Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State Legislature entering second week of talks over late state budget

ALBANY — State lawmakers long have been criticized for passing budget bills hurriedly in the dark of night. But this year the state budget may not be passed until, as one lobbyist quipped, after the dark of day: Monday’s solar eclipse.

Monday marks the eighth day after the $233 billion budget was due.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that her budget staff and their counterparts for the State Senate and Assembly will continue to meet over the weekend. She said she and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) were expected to negotiate again on Sunday based on the staffs' work.

Hochul said the leaders will continue negotiations Monday and into the week as necessary to strike a deal. The Legislature last week approved a budget extender that continues to fund state government through Monday, when another extender could be passed.

Over the past week, predictions of a budget deal have come and gone, frustrating lawmakers and lobbyists who have tried to get their initiatives into the budget during this overtime period.

That spending plan will greatly impact schools and their property taxes depending how leaders agree to spend more than $35 billion in school aid. Hochul on Thursday also promised a “very comprehensive housing bill” to help developers build thousands of apartments and homes to confront a lack of affordability in housing, which is most acute on Long Island and in New York City.

The budget is also likely to set a course for dealing with the climate change transition away from fossil fuels and who is going to pay for it among ratepayers, taxpayers and fossil fuel energy companies.

In addition, the budget is expected to include millions of dollars to help child care centers counter a worker shortage as well as using tax credits and subsidies to help families pay the rising costs of child care and providing aid to expand free prekindergarten in schools. Supporters argue the lack of affordable child care is so severe that it’s keeping some parents home, exacerbating the state’s labor shortage.

“I know these days are long, they are exhausting for everyone involved … and seemingly endless,” Hochul told reporters Thursday, when some lawmakers predicted a budget deal would be announced. “But it’s most important that we work together to get a budget that delivers for New Yorkers. We are truly getting close to that outcome.”

She provided few specifics, saying she didn’t want to negotiate in public. But she said there is “a lot of agreement” on a plan to shut down illegal cannabis dealers, who have compounded the troubled rollout of legal cannabis that is supposed to be sold only by state-certified operators. She also said there’s agreement on her plan to crack down on the rise in retail theft that threaten workers’ safety, particular in bodegas.

“We’re very close,” Stewart-Cousins said last week. “We’re moving as quickly as possible,” but she told reporters, “We’re trying to move mountains quite honestly to take care of, you know, people who depend on our system.”

Heastie early last week struck an uncharacteristically optimistic tone with reporters when he said that the governor and the legislative leaders were in the same galaxy and on “the same planet” and trying to get into the same country. By Thursday, he was less starry-eyed, offering only a sullen “OK” when asked how the latest closed-door negotiation went.

That pessimism came as Hochul said leaders abandoned a questionable proposal that legislators said would have brought New York $2 billion to $4 billion in Medicaid funding from the federal government over several years. Hochul said the White House is considering ending that program.

The leaders agreed that part of the strain is the sheer breadth of the budget. There are many disparate issues, big and small, in the budget. Among the proposals are:

• Repealing a sales tax for private jets and big yachts.
• Requiring emergency contraceptives at public colleges.
• Funding the Dolly Parton reading program statewide, which allows libraries to give books to kids free.
• Continuing an enticement to businesses to use cashless vending machines that can collect sales tax.
• Joining a multistate system in which states share whether a voter is voting in more than one state, or has moved from one state to another. Democrats generally support the anti-fraud system called the Electronic Registration Information Center, while Republicans, taking a cue from their national party, want to create their own system for GOP states.

Meanwhile, legislators are feeling the squeeze to close out on a deal for several issues quickly. The Legislature has planned to be out of session on Wednesday to observe the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. Several members also had plans to attend eclipse events back in their districts.

The budget session’s overtime also has cut into remaining days of the legislative session for lawmakers to pass hundreds of policy and funding bills for communities that they want to run on in the fall elections. Among them is the Suffolk Water Quality Restoration Act, which needs the state’s approval to raise Suffolk’s sales tax by 1/8th of a cent to fund a sweeping expansion of sewers and septic systems.

The legislative session is scheduled to end June 6.

The protracted talks already have jettisoned two major issues.

Off the table is the effort by many progressive Democrats to enact a higher income tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers, which was sought by the progressive wing of the Democratic majorities, legislators said. Also dropped was extending mayoral control of New York City schools, a major issue for city legislators that often helps seal budget deals on unrelated issues. Instead, mayoral control will be pushed into the already overbooked legislative session after the budget is adopted.

“We are not finished yet,” Hochul said Thursday. “I also think there has been a lot of really good progress … but the end is near.”

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.