“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before. This is an opportunity.”

- Rahm Emanuel

White House Chief of Staff

Now that some of the dust has settled from the 2009-10 New York state budget that passed earlier this month #- this may be as good a time as any to look at its after effects.

More importantly, does the budget help address New York's long term fiscal needs, especially in light of the financial crisis that New York and the nation still faces?

It seems to be self evident that this budget did not do what was really needed #- make tough choices that would have allowed New York to not face even greater financial troubles in the years to come.

No matter how those who voted “yes” on the budget slice and dice it, the bottom line is that spending was up $12 billion dollars and taxes are increased $8.5 billion to help pay for that increase. Sure you can attribute some of that to the massive infusion of stimulus package funds and the accompanying rules on what the money could specifically be used for to the total cost of the spending plan.

Yet, the bottom line is that the stimulus money is going to run out at some point, not this nor next year, but the year after. While we can all hope that the economy and specifically Wall Street, which generates almost 20 percent of Albany's revenues will have rebounded, that most likely won't be enough to solve the state's fiscal problems.

Increased spending in New York has traditionally led to even greater spending in the years following.

In simple terms, it is not the good compounded interest you get from a savings account at your local bank; it is compounded spending that comes in the form of higher tax bills.

So while New York had a fiscal crisis, that included a claimed $16.2 billion budget gap on the eve of the budget's approval, instead of making structural changes on how Albany spends money, from health care to school funding, the Legislature took a pass. The end result means that instead of using this state of fiscal distress to get New York on a better fiscal footing, at a time when rank and file New Yorkers would have understood tough choices #- Albany let the “opportunity of a crisis” slip by.

Next: What About The Rest Of This Year?

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com