5 takeaways from the new $254B NYS budget: Higher spending, tax breaks

ALBANY — The 2025-26 state budget approved Thursday night over a month late will total $254.3 billion. It includes not just funding for government and aid to schools and hospitals, but also substantial new policies in law enforcement, education and taxes that touch New Yorkers directly.

But one of the most contentious issues in this budget was the process of crafting the spending plan. The budget was due April 1. But the traditional secretive negotiations between Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders, capped by the leaders’ decision to suspend the constitution’s requirement of three days’ public review before voting, prompted calls to change the process.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle said a major outcome of this budget will be efforts to do just that.

"This process is undemocratic," said Sen. James Skoufis (D-Woodbury). "It is deeply, deeply broken."

Here are some of the takeaways from the budget:

Spending

The budget includes one of the largest spending increases in recent history. The budget grew more than 5% over the 2024-25 budget. It includes a record increase in school spending, more than $2 billion in tax breaks, and funding for the capital program to maintain and improve the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s mass transit system, which includes the Long Island Rail Road. It also will pay for free breakfast and lunch for every student in public and nonpublic schools

The 2025-26 budget grew by $2 billion over Hochul’s initial proposal in January.

The independent Citizens Budget Commission warns the spending is too much as the state threatened cuts in federal aid and a possible recession.

Tax breaks

The budget provides tax rebate checks that will be sent to taxpayers in the fall and increases tax breaks for families with children.

Taxpayers filing joint returns or qualified surviving spouses with gross incomes between $150,000 and $300,000 will get $300 checks; those filing jointly with incomes up to $150,000 will get $400. Single filers, married taxpayers filing separate returns or qualified heads of households earning between $75,000 and $150,000 will get $150; and single filers with income up to $75,000 will get $200.

The budget also trims the income tax rates for lower- and middle-income taxpayers to the lowest rates in nearly 70 years, saving New Yorkers $1 billion.

The tax credit for families with children up to 16 years old also was doubled.

Hochul said the actions add up to nearly $5,000 for most families this year.

Schools get more aid, cellphone bans

State aid to schools will rise to $37.6 billion, up $1.7 billion from the last fiscal year. In addition, the budget provides $26.4 billion in "foundation aid," which is up $1.4 billion over last year. Foundation aid can be directed to schools to assure all students get a "sound, basic education" required by state law.

The budget law also requires school districts to develop policies to ban students’ cellphones, tablets, smartwatches and other devices that can access the internet for "the entirety" of every school day. The ban must apply to all buildings and on school grounds, including athletic playing fields during the school day.

The devices will be banned beginning in the next school year, including during noninstructional time such as homeroom, lunch, recess, study halls and time passing to classes.

The devices can be allowed, however, for specific class instruction led by a teacher, for the health care of a student, in an emergency or for translation.

The law states a student can’t be suspended solely for violating the ban.

Public safety

The budget changes the long-standing "involuntary commitment" law that authorizes police to send people they believe are mentally ill to evaluations in psychiatric wards and hospitals. The previous standard required that a person show signs he or she was a danger to themselves or others.

Under the change, police have greater latitude to send someone to a psychiatric evaluation if the person seems incapable of caring for themselves. No crime nor violence would be needed to trigger the action. Hochul proposed the measure to help police make streets and subways safer, but also to get people into care faster.

The State Legislature added oversight of the process by qualified nonprofit agencies that advocate for the mentally ill, more state funding to expand services, and requiring better help and safeguards for patients upon their release to outpatient care.

Hochul and the Legislature also agreed to alter a 2019 law that required prosecutors to promptly turn over evidence to defense attorneys in the "discovery" stage before a criminal trial and before a defendant must decide whether to take a plea bargain or go to trial. The new agreement sought by the state District Attorneys Association and proposed by Hochul will ease that burden so cases won’t be dismissed when prosecutors fail to turn over evidence that is not central to guilt or innocence of a suspect.

Legislators had sought to make sure the change wouldn't provide prosecutors the leverage they had before the 2019 law to withhold important evidence until trial.

Mask ban

The budget includes a ban on wearing masks as a "secondary charge" for people arrested on more serious charges, such as assault or harassment. The mask law will be a Class B misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 3 months in jail.

Hochul had originally proposed a total mask ban in public as a way to aid police in identifying suspects. But Democratic legislators feared it would compromise the safety of protesters who cover their faces out of fear of retribution. The issue arose amid heated demonstrations surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. The tentative restriction does not apply to facial coverings worn for medical or religious reasons.

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.