What is the Runaway Spending Amendment?

This November, New Yorkers will be asked to vote on a proposed Constitutional amendment that will make major changes in the way the state's budget is developed.

Legislators say this amendment is the solution to Albany's problem of late budgets.

But the proposal has come to be known as the “Runaway Spending Amendment.” Why? The amendment would, among other things, give legislators the power to spend even more taxpayer dollars, and sharply curtail the governor’s right to veto excessive spending.

We’re not the only ones who think this proposal is dangerous. Opponents include Democratic Governors Carey and Cuomo, Republican Governor Pataki, potential Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer and potential Republican Governor Faso. Potential governors William Weld has also urged a "no vote."

Others opposed to the amendment include: liberal fiscal policy expert Frank Mauro, whose budgeting background is many years in the state Assembly, and the presumably more conservative budget director in the Pataki administration, John Cape; the Citizens Budget Commission; The Business Council, E.J. McMahon Jr., director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center; almost every former state budget director; and almost every business group of note in the state.

Stop the Amendment: Former New York State Governor Hugh L. Carey has agreed to chair Stop the Amendment, a new coalition of think tanks, fiscal-policy experts, good-government groups, former state budget officials, and business groups that is united in its opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment.

You can find a complete list of coalition members here.

More spending, and higher taxes!
Is that what New York needs? You know the answer!

Vote ‘NO’ on November 8.