According to New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the leaders are close to wrapping up budget negotiations, but there are at least two outstanding issues to resolve: Foundation Aid and capital funding. 

On Foundation Aid, the Senate’s top Democrat reassured school districts that current negotiations are over how much of an increase in Foundation Aid they will receive. She also stated that no district will receive less state aid than they did this year.  

The executive budget included $26.4 billion for Foundation Aid, while the Senate included $27.07 billion. The Assembly proposed $27 billion. 

The second issue holding up the budget is capital funding, or as Stewart-Cousins put it, “how much capital we [should] put aside to make sure that we meet our infrastructure needs.”

There are several areas in the budget that require infrastructure investment, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 2025-2029 capital plan, climate priorities like EV charging and renewable energy projects and the Department of Transportation’s five-year Capital Plan for highway and bridge construction. 

As reported earlier by multiple outlets, Gov. Kathy Hochul has asked lawmakers to give her the authority to cut the budget without a legislative vote if the state sees $2 billion in lost tax revenue. 

“Anything $2 billion or over, the governor is asking for the power to make adjustments, and we have 10 days to look at that,” Stewart-Cousins said of the Legislature.

As for why these emergency powers are needed, Stewart-Cousins pointed to recent stock market volatility caused by President Donald Trump’s tariffs.  

“Right now, we don’t know what’s happening with tariffs and we have seen the economic rollercoaster that we’re experiencing as the president makes decisions on a day-to-day basis, which does impact our revenues because we have Wall Street here,” she said. 

Regarding the recent debate over a bill allowing physicians to prescribe medicine to qualified, terminally ill people for the purpose of taking their own lives, Stewart-Cousins told Capital Tonight that she will bring the bill to the floor of her house for a vote once she’s convinced the votes are there to pass it. 

“Right now, we’re not there,” she said.

The majority leader estimates there are 25 Democrats in her conference who say they are a “yes” vote, which has grown from 17 since 2020. The Assembly passed the bill, known as the “Medical Aid in Dying Act” on Tuesday for the first time.