In the more than one month that the state budget has been overdue, it’s not uncommon to hear "at least it’s not August" around Albany — a reminder of the chronically late budgets of the early 2000s.

August it is not, but Friday the state budget process took a step closer, with 2025 being the latest since 2010 — "the bad old days" as some around the Capitol call them.

Gov. Kathy Hochul will break her own mark from 2023 when the budget was completed May 2, sparking fears among good government groups that Hochul’s unmalleable approach to the process could be putting the state on a backslide to the years between 1985 and 2010 when embarrassingly late budgets were a regular occurrence, multiple times lasting into July and August.

Right now, it’s not looking like it’ll come close to that. Deputy state Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris told Spectrum News 1 Friday that the end is near, and the hope was for "pencils down" by end of day Friday, as sources say a debate over loosening substantial equivalency requirements in public schools has threatened that goal.

“If we can finish up the agreements today, Monday is a realistic target to pass bills,” he said.

Gianaris pointed out though that the date the budget is adopted will be well beyond May 2.

“It takes about a week or so to get everything mechanically done in the legislative process, so if we don’t get it done today we’re going to be rolling into late next week which we’re trying to avoid,” he said.

Chaotic late budgets faded when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo took office in 2011 and made an on-time budget a priority, and John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, said the past several budgets under Hochul should inspire a renewed appreciation for the April 1 deadline.

“The whole thing is just feckless, irresponsible,” he said. “I think this is a new really bad budget. It’s already a big setback because of its secretiveness and because of the expansive number of policy items that were stuffed in by the governor.”

Kaehny is particularly disturbed by Hochul’s media tour promoting handshake deals on her top-line items while budget talks continue in Albany.

“It’s stunning that the governor is taking a victory lap because she got the policy proposals that she wants,” he said. “Gov. Hochul has done a masterful job manipulating the political narrative here and the press.”

He isn’t letting the Legislature off the hook either, slamming lawmakers for spending the week while Hochul has been taking her victory lap pushing further policy changes with no public process.

Those discussions include changes to campaign finance rules, a push to pay off the state’s unemployment debt despite Hochul ruling it out, and the discussion over loosening substantial equivalency requirements for non-public schools.

“They have put in many, many policy proposals that are getting fought off by the governor’s office,” he said.

Kaehny also pointed to the likely use of a "message of necessity" to speed up the process, circumventing the three-day aging process for bills, and seen as a way to provide adequate time for review, as well as the lack of meaningful preparation for impending federal cuts as further blemishes on the process.

In response, Hochul’s team pointed to a Siena College poll which found that while New Yorkers were concerned that the budget is late, they supported her holding it up for most of her priorities.

“Everyday New Yorkers aren't worried about a bureaucratic deadline. They're worried about public safety and the cost of living,” said Hochul’s press secretary, Avi Small. “That's why Gov. Hochul held out for a budget deal that makes major improvements to our discovery laws, bans cell phones in schools and reforms our mental health laws. New Yorkers overwhelmingly support the Governor's priorities -- and they support her strategy of using the budget to make these much-needed changes.”

Hochul herself has framed the Monday announcement of a "general agreement" and "we got it done" branding as specifically focused on her top policy initiatives, not outstanding items. 

“What I want to focus on today is my priorities in my State of the State address and when I presented the budget, I’m really proud to say that we got it done,” she told reporters earlier this week. “Yes with a budget this complicated there are members who want to weight in on their issues, but on the big ticket items…I’m here to say it’s accomplished.”

For the Legislature’s part, Gianaris said if Hochul wants to “prematurely parade around the state and talk about what’s been done, that’s her right,” but the continued conversations among lawmakers back in Albany that are of such concern to Kaehny are in part a matter of navigating the realities of New York’s executive driven budget process.

“Once the tactic is implemented to start talking about non budgetary items, we almost have to do the same in order for the conversations to be had the way they’re supposed to be had,” he said. “If we sit here and say we’re not going to suggest any policy, but the Governor gets to suggest all of the policy, that becomes a very one sided conversation, so we’re almost compelled to put some of our ideas on the table.”

Blair Horner, senior policy advisor for NYPIRG, lended some credence to Gianaris’s take. He pointed out that while not ideal from a transparency standpoint, given that Hochul’s holdup has eaten into the regular legislative session, it does make sense that lawmakers would try to use the delay to their advantage.

“The longer it drags out, the less time there is in the session to deal with non-budget items, so people try to lump these non-budget items in because it’s so late,” he said.

It's worth noting that the Siena poll referenced by Hochul's team was specific to one year and one specific set of policy proposals. Horner said voters may not put up with Albany shenanigans forever.

"It’s a disservice to New Yorkers that the budget is not done by April 1,” he said. “They’re supposed to do it by April 1 so all of these games are about various members of the Albany political elite trying to work to their advantage.”

Both Horner and Kaehny said that reigning in Albany's late budgets will be difficult, and while other states have implemented things like later fiscal years and completely eliminating pay for lawmakers when the budget is late rather than simply delaying it and a constitutional ammendment has been proposed, there's no clear cut solution in New York.