New York’s tax receipts aren’t getting any better the further we get into this fiscal year.

Last week, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a news release that tax collections for the first half of the 2016-17 fiscal year decreased $1.3 billion (3.5 percent) to $36.9 billion from the same period in 2015-16. Personal income tax receipts, the state’s largest source of revenue, were particularly below expectations.

New York isn’t in as poor a fiscal condition as some states. The state has a fund balance of nearly $10 billion, so it’s not as if school aid isn’t going to be disbursed or retirees aren’t going to be paid. But, a chunk of that fund balance is from monetary fines, settlements, forfeitures or restitutions that is supposed to be spent on one-time programs rather than be used to fund yearly obligations. DiNapoli says only $856.9 million of $4.5 billion that was to be transferred into an infrastructure improvement fund has actually been transferred — meaning much of that money is hanging around in the general fund making the bottom line look better than it actually is.

It is good the state isn’t broke, but it will be if state officials continue writing economic growth into the budget when the economy is stagnant. That projected growth was an assumption upon which Gov. Andrew Cuomo based a budget with increased spending. If those tax collection goals can’t be met, then spending must be cut in next year’s budget.