By 2010, nearly $6 billion in the state's budget will be going to pay annual interest payments on debt, says a report issued by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

"At the rate we're going, paying the price for all of our borrowing is going to crowd out critical services taxpayers will need in the future," Hevesi said.

The comptroller said the current debt cost increases were "unsustainable" and he called for reforms to reduce reliance on borrowing.

According to Hevesi, state debt has reached $48 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion over last year. More than 90 percent of that debt was acquired by public authorities without prior voter approval. He projected the state's debt will increase to $55 billion by 2010, a 287 percent increase over 25 years.

Hevesi said 21 percent of the state's current debt was issued to finance budget deficits and 25 percent was issued to finance grants that were once funded on a pay-as-you-go system.

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