State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani announced his mayoral run last week, looking to unseat Mayor Eric Adams, who faces an uphill battle for reelection as he fights federal corruption charges.

He is running as the most progressive candidate so far, and has already received the endorsement of the New York City Chapter for the Democratic Socialists of America.

Queens Democratic state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday morning formally announced he's throwing his hat in the ring for mayor of New York City.

Mamdani, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2020, has been a vocal critic of Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted last month on federal corruption charges and has endured waves of resignations within his administration.

While every seat in the State Assembly and State Senate is up for election this November, more than three dozen Democratic incumbents in the city are running unopposed.

Although there are more than half a million Republicans in the five boroughs, GOP party leaders say they can’t mount a fight in some heavily Democratic neighborhoods.

A new effort is building to reform New York's system that tracks alleged acts of abuse or maltreatment of children as state data shows the majority of calls are unfounded — putting thousands of families through unnecessary investigations.

Assembly Children and Families Committee chair Andrew Hevesi plans to introduce a package of bills by the end of the year to reform the Statewide Central Register, or SCR, managed by the state Office of Children and Family Services.

New York’s second-largest city is facing some major changes, but a long-time elected official is ready to help.

Mayor Byron Brown is stepping down to take a new job as president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Association, but he leaves behind a city facing financial uncertainty.

One year ago, Hamas terrorists stormed Israeli settlements along the 25-mile border of the Gaza Strip, shooting, raping, beating, burning and kidnapping men, women and children in what many have described as a modern-day pogrom.

It was the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, with 1,200 people killed and over 100 prisoners still held hostage in Gaza. In the months of war that followed, upwards of 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, and Israel is facing war on multiple fronts.

As climate week convenes in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering a bill to reconvene the state’s sea level rise task force. The task force would be in charge of updating data and making recommendations for how to best address the issue.

The task force was last convened back in 2007 and presented its report in 2010. Those pushing the bill stress that our understanding of climate change and the data available have changed drastically since, and so should the state's strategy.

In recent weeks, both former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential running mate, JD Vance, have been amplifying an internet conspiracy theory about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.

The claim has been debunked with Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine calling the idea "garbage."

Republican New York state Sen. Jake Ashby and a group of other Senate GOP colleagues sent a letter to state Legislature leaders calling for a bipartisan commission to generate recommendations and solutions to security lapses after a former aide to two New York governors was charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government.

Linda Sun, who held numerous posts in New York state government, including deputy chief of staff for Gov. Kathy Hochul and deputy diversity officer for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was arrested last week along with her husband at their $4 million home on Long Island.

Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar says she has opened an exploratory committee to run for city comptroller.

In a statement provided to NY1, she said, in part: "There is not enough return on investment or government accountability. Government inefficiency costs lives. I can fix this, and that is why I am exploring a run for City Comptroller."

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The incumbent and challenger in the 137th Assembly District Democratic primary both see Albany playing a key role in solving problems on the local level.

Demond Meeks is the incumbent in the 137th, which includes parts of Rochester and Gates. The former labor organizer first ran in 2020.

ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. -- The two Republican candidates in New York's 147th Assembly District primary have similar political ideologies but say they're very different people.

Incumbent David DiPietro said he works across the aisle when necessary but isn't afraid to voice his opposition to the Democratic majority.

Candidates Didi Barrett and Claire Cousin are gearing up for the Democratic primary in New York’s 106th state Assembly District.

Barrett has held the seat in the state Legislature for 12 years since being elected in a special election in March 2012.

With Harlem Assemblywoman Inez Dickens stepping down at the end of her term this year, there’s a four-way battle to succeed her in this month’s Democratic primary.

In the fight for Harlem’s 70th Assembly District, the candidates are hitting similar themes.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The New York state Assembly is asking the courts to prohibit the state Division of Human Rights from holding a public hearing or any other further proceedings with regards to sexual harassment claims a former staffer has brought against state Assemblyman Pat Burke, D-Buffalo, as long as the Assembly continues to be named as a co-respondent in the claim.

Burke's former staffer, Nicole Golias, originally filed the claim in April 2023, alleging Burke subjected her to sexual harassment and created a hostile work environment by using inappropriate sexual language and behavior. Among them, she claimed he made comments about his son's sexual encounters after viewing "video tapes" and claimed it did not matter if the women were of legal age of consent.

The New York state Assembly on Friday passed legislation related to the state's new farmworker overtime law that, if signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, would make it easier for some farm businesses to receive reimbursement.

Currently, some farms are ineligible to file for the reimbursement if they have a management company or LLC for payroll purposes or if they go through a thrid-party contractor for paycheck services.

With jobs waiting to be filled, some argue that it’s a no-brainer to allow undocumented immigrants to take professional licensing exams.

But according to New York state Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, legislation to do just that is having a hard time navigating the Legislature this late in the session.

Before the legislative session ends in Albany this week, dairy farmers and advocates are pushing for a change to the language of the overtime tax credit that so far has excluded some farm businesses from getting reimbursed.

Keith Kimball, owner of La Casa de Leche, a dairy farm in Alexander, Genessee, is one of the farmers currently ineligible for a tax credit that offsets increased overtime costs due to new state regulations.

The New York state Democratic and Republican Assembly conferences are ready to face off but this time on the softball field.

On Wednesday, members of the Assembly from both sides of the aisle will take the field at Hudson Valley Community College in a charitable effort to benefit food pantries in the Capital Region.

New York state Assemblymember Anna Kelles has introduced legislation that serves as an alternative to the state’s emerging cap and trade system.

Cap and trade is a program used to help meet climate goals by capping pollution and then authorizing tradable allowances between companies, creating a new market.

There are a variety of worker protections that New York advocates are pushing hard to pass during the final few weeks of the legislative session.

Rochester Democratic state Assemblyman Harry Bronson, who chairs the Assembly Labor Committee, is the lead sponsor of many of them.

Once again, the NY HEAT Act did not make the state budget. The bill is at the very top of environmentalists’ priorities.

The NY HEAT Act would align utility regulations with the state’s emissions reduction targets and remove a residential customer’s legal entitlement to utility gas services, but maintain the entitlement for electric service.

There are a series of moving parts that all need to fit together before a housing deal comes together in Albany. These include tenant protections, a wage deal between developers and construction unions, a tax break for developers, the removal of density regulations and new allowances for office conversions.

One new hurdle is a demand by developers to roll back certain tenant protections that were passed into law in 2019.

The two architects behind New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act have amended added additional safeguards to the legislation in the hope it can soon become law.

The act would allow terminally ill, mentally capable adults who have been given six months or less to live to take their own lives with a cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs.

New York state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would exempt the burning of wood, used for cooking or heating buildings, from restrictions under the state’s 2019 climate law.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates the state lower greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2030, and by 85% by 2050.

Members of the New York state Assembly on Tuesday urged the chamber’s speaker, Carl Heastie, and Gov. Kathy Hochul to include the NY HEAT Act, which aligns utility regulation with state climate justice and emission reduction targets, in the state budget.

Proponents of the measure say it is intended to limit costs to customers as New York state transitions away from natural gas while protecting them from predatory practices by capping utility costs at 6% of income for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to prevent utility companies from hiking rates.

New York state budget negotiations kicked off in earnest on Monday with the landing of what is known as the "mothership."

Known officially as the General Conference Committee, the panel of legislative leaders will drive the process of negotiations toward a deal with Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The New York state Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that would expand the state's ban of the controversial drilling process to extract natural gas to include a newer practice that uses carbon dioxide to extract methane and circumvents the current policy.

Fracking was first prohibited in New York back in 2014 and then permanently banned in the 2021 state budget.

Democratic state lawmakers are letting Gov. Kathy Hochul know where their priorities are in what’s known as their “one-house” budget proposals that were released earlier Tuesday.

The plans will serve as roadmaps for the next couple of weeks in negotiations leading up to the state’s April 1 budget deadline.

The next phase of Albany’s budget negotiations kicked off Monday night, as both Democratic state Senate and Assembly conferences were poised to release their “one house” budget proposals.

Only the state Senate’s document was released online late Monday night as R1952. The documents establish the Legislature’s stance on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2024 $233 billion budget proposal released in January.

New York Republican lawmakers are once again calling for changes and outright rollbacks of the state’s bail laws, pointing to recent incidents in the state as why the law is problematic.

First passed in 2019, Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, have amended the law three times since then, the most recent being last year.

The time for the U.S. to "spring forward" this weekend comes with more resurfaced pushes to make daylight saving time permanent in New York.

State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, a Democrat from Rotterdam, said on Thursday he remains committed to ending the biannual process of changing clocks, an effort he has continued for years now.

State Assemblyman Robert Smullen's son A.J. has died after being hit by a car last month.

Smullen announced his son's death Wednesday morning. A.J. Smullen, 14, was struck by a vehicle the morning of Feb. 22 in front of Bellevue Women's Hospital in Niskayuna, according to the Niskayuna Police. He was taken to Albany Medical Center, where he died.

With redistricting in the rearview mirror and one-house budgets expected to be released next week, Capital Tonight sat down with New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to discuss a variety of topics, including education aid.

The speaker stated he is looking to make sure rural and suburban schools don’t lose money in this year’s budget; and that there is an appetite for revisiting the Foundation Aid formula.

New York state Assemblymember Helene Weinstein, the first woman to chair the influential Assembly Ways and Means Committee, has announced she will retire at the end of this legislative session. Weinstein, the longest-serving incumbent in the state Legislature's lower chamber, joins her state Senate counterpart, Neil Breslin, in planning to retire.

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, announcing her decision to retire, the Brooklyn Democrat said “it has been the greatest honor to serve” and thanked current and former staffers.

On Monday, New York state lawmakers and advocates will join together at the Capitol to announce that the newly minted chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, Rochester’s Harry Bronson, will be the prime Assembly sponsor of legislation that would create a minimum wage parity between upstate and downstate New York.

The bill, known as the Upstate Parity and Minimum Wage Protection Act, would create a statewide minimum wage floor of $17 per hour. As of Jan. 1, the minimum wage in New York City, Westchester and Long Island sits at $16 per hour. In upstate New York, that figure rests at $15 per hour. By 2026, the minimum wage in non-upstate areas will rise to $17 per hour, while upstate will rise to $16 per hour.

A New York state lawmaker introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to ban dynamic pricing on food items in response to fast food chain Wendy's plan to test a system where prices for various items could fluctuate based on demand.

Democratic state Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, of the Capital Region, introduced the "Fair Food Pricing Act," which his office said is meant to protect consumers from potential exploitation and manipulation.

New York’s redistricting saga continues.

Democratic state lawmakers introduced legislation Monday night creating their own congressional map after they voted down a map created by the Independent Redistricting Commission. The question remains when the Legislature will vote on it.

New York state lawmakers for years have considered the possibility of imposing term limits on themselves but so far none of those proposals or campaign promises have come to fruition.

"Hope springs eternal but I know it's an uphill battle," said state Assemblymember Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster.

New York's Democratic-controlled state Legislature rejected new congressional maps drawn by the state's Independent Redistricting Commission.

The proposal slightly altered the maps drawn by a special master for the 2022 elections.

New York Republican state Assemblyman Andy Goodell will not run for reelection in 2024, he announced Thursday on Facebook.

The Western New York lawmaker currently represents the 150th Assembly District and is currently the minority leader pro tempore, which is the second-highest ranking position in the minority conference.

Nursing homes in New York were hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic and are still struggling to recover.

Nursing homes have been asking for help from the state to keep them afloat.

New York state Assemblyman Joe Giglio will not run for reelection in 2024, according to Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay.

The Western New York Republican, currently of the 148th Assembly District, has served in the Legislature’s lower chamber for nearly 20 years.

Hudson Valley Democrat Aileen Gunther is set to retire at the end of this term after serving for over two decades in the state Assembly.

In a statement posted to social media, the chair of the Mental Health Committee said her time in the Legislature had been an “honor,” and she is “wholeheartedly committed to securing funding” and “meaningful policy” before the end of her term.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares officially has his first primary challenger this year.

State Assemblyman Phil Steck confirmed to Spectrum News 1 Wednesday that he will seek the Democratic nomination for district attorney. This after the Albany County Democratic Party on Tuesday evening decided not to endorse anyone in the race, and instead host open interviews for interested and qualified candidates.

Democrat Landon Dais has won the seat for the 77th Assembly District in the Bronx in the special election, Spectrum News projects.

According to the Associated Press, with approximately 94% of the expected vote tallied as of 11:50 p.m. Tuesday, Dais had 78.1% of the vote, while Republican candidate Norman McGill had 21.9% of the vote.

At the historic Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, one of two early voting sites in the special election for a Bronx Assembly seat voters were scarce Friday.

NY1 saw just three people cast ballots in the space of about an hour.

According to state Education Department figures, New York’s public schools are seeing their lowest enrollment numbers since the years after World War II, and that decline is affecting public and private institutions of higher education across the state — from the lecture hall to the budget office.

On Friday, lawmakers heard from higher education leaders, including SUNY Chancellor Dr. John King, in a marathon budget hearing. King has said that SUNY either needs more operating aid from the state or an increase in tuition to address the system’s financial needs.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, child poverty more than doubled nationwide since the expiration of the federal child tax credit.

Additionally, child poverty rates in New York are on the rise. State Assembly Children and Families Committee Chairman Andrew Hevesi has proposed legislation to rectify that.

New York Republican leaders in the state Legislature are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to deploy the state's National Guard to Texas and New York's northern border to assist in the flow of migrants coming into the U.S., according to a letter they sent Thursday.

"More than 8 million border encounters have occurred since President Biden took office. In 2023, over 2.5 million migrants entered the country through the southern border. In December alone, 302,034 encounters were reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. On New York’s Northern Border, 91,640 illegal crossings were reported in the past year," the letter states, signed by state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday issued a proclamation scheduling a special election on Tuesday, Feb. 13 to fill the 77th state Assembly seat recently vacated by Latoya Joyner.

"I’m grateful for the extraordinary service Latoya has performed for her constituents and our State. I wish her luck as she embarks on a new journey, and I look forward to working with the next representative to deliver for New York,” Hochul said in a statement.

Typically in Albany, the legislative minority is unhappy with the opposing party’s session agenda. But after Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address on Tuesday, that wasn’t the case with Assembly Republicans.

According to Minority Leader Will Barclay, the issues the governor raised are aligned with his conference’s agenda.

As New York Gov. Kathy Hochul outlined her legislative priorities for 2024 in her State of the State address on Tuesday, Republican leaders criticized her for what she did not discuss and framed some of her ideas as solutions to problems self-inflicted by years of Democratic control in Albany.

“With a $4 billion budget gap, there was no commitment to keep state spending in check. Illegal migrants are crossing the southern border in droves, but New York has yet to figure out how to properly handle the ongoing influx,” state Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay said in a statement. “Despite New York owning the nation’s worst outmigration numbers, there is no concrete plan to ease financial pressures on families and businesses. And after years of pro-criminal policies that undermine public safety, there is still no interest in increasing accountability or fixing glaring problems in the state’s criminal justice center.”

New York state Assemblyman Harry Bronson, a Democrat from Rochester, will be the next chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, Speaker Carl Heastie announced Monday.

Bronson will take over for Latoya Joyner, who resigned from the state Legislature suddenly to pursue a different professional opportunity.

After New York state lawmakers convened for one day of the 2024 legislative session, state Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner unexpectedly announced she will resign from her seat representing the 77th District in the Bronx.

Joyner, 37, posted her decision to resign in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, early Thursday afternoon. Her resignation will take effect midnight Monday as the assemblywoman says she's leaving public service to pursue a different professional opportunity.

A flurry of year-end vetoes on legislation that passed by wide margins in the New York state Legislature has both the governor and the Assembly speaker bemoaning the rush to pass bills at the end of the six-month legislative session in June.

According to a statement on the executive’s website written by Gov. Kathy Hochul's Communications Director Anthony Hogrebe, “This year the State Legislature passed 896 bills, more than 500 of which passed in the final days of the session – most without a single hearing or opportunity for public comment.”

New York state Assemblymember Marjorie Byrnes won’t run for reelection later this year, the Republican lawmaker announced Tuesday, concluding three terms in the state Legislature.

“The people that I represent, our constituents, they’re friends,” she said. “But what it comes down to is the Assembly calendar requires you to be in Albany extensively from January until June. And at this point in our lives, it’s just time to spend more time with family.”

New York state Assemblymember Al Stirpe says he is ending his campaign for a state Senate seat in Central New York and will instead seek reelection to the state's lower chamber, the Democratic lawmaker told Spectrum News 1 on Wednesday.

Stirpe launched his campaign for the 50th state Senate District in October and had been endorsed by independent Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh.

On Tuesday, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that New York's congressional lines drawn by a special master prior to the 2022 elections must be thrown out and a new set of maps must be approved by the end of February.

The decision was derided by Republicans from every corner of the state, including Long Island Republican state Assemblyman Ed Ra. Ra told Capital Tonight that Democrats in the state “did everything to stack the court in their favor” to win this case.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will deliver her State of the State address — her second as an elected governor — on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Hochul will give the annual address at 1 p.m. in the state Assembly chamber at the state Capitol in Albany, the traditional location for it before former Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved them to the convention center at the Empire State Plaza, which allowed for more people to attend beyond the members of the Legislature.

SUNY enrollment is up for the first time in a decade, but several campuses are struggling financially, leading to rolling back programs available and leaving some buildings unused.

Watertown-area state Assemblyman Scott Gray has a bill that would require taking inventory of all SUNY buildings to determine their futures.

Members of the New York Assembly Minority Caucus have been crisscrossing the state’s rural areas to hear from community members and stakeholders about the issues they are facing and the potential solutions.

Assemblymember Bob Smullen, a Republican who represents parts of the Adirondacks and eastern Mohawk Valley, joined Capital Tonight to discuss what he’s learned and potential solutions he will be pursing in the next legislative session.

More than 100,000 migrants have made their way to New York City as states like Texas continue to transport them from the southern border.

As the city, state and federal governments deal with the influx, New York state Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who also serves as the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair, is calling for an “equitable response” to the influx.

Days after a 16-year-old was arrested for allegedly shooting a security guard at a high school football game in Utica, two New York state lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation that includes increasing penalties for people under 18 to illegally possess a gun and make it easier for them to be tried in criminal court.

Republican state Sen. Joe Griffo, of Rome, and Democratic Assemblywoman Buttenschon, of Marcy, said the bill would also allow judges to use mental health evaluations during a pre-trial detention hearing and allow them to issue a secure order if a defendent is determined not to have strong ties to the area.

New York Assembly and Senate Republicans are calling for an extraordinary session of the legislature to address issues around the influx of migrants to the state. The conferences have sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul urging her to “address the issue head on."

“I think one thing we can agree on in a bipartisan manner is this is a crisis. We’ve had 100,000 migrants come to this state,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay told Capital Tonight. “Clearly, this influx of people is taxing social services, is taxing law enforcement. It’s taxing our citizens and our communities.”

The campaign war chest of th New York Assembly Democratic conference is set to report more than $2.2 million in cash on hand later on Monday, according to a source familiar with the filing.

The Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, the political arm of the large majority conference, is reporting a cash-on-hand total for any conference campaign arm or mainline committee for a party in the last 23 years in a non-election year filing.

The New York state Assembly returned to the state Capitol this week for a short special session to wrap up some “unfinished business” but is expected to leave Albany without taking action on the Seneca gaming compact, according to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Last week, Speaker Heastie announced that the Assembly would not advance a measure that would allow the state to move forward with renewing the gaming compact between New York state and the Seneca Nation. On Wednesday, Heastie said a deal must be respectful of the Seneca Nation while also ensuring the Rochester delegation of Assembly members are “comfortable.”

New York lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a measure that would ban the dumping of radiological waste from the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear plant as it goes through the decommissioning process.

The Democratic-led Assembly approved the measure with a handful of Republican votes as lawmakers and environmental advocates point to the economic damage that can be done by discharging the waste into the river. Opponents, including a labor union that represents workers at the Westchester County site as well as the owner of Indian Point, contend the measure is unnecessary and could cost jobs.

New York Assembly lawmakers and staffers have been told to prepare for two days of legislative work beginning June 20, a source familiar with the discussion said on Tuesday.

The state Assembly is returning for a two-day sint of voting on unfinished business. Many of the bills being considered are local-level concerns for lawmakers.

The Democratic-controlled New York state Assembly in a largely party-line vote on Thursday approved the creation of a commission to assess reparations remedies for slavery.

The measure was approved, 106-41. Later Thursday, the state Senate approved the bill. It now heads to the governor for her consideration.

Proposals that would recognize Lunar New Year and Diwali as formal holidays in New York are taking a step closer to passage.

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Wednesday announced his chamber plans to pass legislation making both holidays in New York by June 8, when lawmakers conclude the legislative session.

With the clock ticking down on the New York legislative session, criminal justice advocates are calling for passing “Clean Slate” legislation before the scheduled end of the legislative session on June 8.

State Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, a Queens Democrat who sponsors the legislation in the Assembly, told Capital Tonight that she’s “confident” that the bill can get done by June 8 thanks to additional support the bill has gotten after “significant changes” were made.

State lawmakers in the Assembly on Monday advanced a package of proposals meant to make it easier for New Yorkers with disabilities to access services.

The measures were approved in recognition of Legislative Disabilities Awreness Day, as lawmakers seek to address the roadblocks people face when receiving help.

A renewed effort to pass an expansion of the state's wrongful death statute is expected to take a step forward on Tuesday when it is considered by the New York Assembly Judiciary Committee.

But the measure is once again being opposed by the state's business community, which also pushed back against a previous version of the bill vetoed this year by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

For years, criminal justice advocates have called for a measure to seal many criminal records in New York in order to help formerly convicted people find employment.

But the legislation has stalled in the state Assembly, which despite its large Democratic majority and recent track record of making progressive-backed changes to criminal justice laws, has not taken up the provision known as the Clean Slate Act for a vote.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s marquee budget proposal was her New York Housing Compact, which would have created 800,000 housing units over 10 years. It was an ambitious plan that would have required each municipality in the state to meet certain growth metrics, but it never got off the ground.

The reason, according to state Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, is that the plan was missing some key elements.

New York lawmakers want more protections and redress for renters in the state who are exposed to lead-based paint in their homes.

Legislation advanced Wednesday in the state Assembly that would bar the exclusion of coverage for losses or damages by the exposure to lead paint from liability coverage to rental property owners.

TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- Democratic leadership in the New York state Assembly is proposing a 4% state and 4% local sales tax on digital streaming products, excluding newspapers and periodicals.

However, Assemblyman Bill Conrad, D-Tonawanda, said the plan does not have support from the entire conference, including himself.

For all the lofty rhetoric around budgets being moral documents, while they’re being created, the sausage-making is done by people like you and me. People who get cranky after working weeks of late nights; who have stale pizza and Pepto-breath; who feel frustrated by political intransigence.

Here lies the danger of the late budget: That the very people responsible for the heavy lifting of creating it may get to a point where the major issues are such an ordeal that there’s no gas left in the tank for smaller issues that could be done post-budget.

State Assembly Republicans Thursday backed a package of measures meant to make schools safer in New York — from adding more school resource officers to addressing mental health concerns.

The announcement for the proposals, the subject of a months-long statewide listening tour on the issue by Republican lawmakers, coincided with multiple schools across parts of upstate New York receiving false threats on Thursday.

New Yorkers could be facing a tax on digital subscription streaming media services for music, TV and audiobooks as well as a fee for delivery services in order to raise money for mass transit under measures contained in a budget proposal being advanced Thursday in the state Assembly.

The tax and fee provisions come as New York is seeking to raise billions of dollars for mass transit as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the New York City region.

The legislative one-house budget proposals don’t include several of the priorities that Gov. Kathy Hochul included in her own spending plan. There’s no tuition hike for SUNY and CUNY; no bail reform; her New York Housing Compact has been reworked; and both houses include a tax hike on wealthy New Yorkers which the governor specifically stated she didn’t want.

Nevertheless, state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told Capital Tonight that there is plenty in common between the Legislature and the executive because so many of their goals remain the same. For example, both support a hike in the minimum wage, an increase in housing units and funding for the M.T.A.

While New York Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay has served in the state Legislature since 2003, he hasn’t spent a lot of time discussing the state budget with any of the state’s previous governors. That changed Wednesday morning when he had breakfast with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt at the governor’s mansion.

“This was kind of a new thing and I appreciate that,” he told Capital Tonight about the meeting, which focused on bail reform, housing and mental health.

As state lawmakers consider a two-year delay in rolling out a system of publicly financed political campaigns in New York, the ongoing redistricting process in the state Assembly is playing a role in the discussions, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Tuesday confirmed.

"Certainly the Assembly is going through a redistricting situation, so it's part of the things we are talking about," Stewart-Cousins said during an unrelated news conference.

New York state lawmakers and advocates are renewing their effort to pass legislation designed to eliminate court fees that people convicted of a crime have been forced to pay. State Assemblyman Kenny Burgos, a Bronx Democrat who sponsors the legislation in his chamber, argues the court fees amount to a “regressive tax.”

Burgos told Capital Tonight that the fees, which amounted to roughly $40 million a year, are used to fund parts of the state government. However, Burgos and advocates argue more is spent to reclaim court fees than the state gets back.

A bill meant to seal many criminal records has gained the backing of all of the newly Democratic elected members of the New York state Assembly, supporters of the legislation on Wednesday said.

The proposal, known as the Clean Slate Act by its supporters, has stalled in the state Assembly over the last several years.

A bill that would create a statewide housing voucher program in New York cleared a key Assembly panel on Tuesday as a debate over how to expand access to housing continues in Albany.

The measure, backed by Assembly Housing Committee Chair Linda Rosenthal, would create a statewide voucher program for people who are homeless and people who at risk of eviction.

Retired New York state Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, who chaired the Assembly Health Committee for 35 years, said there’s an enormous learning curve for lawmakers who take on this challenge.

“I remember when I became health chair, it very quickly became clear to me how little I knew,” he told Capital Tonight. “And that was true of everyone in the Assembly but (former Assemblyman) Jim Tallon, the health chair (at the time), who we relied on a lot.”

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, leader of the Assembly Democrats, is one of a handful of lawmakers who will be actively negotiating the $227 billion state budget with Gov. Kathy Hochul. Capital Tonight anchor Susan Arbetter spoke with Heastie about a variety of issues. Some excerpts from the interview are below:

CT: You’ve said that instead of reforming the bail laws for a third time, that you think the Legislature should instead tackle housing insecurity and the root causes of crime. Can you be specific?

A coalition of regional and statewide labor unions on Tuesday publicly endorsed the effort by legislative staffers in the New York Senate and Assembly to organize, according to a letter signed by the New York State AFL-CIO.

The unionization push by legislative staffers has the backing also of the large public workers unions in the state, including the Civil Service Employees Association, the Public Employees Federation and 1199SEIU.

New York state lawmakers are step closer to being the highest paid state Legislature in the country.

The Democratic-led state Assembly and Senate in a rare December vote on Thursday approved a bill setting their salaries at $142,000 a year — a $32,000 pay hike that was coupled with a provision limiting how much money they can earn outside of their jobs as elected officials.

State lawmakers' plans to return Thursday to vote for a measure to raise their pay by $32,000 is leading to calls for further action on measures that would also increase the minimum wage, extend a gas tax holiday into the new year and provide support for home heating assistance.

It's the give-a-mouse-a-cookie rule of New York politics: If you hold a special session, a few more glasses of milk are going to be sought.

Gov. Kathy Hochul expects lawmakers would include a ban or cap on outside income if they return to Albany for a special session next week to vote for a pay increase, she said Thursday.

Sources have said lawmakers are weighing holding a special session of the Legislature late next week to increase their pay to $130,000 and potentially ban or limit outside income. They currently earn $110,00 annually.

New York lawmakers are weighing a ban on outside income as they discuss potentially increasing their salary in a special session of the Legislature.

A source on Tuesday confirmed a special session of the Legislature could be held next week, with legislative pay reaching $130,000. New York lawmakers currently earn $110,000.

Gov. Kathy Hochul was supportive Friday of lawmakers returning to Albany for a special session to vote to raise their salaries after multiple legislative sources have said legislative leaders are weighing a pay increase.

Lawmakers can only vote to raise the salaries of a future Legislature. If they do not vote for an increase before Dec. 31, a future raise won't take effect until the next Legislature takes office in 2025.