Today the Governor submitted his 21-day budget amendments and new financial plan, in which he projected that the net decline in current and next year's revenues will be $550 million.

Along with the postponement of $500 million of Personal Income Tax refunds that are traditionally paid in February and March into April and May, the Governor proposes delaying $479 million in payments to CUNY, and $401 million in other unspecified spending. His new financial plan now moves almost $1.4 billion of current year obligations into the next year.

This plan assumes that New York State will receive an additional $1 billion in new Federal Medicaid funds that have not been approved by Congress.

We still believe that the Governor is overstating revenues. We anticipate that revenues will be below that of the Governor's and there are still significant downside risks to the Executive's projections which could further increase the budget gap.

It is clear that we have some very difficult decisions ahead.