New York/Florida State Budget Comparison, FY 2027 Edition

New York’s and Florida’s respective state budgets have just been finalized for what they call the 2027 “fiscal year.”  In New York’s case the FY runs from April 1 to March 31, so the budget is supposed to be final by April 1; but, this being New York, the budget was about 8 weeks late.  In Florida the FY runs from July 1 to June 30, and the legislature has already completed its work on the FY 2027 budget.

Ability to meet fixed deadlines is just one of many ways in which Florida exemplifies responsible state government while New York exemplifies the irresponsible version.  Over the past several years, I have had multiple posts comparing state governance in New York versus Florida, for example this post from June last year comparing the budgets of the two states.  With another year’s budgets now complete, it’s time for an update.

The short version is that with each passing year the New York/Florida comparison gets a little better for Florida and a little worse for New York.  The change may be small in any given year; but over ten years, or twenty, the difference becomes huge.  And the important changes are always in the same direction.

Here is the announcement from the New York State Assembly of the total size of the FY 2027 New York State budget: $268.1 billion.  Last year the number was (from my blog post, based on the State’s Executive Briefing Book):  $252 billion.  So the increase is $16.1 billion, or 6.4%.  For reference, the consumer price index increased 3.8% from April 1 2025 to April 1 2026.  

In Florida, the enacted budget amount, from a May 26 State Senate release, is $114.5 billion.  That amount actually represents a small decrease from last year’s figure of $115.1 billion.  

Population figures come out with about a year delay, so the latest estimates from the Census Bureau are from July 1, 2025.  At that date, the estimate for Florida was 23,462,518 (up from 23,372,215 on 7/1/24); and for New York 20,002,427 (up from 19,867,248 on 7/1/24).  If you believe these Census estimates, New York’s population actually went up slightly more than that of Florida during that interval (135,179 v. 90,303).