On Friday morning, there seemed to be hope that voting on the state budget could finally commence on Monday. As Friday wore on, that hope dimmed while policy battles continued behind the scenes. By Monday morning, a complete lack of budget bills printed over the weekend meant no votes, but as a consolation, there was a shift in tone toward one of finality.
“We’re 99.9% done,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters in an afternoon news conference.
Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris identified the rest as “nits and gnats.”
“Dotting Is and crossing Ts and playing with the actual numbers, what the budget is actually supposed to be about,” he said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has been using the phrase “we got it done” for over a week despite the conversation only recently being consolidated down to “nits and gnats,” opined from Long Island.
“There’s a process that’s more procedural,” she said of the need for lawmakers to actually vote on the state budget on behalf of their constituents. “We’re done, there will be voting any moment but my priorities have been achieved.”
In reality, conversations around significant policy issues have continued in the week since Hochul announced a "general agreement" last Monday — one that she declared dead in that very announcement appears to have come back to life in the intervening period: paying off the state’s unemployment debt. Last Monday, Hochul said the state would only pay off the interest on that debt.
“There’s one more item that I wanted to wrap up today, which we have an agreement on - to eliminate the deficit in our unemployment insurance fund, which was created during the pandemic because we had such high cost. This has created an incredible burden on our employers who have been paying extra penalties and costs into the unemployment insurance fund, and I want to alleviate that.”
Gov. Hochul thanked Heastie, who has been a primary force in the push.
Monday afternoon, Heastie ran reporters through a list of other items that have been settled in recent days. On the state’s response to the correction officer strike, he said Hochul’s proposal to lower the age to be a corrections officer from 21 to 18 for limited positions will get the green light.
Hochul’s proposal to provide more opportunities for earned time credits has expanded and contracted repeatedly since she introduced it, at one point expanding to discussions around whether to make the program available to some violent offenders except those convicted of murder and sex offenses.
Heastie reported that the pitch has contracted back to Hochul’s original proposal.
“The only thing on earned time is giving the commissioner the ability to have more programs count toward merit time,” he said.
Heastie said he believes the governor will have the authority to close up to three prisons in the budget, down from her proposal for five.
He also detailed the outcome of a push by the legislature to change campaign finance rules, which has been shredded by good government groups. Heastie downplayed the change Monday, explaining it would in part allow a $250 matching program to apply to contributions above that amount, but only the first $250 would be eligible for the match.
“It’s a modification so that the 251st dollar doesn’t disqualify you from getting a match if a constituent wants to support you,” he said. “It’s not undoing the essence of the program."
John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, told Spectrum News 1 on Friday that the campaign finance issue reflects an effort by lawmakers to stuff the budget with changes to policies through private negotiations which were initially developed with a good deal of public input.
“It went through a tremendous amount of public vetting,” he said of the state’s match program. “A lot of the policy changes they’re making behind closed doors that the public hasn’t seen anything about, most legislators haven’t seen anything in writing about, were adopted through exhaustive processes.”
On education funding, Heastie said modifications to the Foundation Aid formula will go beyond the narrow scope of reforms Gov. Hochul proposed, taking a deeper dive into the state’s metrics for poverty and programming needs.
“We’re going to drive more money to school districts for English language learners, and trying to right fit the regional cost factor,” he said.
Despite a state spending plan of $254 billion, not everyone feels they are getting their fair share.
Addiction service providers are expected to receive flat funding, and Avi Israel, president of Save the Michaels of the World, told Spectrum News 1 that years of stagnant allocations are taking a toll on their ability to help everyone who is in need. He said that based on the governor's executive budget proposal and with no final enacted budget to go off, the organization was forced to let 10 specialists go.
“Most of them were recovery coaches, certified CRPAs, licensed by New York state,” he said.
Israel has been banking on the Legislature making an 11th-hour bid for more funding, or an expanded use of the state’s opioid settlement dollars.
“It’s hard for us to deal with this from a financial point of view because our cash flow dries out,” he said.
Sen. Nathalia Fernandez downplayed the chances of more funding Monday, explaining that while talks over final allocations continue and the issue hasn’t yet been conferenced, her priority was making sure funding doesn’t drop.
“I don’t want to see any dollars lost, so I did see it as a positive sign that this year’s budget was not a decrease from last year’s budget, but we do need more,” she said.
In response, Hochul’s team pointed to what the governor has done to fight the crisis.
"Under the governor’s leadership, New York state has led the nation by making more than $398 million in Opioid Settlement Funds available to communities statewide,” a spokesperson told Spectrum News 1 in a statement. “Gov. Hochul continues to lead the fight against the opioid crisis in New York state, distributing over 286,000 naloxone kits, over 13 million fentanyl test strips and nearly 10 million xylazine test strips across the state. These efforts have helped to reduce overdose deaths by 31% in the 12 months ending in November 2024. While cuts from the federal government present significant challenges, the state has increased its investment in harm reduction, treatment, prevention and recovery services so that New Yorkers can access the care they need and deserve, no matter where they live."