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Now we'll talk to another of our local elected officials.

This time it's Hudson Valley Congressman Mike Lawler, the Republican who represents Rockland and Putnam counties, plus parts of Westchester and Duchess. He's on the financial services and foreign affairs committees. Congressman Lawler is also in the news right now because he's seriously considering a run for governor next year. He said just this week on

Fox Business that he'll make a decision on that in June. Lawler has been ranked one of the most

bipartisan members of Congress, the fourth most bipartisan, according to Georgetown University's

annual rankings last year. Georgetown says its bipartisan index quantifies how often members of Congress introduce

bills that attract co-sponsors from the other party and how often they in turn co-sponsor a bill

introduced from across the aisle. Congressman Lawler, we always appreciate when you come on with us.

Welcome back to WNYC. Thanks for having me, Brian. Let me start here. Our previous segment, and maybe you

heard the end of it, was about the final stages of the New York State budget negotiations for this

year. As someone who has acknowledged, you might run for governor next year, do you have anything

you want to say in general about the budget that seems to be emerging or any specific things

the state has been spending on

that you like or don't like? Well, I think broadly speaking, as Nick Reesman pointed out, I mean,

the governor proposed a $252 billion budget. The legislative leaders in their one-house budgets

proposed upwards of $260 billion. We'll see what the final

number is. But the fact is, it's up over $100 billion in one decade's time. That is unsustainable.

There's a reason New York leads the nation and out migration. It has nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the overall cost of living, the tax burden, the reckless spending that is driving people out of this state, driving businesses out of this state. And from my vantage point, you know, when you are spending more

than Texas and Florida combined, despite having 33 million less in population, that speaks volumes

to the staggering amount of money that New York continues to spend. And they seem to have no end in sight.

And I just, I don't see how over the long haul, they expect to be able to continue to fund it

at these levels. Democrats argue that the reason people are moving out of state is primarily

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