New York State’s new budget raises a few questions. How does a state with two Democratic chambers, a Democratic governor, and the fourth-largest Democratic voter population in the country come to pass a right-wing austerity budget? How does a state without a single Republican in statewide elected office grant the former chief of staff of its highest-ranking Republican the unilateral authority to make even further cuts to essential services? How does the most unequal state in the country refuse to enact taxes on the wealthy favored by even 87 percent of the state’s Republicans?

How does a state that is a global epicenter of a pandemic decide to cut billions from the health care of its most vulnerable citizens even as patients die in hospital halls for lack of care? How does a state whose jails have the world’s highest coronavirus infection rates pass legislation that will keep tens of thousands of more people locked up before they’ve even been convicted of a crime?

Because this is Andrew Cuomo’s New York.