budget

Local governments are facing increased fiscal pressures due to a combination of the end of federal pandemic aid, higher inflation, rising operating costs and moderating sales tax revenue growth,

Creating a Fiscal Stress Monitoring System to inform taxpayers about the state of their local government finances.

It’s an honor to once again receive the endorsement of State Democrats to be New York’s Comptroller. Here’s to four more years of protecting our budget, protecting our retirement fund and protecting our state from Trump corruption.

Local officials should be pragmatic when planning future budgets, and I encourage them to use the FSMS information and tools we provide to help them make prudent financial decisions.

These bonds, all of which have been approved by the voters, will pay for essential investments in transportation, education and environmental projects,

Since 2010, New York’s Medicaid spending has grown 123%, from $51.8 billion to an estimated $115.6 billion a year. The budget for this year funds a $122.6 billion program.

.@ZohranKMamdani, you want to balance NYC’s budget? You can do it without raising taxes. $3B fixing homeless spending $2B cutting overtime abuse $2B procurement reform $2B DOE efficiency $1B housing fraud enforcement That’s $10B. It’s not a revenue problem. It’s a management problem. Call me. I’ll walk you through it.

Stop Albany’s tax-and-spend policies by auditing government spending, scrutinizing state contracts, protecting the property tax cap, and demanding better value for taxpayers.

New York just passed its EIGHTH budget extender. The budget was due April 1. It’s now nearly a month late, @KathyHochul’s FIFTH straight late budget. This delay isn’t an accident. It’s driven by a Democrat-led legislature, backed by @ZohranKMamdani, pushing new tax hikes on New York earners to fund spending above the already bloated $254 BILLION plan. And the one person supposed to call it out, our State Comptroller @TomDiNapoli, has been completely silent. When I’m elected, that silence ends. There’s a real watchdog coming to Albany.

My claim is simpler. When spending more than doubles and indictments fall by more than 90%, the state’s auditor should be demanding to know why, loudly, publicly, and every year.

.@ZohranKMamdani, this is a hard job. It requires making hard decisions. You can’t just keep increasing spending, driving out the tax base, and squeezing the hardworking people of this city. Families don’t do that. When they can’t afford something, they make adjustments. They cut back. They prioritize. Government should be no different. I’ve gone through the budget in detail. There are real opportunities to fix this without raising taxes: $3B fixing homeless spending $2B cutting overtime abuse $2B procurement reform $2B DOE efficiency $1B housing fraud enforcement That’s $10B. Make the hard choices. New Yorkers already are.

Hernandez will establish a dedicated Fraud Strike Task Force focused on identifying suspicious spending patterns, uncovering organized fraud schemes, coordinating investigations, and referring credible cases to law enforcement and prosecutors.

.@ZohranKMamdani’s answer to New York’s budget crisis is the same failed playbook: raise taxes and hope the bill disappears. How about you cut waste, fraud, and reckless spending instead? That’s how you stop driving jobs and families out of this state. As Comptroller, I will not allow the abuse of taxpayers and I will never be a rubber stamp for the Governor.

Hernandez will protect the integrity of the property tax cap and work to reduce the financial pressures that drive local taxes higher. That includes strengthening pension performance, controlling unnecessary costs, and bringing greater discipline to state spending.

After 19 years as Comptroller, @TomDiNapoli has finally discovered New York spends too much money. The budget has more than doubled on his watch. Now he’s “concerned.” Albany isn’t broken because nobody was in charge. Albany is broken because the same people have been in charge for decades.

State contracts should be transparent, properly procured, financially justified, and deliver real value for New Yorkers. Questionable contracts, excessive costs, and wasteful spending should be challenged before the money is spent—not discovered years later in an audit.

The Bulls won in 1993. It’s okay, @GovKathyHochul isn’t exactly known for being good with numbers. I mean have you seen this year’s budget? New Yorkers are paying the price for leadership that can’t balance basic facts, let alone a $268.5 billion government.

On day one, Hernandez will establish a dedicated Fraud Strike Team inside the Comptroller’s Office to audit, investigate, and refer suspected fraud. The team will target high-risk areas including home care agencies, non-emergency medical transportation, and the CDPAP fiscal intermediary transition.

Today I went to the New York State Capitol to see the Million Dollar Staircase where Albany Democrats have spent $72 MILLION to repair just 72 stairs. This is what one-party rule looks like. No accountability. No oversight. Just taxpayer money being burned while New Yorkers struggle to afford everyday life. And where is State Comptroller @TomDiNapoli? The one person whose job is to be the watchdog over state spending has been completely silent. New Yorkers deserve a Comptroller who actually audits waste, calls it out, and stops it, not one who looks the other way while millions disappear into projects like this.

ALBANY, NY — Joseph Hernandez, Republican candidate for New York State Comptroller, today attacked State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s new report on state aid to New York City. The report documents more than $21 billion flowing from Albany to City Hall this year without asking whether that money is producing results or being lost to waste and fraud.

$72 million for 72 stairs. @SenatorOrtt is right, this is a monument to everything that’s broken in Albany. Bloated budgets, zero accountability, and no respect for the people paying the bill. A “stairwell to taxpayer hell” is exactly what this is. Families across New York are cutting back, making hard choices, stretching every dollar. Meanwhile, Albany lights your money on fire and calls it progress. This is why people are leaving. This is why trust in government is collapsing. Until someone starts saying no to this insanity, nothing will change.

The State Comptroller is one of the most powerful fiscal offices in the country, yet it is not being used to its full potential. Oversight is slow. Audits are reactive. Waste is discovered after the money is already gone. As Comptroller, I will modernize oversight, demand accountability, and protect taxpayers with real-time tools, transparency, and enforcement that actually works. Below are the core issues my administration will tackle.

In her Executive Budget, @GovKathyHochul is proposing to strip the Comptroller of contract oversight by raising the review threshold from $50K to $300K. That’s 6x higher — an estimated $4 BILLION in taxpayer dollars will be spent without independent watchdog review. You don’t weaken oversight unless you have something to hide.

Hernandez Unveils Fraud Strike Team as Medicaid Costs Surge and Fraud Convictions Collapse

Snuck into the Executive Budget: @KathyHochul proposes raising the Comptroller’s contract oversight threshold from $50K to $300K. That’s a 6x increase, shielding billions in state contracts from independent review. When politicians try to weaken the watchdog, taxpayers should ask what they’re trying to hide.

$11 billion in Foundation Aid to NYC schools, nearly double 2008, with no accounting for results.

Federal investigators are probing New York’s $124B Medicaid program for fraud and waste. Billions in questionable spending. Where was the oversight? Hochul expanded it. DiNapoli missed it. As Comptroller, I’ll deploy real-time audits and a Fraud Strike Team to protect taxpayers. Accountability will no longer be optional.

$880 million in school transportation aid, much of it paid to private bus contractors, with no audit.

Albany is pushing a so-called “universal child care” plan that could cost taxpayers up to $8 BILLION a year, according to the Comptroller. That’s roughly $2,000 per taxpayer every year. This is a permanent entitlement that mostly benefits New York City, even though not every family needs it and not every community wants it. Tom DiNapoli needs to stand up to this irrational spending and protect taxpayers from another runaway program.

New Yorkers pay some of the highest taxes in the country, while Albany continues to spend more every year.

Albany Democrats quietly slipped a $10 million taxpayer-funded slush fund into the state budget to cover Letitia James’ legal bills while facing a federal criminal probe. Comptroller Tom DiNapoli approved the fund and is the only person who can release the money. This is Albany at its worst, insiders protecting insiders while taxpayers get stuck with the bill. New Yorkers deserve transparency, accountability, and real financial oversight, not a Comptroller who signs off on corrupt backroom deals.

$2.4 billion in state child care funding, including $940 million added this year, with no verification of roughly 110,000 vouchers.

Since @KathyHochul became governor, New York has approved 20 Deloitte contracts and committed $1.53 billion, over three times Cuomo's $483M across a decade. One Medicaid contract ballooned from $177M to $1.18B without a new competitive bid. New Yorkers deserve a Comptroller who asks why.

$1.8 billion in school building aid, nearly triple 2008, while the city is still trying to get children out of temporary classrooms.

$750,000 for a roughly 4,000-square-foot firehouse roof. A project of this size might ordinarily be expected to cost roughly $60,000-$150,000, and even a complicated NYC public project could cost substantially more. But $750,000 demands an explanation. What justifies the price? Release the scope, bids and receipts, @ZohranKMamdani. Taxpayers deserve to know exactly where every dollar is going.

Before Albany asks New Yorkers for another dollar, the government should prove it is responsibly managing the dollars it already has.

Our tax dollars should be educating our kids, supporting teachers and professors, and preparing students for successful careers. Instead, Albany is pouring money into bloated bureaucracy, waste, and costly DEI mandates. As Comptroller, I’ll audit the State Education Department, SUNY, and CUNY and expose exactly where your money is going. Every dollar wasted on political mandates is a dollar taken away from New York’s students. It’s your money. You deserve to know where it goes.

The Comptroller has significant authority to review state contracts before taxpayer dollars go out the door. Hernandez will use that authority aggressively.

New York’s political class and one-party rule let this happen. When I’m Comptroller, Medicaid gets a full forensic audit, and my Fraud Strike Team will track, flag, and stop suspicious payments before they go out the door. Taxpayers will finally have a watchdog in Albany.

Hernandez will review investment performance, asset allocation, outside managers, and costs to ensure pension dollars are being managed efficiently and responsibly.

New York’s debt bomb is ticking, and Albany isn’t sounding the alarm. In August and September alone, New York is issuing $7.2 BILLION in bonds. $4.8 billion of that is brand new debt added to what taxpayers already owe. Here’s what every New Yorker should understand: Only $300 million is General Obligation debt approved by voters. The rest is being borrowed through public authorities like DASNY, TBTA, and TFA, putting billions on the public credit card without taxpayers ever getting a vote. And the bill is coming due. New York already spends roughly $750 million every month just servicing its debt. MTA and TBTA debt payments are on track to consume nearly 16% of revenue by 2029, and almost 25% without accounting gimmicks. NYC’s available borrowing capacity is projected to plunge from $44.4 billion to $26.9 billion. Albany’s own projections show the state’s debt load growing another 42%, or $26 billion, in just three years. This is how a fiscal crisis gets built. Billions at a time, buried in complicated bond documents, while taxpayers are left with the bill. Albany won’t sound the alarm. I will. We cannot keep mortgaging our children’s future to pay for today’s spending. Enough is enough.

Hernandez will demand greater transparency and accountability from outside investment managers and carefully evaluate whether the returns they generate justify the fees they charge.

The @MTA has turned into a runaway waste machine that is abusing New York taxpayers and riders every single day. Nearly $764 million has already been spent on overtime this year, which is $176 million over budget, while the agency faces budget gaps climbing into the hundreds of millions even as ridership falls, fare evasion spreads, fares rise, congestion pricing hits working families, and service keeps getting worse. This is pure reckless spending and mismanagement under @GovKathyHochul and MTA boss Janno Lieber. I am done watching riders and taxpayers get hammered. As comptroller I will audit every dollar, expose the mismanagement, and force real accountability at the MTA with no more blank checks. New Yorkers deserve a transit system that works instead of one that wastes their money and their time.

New York doesn’t need another 19 years of an audit office that watches the bill climb. It needs a Comptroller who counts every dollar, asks who is accountable, and publishes the answer.

$125 BILLION. That’s what New York City government will spend this year. If New York City were its own country, it would have roughly the 41st-largest government budget on Earth. Where did your money go? $41B for education, roughly $50,000 per public school student every year, among the highest levels of spending in the nation, yet student achievement continues to lag in many schools.   $19B for health and social services, yet New York’s Medicaid system has faced audits identifying $1.2 billion in potentially improper payments, another $1.2 billion paid on behalf of possible out-of-state recipients, and repeated multimillion-dollar fraud schemes. $13B for public safety, even as overtime keeps climbing and streets are less safe. $11B for pensions and benefits. $8B just to pay interest on yesterday’s borrowing. That’s roughly $25 million every single day, just to pay debt service on New York City’s debt. $5B for homelessness and housing, while the crisis persists. With approximately 88,300 homeless New Yorkers, thats about $56,600 per person each year, or nearly $4,700 a month. Government keeps getting bigger. Bureaucracy keeps expanding. Taxes keep rising. But the results never seem to catch up with the spending. New Yorkers aren’t being asked to fund government anymore, they’re being asked to finance an ever-growing bureaucracy with too little accountability. This is what a runaway government looks like. I will audit the NYC government on January 1st, 2027

Fight fraud and abuse with aggressive audits, stronger pre-payment fraud detection, and a dedicated Fraud Strike Task Force focused on stopping improper payments and holding wrongdoers accountable.

.@ZohranKMamdani — NYC has a $12.5 BILLION deficit. It can be cut to $0 without raising taxes. Here’s how. Before asking working families to pay more, City Hall should stop ignoring obvious waste: - $4.0B ending migrant and sanctuary-city spending abuses - $2.5B ending overtime abuse and enforcing agency attrition - $1.75B cutting DOE bureaucracy, not classrooms - $1.25B eliminating wasteful consultants and no-bid contracts - $1.0B ending failed economic development programs - $1.25B reducing waste in health and social services - $750M delaying non-essential capital projects TOTAL SAVINGS: $12.5B DEFICIT: $0 Raising taxes while $12.5B in waste sits in plain sight is not progressive. It’s irresponsible. New Yorkers don’t need bigger government. They need competent management, real audits, and fiscal discipline.

The Comptroller serves as sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund. That responsibility requires disciplined investment management, strong risk controls, transparency, and a focus on long-term performance.

Instead of trolling, let’s do the math. @ZohranKMamdani says he fixed a $12 billion budget hole. He didn’t fix it. He pushed it down the road. The City Comptroller puts the next gap at $7.3 to $8.8 billion. The city also stretched out pension payments by about $1.6 billion a year. Add that deferred cost back and the real hole is about $9 billion. The city’s income tax brings in about $21 billion a year. Dividing $9 billion by $21 billion means everyone’s city income tax would have to go up by about 43%. The top city rate would rise from 3.9% to 5.5%. Someone with $100,000 in taxable income pays about $3,750 in city income tax today. Under this plan, they would pay about $5,360, which is $1,610 more every year. Taxing only millionaires doesn’t work much better. By the Mayor’s own campaign estimate, each extra point on millionaires raises about $2 billion. Dividing $9 billion by $2 billion means their rate would go up by about 4.5 points, from 3.9% to 8.4%. Someone earning $2 million would pay about $45,000 more a year to the city if the hike applies only above $1 million. Counting the state tax too, millionaires would pay between 18% and 20% of their income to New York before federal taxes, and many would simply leave. There’s a better way. If city agencies trim 5%, the city saves about $3 billion. Cutting overtime, locking in health-care savings, and borrowing less saves another $1 billion. A growing economy can bring in about $3 billion more by 2030. Adding $3 billion, $1 billion, and $3 billion gives $7 billion, which covers most of the hole without raising taxes on everyone. As State Comptroller, I’ll show New Yorkers the real numbers.

As Comptroller, Hernandez will create a Fraud Strike Team inside the Comptroller’s office, with its first targets being the fastest-growing programs: transportation, child care, and Medicaid. All findings will be made public.

What is the life of the person who saves yours worth? One day it could be your child who stops breathing, your spouse having a heart attack, your parent suffering a stroke, or you trapped in a horrific crash. When that moment comes, an EMS professional’s skill, judgment, and courage may determine whether you live or die. Yet a new EMS professional in New York City starts at roughly $44,000–$50,000 a year, about $21–24 an hour. That’s in the same general range an experienced bicycle delivery worker can earn during active delivery hours. This isn’t a criticism of delivery workers. Every honest job deserves respect. It’s a question of whether we’re properly valuing the people who save our lives. Bringing EMS pay into closer parity with firefighters has been estimated to cost about $166 million annually. We can find that by cutting a fraction of the fraud, waste, and abuse that already drains the budget. As comptroller, I will do exactly that. Our EMS professionals don’t need another “Thank you for your service.” They deserve a paycheck that says it.

“Fraud doesn’t fix itself, and it won’t be fixed by an office that only shows up after the money is gone,” Hernandez said. “My Strike Team will find it, refer it, and publish the results every quarter, so no one can look the other way.”

A program exploded 6,700%, and City Hall buried the real cost. NYC’s CityFHEPS voucher program cost $25 million at launch. This year: $1.7 BILLION. But the city budgeted just $519 million, underbudgeting it by more than a billion dollars so the true number never hits the headlines. It’s growing 4% EVERY MONTH. Doubling every two years. Barreling toward $3.1 billion by 2030, about $26,000 per voucher, with costs outrunning the people it’s supposed to help. And now Albany wants to copy it, a quarter-BILLION dollars for its own statewide version. This is your money. New York needs a Comptroller who watches the books, not another rubber stamp.

Hernandez will push the Comptroller’s office toward stronger pre-payment monitoring, advanced data analysis, and modern fraud-detection tools that can flag suspicious claims, vendors, and transactions before taxpayer dollars are paid out.

Albany has a credit card in your name. And it’s almost maxed out. Right now, New York has roughly $75 billion in state-supported debt outstanding. Just to keep up the payments, the state spends nearly $8 billion a year on debt service, more than $650 million every month. By 2031, that debt is projected to climb to nearly $98 billion, while annual debt-service costs approach $10 billion a year. That’s money gone before it ever reaches a classroom, a hospital, a road, or public safety. And by 2031, New York is projected to be approaching its constitutional debt limit. Now here’s the part that should concern every taxpayer. Our Constitution generally requires voter approval for long-term state debt. But for decades Albany has relied heavily on public authorities to issue debt that never goes directly before the voters. Most state-supported debt has been issued this way. No vote. No say. Just a bill with your name on it. And we already pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. It’s like handing a teenager a credit card “for emergencies,” only to discover they ran up the balance, hid the statements, and then asked for a higher limit. The Governor and the current Comptroller have overseen this trend year after year. I’m running for Comptroller because New Yorkers deserve an independent watchdog who will demand transparency, accountability, and fiscal discipline. Read more in my op-ed: https://hernandezforny.com/albany-has-been-running-up-a-credit-card-in-your-name-and-its-almost-maxed-out/

“Here’s a tough choice: find out where the money went before asking taxpayers for another dime,” said Hernandez. “Hochul’s answer is always to spend more. Mamdani’s answer is always to ask for more. DiNapoli’s answer is always to look the other way. After nearly twenty years, New Yorkers deserve a watchdog, not a lapdog.”

58 days late. $269 BILLION. The largest budget in New York history. And @KathyHochul and @TomDiNapoli want a pat on the back. When DiNapoli became Comptroller, New York’s budget was roughly $121 billion. Today it’s $269 billion. The budget doubled. Did your paycheck double? Did your quality of life double? Did government services get twice as good? No. What doubled was the size of government while New Yorkers got hit with higher taxes, higher costs, and an affordability crisis that is driving families and businesses out of the state. A budget that is 58 days late and $269 billion isn’t something to celebrate. It’s an indictment of Albany.

Los neoyorquinos pagan algunos de los impuestos más altos del país, mientras Albany sigue gastando más y pidiendo más a los contribuyentes. Al mismo tiempo, miles de millones de dólares de nuestro fondo de pensiones son administrados por firmas externas que cobran costosas comisiones, mientras el despilfarro y el fraude siguen consumiendo el dinero de los contribuyentes. La solución no es otro impuesto. Es obligar al gobierno a hacer más con el dinero que ya nos cobra. Debemos reducir el despilfarro, combatir el fraude, proteger nuestras pensiones, eliminar comisiones innecesarias de Wall Street y hacer que Albany respete cada dólar de los contribuyentes. Lee mi más reciente columna de opinión en @eldiariony sobre por qué Nueva York necesita un verdadero guardián financiero como Contralor.

For the third time in a decade, @TomDiNapoli is letting the same failure happen on his watch. Albany is sitting on nearly $18 million that New Yorkers gave to firefighters, veterans, food banks, cancer research and other causes. More than half of the 36 checkoff funds paid out nothing last year. This is what DiNapoli does: finds a problem, issues a report, sends out a press release, and watches it happen again. After nearly 20 years as Comptroller, New Yorkers deserve more than another report explaining how their money is sitting in Albany. As Comptroller, I’ll publicly name the agencies holding up these funds, hold them accountable, and get this money where New Yorkers intended it to go.

.@TomDiNapoli found $17.5 million in idle taxpayer money. His solution? A press release. For over a decade he’s “highlighted” this same problem, report after report, while the balance keeps growing: $16.7M last year, $17.5M now. A comptroller who is comfortable narrating problems instead of solving them has failed at oversight. Here’s who’s actually sitting on the money: @HealthNYGov: $9.7M across Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Autism, Alzheimer’s, Food Banks.   @NYHealthCommish James V. McDonald @NewYorkVeterans: $3.4M, including Homeless Veterans and Military Family Relief. Commissioner Viviana DeCohen @NYSDHSES: $2.3M untouched in the Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Fund since 2024, while departments beg for recruits. @DHSESCommish Terence O’Leary @NYSDCJS: holding Missing and Exploited Children donations. Commissioner @rorosado @NYSBOE: $816K, the Campaign Finance Fund, never disbursed once. Co-Chairs Berger and Kosinski This is New Yorkers’ money, given for cancer patients, veterans, firefighters, kids, sitting idle instead. You don’t need another press release. You need someone who picks up the phone, calls these commissioners by name, and gets the checks out. Get off your asses. Distribute the money. Now.

My analysis found @ZohranKMamdani’s government-run grocery experiment could carry a $206 MILLION cost and economic impact in just its first few years. $70 million to build five stores. An estimated $106 million to operate them for three years. Roughly 450 bodegas and neighborhood grocers could be hurt by subsidized competition, with as many as 67 potentially closing. And this isn’t just New York City’s problem. Albany is sending billions in state taxpayer dollars to City Hall. Taxpayers from Buffalo to Long Island should not be forced to bankroll Mamdani’s socialist experiment. This is exactly what the Comptroller should be doing: run the numbers before the money is gone, follow every dollar and hold government accountable. As Comptroller, I’ll be the watchdog standing between New York taxpayers and Mamdani’s socialist experiment. No blank checks. No excuses.

Here’s how New York’s pension actually works and why it costs you. The state’s $295 billion pension fund is supposed to pay retirees mostly from investment returns. Over the long run, those returns cover about 73 cents of every pension dollar. The rest, you cover, through your state income taxes and local property taxes. That’s the whole game: the more the fund earns, the less you pay. The less it earns, the more comes out of your pocket. This chart shows what it’s cost you. In 2008 the average filer paid about $93 a year into the pension. Today it’s $572. By 2030 it’s headed for nearly $700 and it has gone UP, not down, almost every year. All told, @TomDiNapoli has charged New York taxpayers more than $55 billion to fund this pension since he took office. Strong returns protect your wallet. That’s why who manages this fund, and how, matters to every working family in New York. After 19 years, we deserve better.

The revelation that fraud in Minnesota’s state-run Medicaid programs may exceed $9 billion should alarm every taxpayer in America. When federal prosecutors say entire programs were exploited at scale, it’s not a one-off failure, it’s systemic breakdown. New York would be naïve to think we’re immune. That’s why, as Comptroller, I will audit day one. We will deploy real-time audit and AI-driven monitoring tools to detect fraud as it happens, not years after billions are gone. And we will establish one of the strongest whistleblower programs in the nation, using existing but underutilized laws to protect and reward those who come forward. Tax dollars are sacred. They must serve the vulnerable, not fraudsters. Accountability starts immediately.

Tom DiNapoli is sitting on a $20 BILLION pile of money that does not belong to him. This cash comes from New Yorkers’ forgotten bank accounts, uncashed checks, insurance payouts, refunds, wages, and deposits that should have gone back to the people, not the State. He is hoarding these unclaimed funds while returning almost nothing, barely 2% a year, and letting Albany siphon off the rest to cover its failures. This is not oversight. This is a $20 billion shakedown of the people of New York. New Yorkers deserve a Comptroller who gives their money BACK, not one who hides it, hoards it, and lets the state spend it like a secret slush fund.

Today I’m proud to announce my candidacy for New York State Comptroller, seeking the Republican nomination. New York deserves a chief financial officer with real-world experience, not political rhetoric. I have built companies, managed complex budgets, and delivered measurable results. I will bring that same discipline and accountability to Albany. As Comptroller, I will protect taxpayers, strengthen the $290 billion pension fund, modernize oversight using advanced technology, and ensure every public dollar is spent wisely, especially within agencies like the MTA. New York’s financial future depends on honest oversight and forward-looking leadership. I am ready to deliver both.