About Us

Agency Mission

Established in 1927, the Division of the Budget serves as the Governor’s chief financial advisor. Charged with executing the Governor’s constitutional fiscal duties, maintaining the State’s overall fiscal health, and ensuring its operational sustainability, DOB prepares and implements the State Budget, oversees the operations of State agencies, coordinates the State’s capital plan and bond market activities, supports fiscal accountability across the State enterprise, and drives the advancement of statewide technological innovation.

The Division is not charged with managing any single area of services or programs, but rather is responsible for weighing and considering the needs of the entire State and the competing demands on State resources. Examples of the Division’s most critical responsibilities include: developing a more-than-$200 billion Executive Budget to cover New York State agencies, offices, funds and public authorities, and more than 107,000 state employees under direct executive branch control; negotiating and achieving an Enacted Budget with the Legislature each year; facilitating the execution of State agency budgets throughout the year; establishing policies for operations that are common to all State agencies; coordinating the State’s capital plan and bond market activities; and supporting fiscal accountability across the State enterprise.

Article VII of the New York State Constitution establishes the process by which the State’s annual Budget is enacted. As the New York State Court of Appeals described in its 2004 landmark decisions Silver v. Pataki and Pataki v. New York State Assembly, under Article VII of the Constitution, the Governor is the constructor of the Budget and the Legislature is the critic. Section 20 of the State Finance Law charges the Division with exercising all of the Governor’s powers and performing all of the Governor’s duties with respect to the Budget, and in furtherance of those duties Section 21 of the State Finance Law vests the Division with certain auxiliary powers, including broad access to State agency offices, documents, data and information, and the ability to administer oaths, issue subpoenas, and compel testimony. Executive Law Section 180 charges the Director of the Budget broadly with assisting the Governor in her “duties respecting the investigation, supervision and coordination of the expenditures and other fiscal operations of such department.” Hundreds of other provisions of State law and annual appropriations charge the Budget Director with approving transactions and policies across the State, including approving the expenditure of every dollar spent from the State Treasury.

The Division’s expansive duties necessitate an unwavering commitment to fiscal discipline and to the maximization of the value of every single taxpayer dollar spent by the State. To that end, two fundamental tenets underly the Division’s operations: a dollar spent on one need is a dollar unavailable for spending on another need, and fiscal responsibility cannot be severed from operational efficiency. Accordingly, to effectuate its statutory obligations, the Division not only manages discrete State agency and program budgets, it also establishes enterprise wide policies and strategies to support efficiency in operations and mitigation of financial plan risk. The Division issues such policies and strategies in the areas of federal grant management, purchasing and procurement, technology, data, provision of government services, and risk management.

Visit the “Division of the Budget History” page to learn more about the DOB’s origins.