies, and commentaries on various Web logs.

The site also includes links to: a detailed slide show outlining the case against Proposal One; a one-page document with "fast facts" on the proposal; the Public Policy Institute's recent report criticizing the proposal; ideas for alternative budget reforms that would address New York's real budget problem, excessive spending; and the ballot language on the proposed amendment.

The site is also updated frequently with new editorials from New York papers condemning the amendment. The editorials page includes comments from the New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, Newsday, New York Sun, Buffalo News, Times Union, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Utica Observer-Dispatch, Canandaigua Daily Messenger, Watertown Daily Times, and the Poughkeepsie Journal.

The Public Policy Institute's report documented some of the effects Proposal One would have. That report, entitled New York needs real budget reform, concludes that the proposed amendment would virtually guarantee late budgets every year, make big budget gaps more frequent, and lead to even higher taxes and debt.

Instead, the report suggests, New York's Constitution could be amended to include legal limits on growth in state spending and taxes, to end Albany's habit of spending more than it can afford. Such a provision, already in place in more than 20 other states, limits annual budget growth to affordable levels based on such factors as the inflation rate and population growth.

Supporters of Proposal One say it will force Albany to enact better and more timely budgets.

"In reality, the proposed amendment would do the opposite," says the Institute's report. "It would
give the Legislature much more power over state spending whenever it fails to adopt a new budget
by the start of a new fiscal year. Such a powerful incentive for delay would virtually guarantee late budgets every year. And history shows the Legislature’s stronger influence would lead to higher spending and taxes –– thus making it even harder for New York to compete for the jobs we need."

“This is an important issue that New Yorkers have a responsibility to understand and inform others about,” said Walsh. "New Yorkers don’t always get the chance to have their voice heard on fiscal matters, and that’s been more and more evident in recent years. This is their chance to let lawmakers know that voters do watch, and care about, the budget process in New York and its effects on the New York economy."

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