With a $254 billion budget behind them, state lawmakers said they're frustrated by the drawn-out process and how Gov. Kathy Hochul flexed her executive muscle to hold up the spending plan five weeks past its deadline.

New York's Constitution gives the governor extreme powers to set the state budget. However, several lawmakers told Spectrum News 1 they're unimpressed with how Hochul used that authority to drag out negotiations and ensure the top items on her agenda were included.

"I can't think of any legislators that are happy with the governor on the way this process went," Sen. Jabari Brisport, a Democratic Socialist from Brooklyn, said.

Hochul's budget strategy during this session tested her relationship with the Legislature, and it could come at a cost.

The governor held up a budget deal for nonfiscal policy like discovery changes, a restriction on face masks and rolling back education regulations for nonpublic schools. Legislators go unpaid while the budget is late, but Hochul said she was prepared to duke it out through the summer if necessary. Lawmakers did not receive paychecks from April 1 until May 8 after they adopted the spending plan.

And then Hochul started holding events to celebrate the budget 10 days early — falsely claiming it was finished.

"I vowed I would not sign off on a state budget unless it included common sense discovery reforms. And guess what? We got it done," Hochul said at an event Tuesday in New York City.

Hochul didn't sign the 2025-26 budget into law until Friday morning.

"We spent a month working on issues that had nothing to do with the budget — that's why the budget was late," Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris said. "But in the end, we got it done and we'll move on from here."

Gianaris says the Legislature worked hard to compromise after discovery changes and a restriction on wearing face masks grew contentious with members, but added that lawmakers know how to push their personal feelings aside.

"We're going to work with her to get things done, and when we disagree, we'll make our points and fight it out," the Senate leader said. "But whether we like each other or not is immaterial."

Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat from Woodbury, expressed his frustrations with the governor's handling of the late budget on the floor earlier this week.

"She seems very empowered with a budget that's 37 days late," the senator said of the governor Wednesday. "The great news here is that we don't have to take up arms in a revolution to break the shackles from a monarchy here. We don't have to throw tea overboard into a harbor. We just have to have the guts to stand up for ourselves as a Legislature."

And more lawmakers didn't hide their frustrations after the budget passed late Thursday night.

"I'm not thrilled with this year's budget," said Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who voted for the spending plan. "I think few people are thrilled. But what can I say? I think everyone is nonplussed at this budget and no one is nonpissed."

Liu said the governor focused on too much policy in the budget and it slowly wore down the Legislature.

"We kind of came into this year feeling optimistic and that optimism slowly waned at an accelerated pace," he said.

Sen. Brisport agreed and said if Hochul wants to dictate that much policy, she should run to be a legislator.

"If she wants to be a legislator, she can run to be in the Legislature, but she is an executive, so she should execute," Brisport said.

Brisport is angry the final budget didn't increase taxes on the rich and said the governor should have focused on policies that would have better protected the state from President Donald Trump's agenda.

"I think that we should have used this budget to talk about how we're fighting against Trump, and the governor chose to make it about how she's fighting the Legislature," Brisport said. "Trump wins in that scenario. Because potential cuts are coming and she has no plans to stop them, and she's just looking to make cuts herself."

But it's too soon to tell if the drawn-out fight will lead to long-term consequences with the Democratic-led Legislature, and create a deeper wedge between the governor and lawmakers.

"Gov. Hochul just signed a budget that enacts sweeping middle-class tax cuts, triples the child tax credit, and provides $2 billion in inflation relief to New Yorkers," Hochul's Press Secretary Avi Small said in a statement. "It fixes our discovery laws to crack down on recidivism and makes major improvements in subway safety — all while including record funding for schools and health care. Now that this incredibly successful budget deal has been signed into law, Gov. Hochul looks forward to a productive end of session with her colleagues in the Legislature."