New York State Budget Fraud

Nicole Gelinas reports:

But even in this flush year (with the state running a surplus), the lawmakers have reached for a gimmick to fund the spending: massive back-door borrowing that's not approved by the voters, as state debt is supposed to be.

The first part of Albany's schools solution is "Excel," the "Expanding Our Children's Education and Learning" program. But "expanding our children's debt and tax-paying" is more like it. Albany will authorize one of its famously unaccountable public authorities, the Dormitory Authority, to issue $2.6 billion in new debt: $1.8 billion for city schools, and $800 million for other districts in the state.

Albany could simply give Gotham and other districts the $2.6 billion - the state has a $4 billion surplus. But then lawmakers would have to cut back spending in other areas. So, instead, Albany will borrow all of this money and pay it back over 30 years - meaning nearly $200 million in extra costs each year from now until 2037.

As we've said before,do you really want to be a long term creditor of the state of New York? Few institutions in America have a shiftier set of books than New York state.Where's Moody's and S&P on this issue?