New York State’s Financial Plan shows a growing structural budget deficit with a cumulative three-year budget gap of $34.3 billion, as forecasted by the Division of the Budget. The gap is up $7 billion since the January release of the Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget Financial Plan, and is attributable to downward revisions to the economic forecast and projected revenues, as well as increases in projected spending.

This report examines healthcare professional shortages in 16 rural counties throughout New York, looking at a range of professionals, including those practicing primary care, dental health and mental health. Shortages exist in all counties examined, and some counties have no pediatricians or Ob/Gyn doctors at all. The ability to access health care is an essential quality of life issue. Without access, rural New Yorkers may have worse health outcomes, and if unaddressed, shortages will get worse.

Sales tax collections for local governments and other local taxing entities in New York State totaled $11.9 billion in the first half of 2025, up 3.7 percent ($423 million) over the same period last year. Over the past few years, since the end of the dramatic pandemic-related swings in collections from 2020 to 2022, first-half sales taxes are showing similar patterns of growth as in the years following the recession-related dip in 2009. All of the state’s 10 regions saw year-over-year growth in first-half collections.