Cuomo’s Budget Plan: Cut N.Y. Welfare, Jobs

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, facing a fifth straight year of fiscal gloom, Tuesday unveiled a $56.5-billion budget proposal that would trim welfare spending by more than $1 billion and eliminate 6,200 state jobs.

“There is, so far, no national answer to the national recession, and we must build our state economy with our own hands,” Cuomo said in presenting his plan for the fiscal year beginning April 1.

Cuomo said his budget calls for no new taxes, but it does propose new levies on hospitals and nursing homes that would generate $120 million for the state. The governor also called for increasing state fees by $127 million.

Cuomo, a Democrat who cited his state’s economic problems in declining to run for President, has presided through four years of major fiscal difficulties.

He said his proposed budget would close a $938-million deficit in the current fiscal year by saving $407 million on administrative costs and borrowing $531 million.

The plan would freeze scheduled state income tax cuts for a third straight year and postpone the reduction of a tax surcharge on businesses that was due this year. Those moves would save about $1 billion.