The long-awaited answer to the question of "will 2025 be the NY HEAT Act’s year?" came to a rather underwhelming conclusion in the state Assembly chamber Monday.

The state Assembly has long been the stumbling block for the bill, which has passed multiple times in the state Senate and seeks to align the state’s utility guidelines with its move away from fossil fuels. So much so that last week a compromise bill was introduced that revamped the original legislation specifically to address concerns coming out of the lower chamber.

Fentanyl is so ubiquitous that it could be baked into any pill that one purchases on the street. Even children who aren’t looking for opioids are dying from taking what they thought were amphetamines that a friend may have purchased on the internet. Another issue: drug cartels are now expanding their profits by cutting that fentanyl with animal tranquilizers that no human should ever ingest.

It’s prompted Mohawk Valley Republican state Assemblyman Robert Smullen, who lost his son in a traffic fatality, to propose new legislation called the “Fentanyl Fathers and Mothers Act."

The New York state Assembly may be poised to give the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act a ticket to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk.

The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, which passed in the state Senate but ran out of time in the Assembly last year, once again passed in the Senate this year. Now Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who sponsors the bill in the lower chamber, told Spectrum News 1 that she has garnered the necessary support for the bill to pass in both chambers.

The leader of the New York state Assembly Republicans, Will Barclay, spoke with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter about the state’s late budget, prison closures, the prison strike and his conference’s end-of-session priorities.

It was the latest New York state budget since 2010, and there was some audible griping among lawmakers who didn’t like how long it took, or that the governor used up so much "legislative time" for her own priorities.

While lawmakers gripe about the budget process every year because of the latitude it gives to the executive, this seemed more than just temporary crankiness. But state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie threw cold water on the idea of a constitutional amendment to correct what he views as an unequal process.

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.

Just one day after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she clinched a budget deal, the Democratic-controlled state Assembly spent hours debating — and then passing — a bill that would legalize what’s called “medical aid in dying,” also known as assisted suicide.

But it’s still unclear whether the state Senate or Hochul supports it.

On the 10th time this year that the New York state Senate met to pass a budget extender, state Sen. Liz Krueger, typically tasked with explaining why the Senate is not ready to vote on budget bills, decided to try something new.

“I asked everyone if they got Monty Python references, and they said yes,” she recounted after session.

Monroe County Republican state Assemblyman Josh Jensen is the vice chair of the Minority Joint Conference Committee and the ranking minority member on the Assembly Committee on Health.

He spoke with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter about the minority’s role in the state budget process, as well as why funding early intervention is so important to him.

While the state budget has slowly come together, mayoral primary elections have been quickly sneaking up. On June 24, there will be Democratic primary elections in four of the larger upstate cities including Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo.

One of the most closely watched races is in Buffalo where Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon is trying to earn his first full term after the resignation of longtime mayor Byron Brown to head up Western Regional Off-Track Betting.

State lawmakers bought themselves another two days to pass a state budget, now 22 days late. They passed an extender to bridge the funding gap for state services and payroll from Wednesday when the current extender expires, through Thursday.

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris told reporters the most likely scenario at this point seems to be a budget deal later this week with voting on budget bills spilling into early next week.

Due to pandemic aid, New York state currently receives more money from the federal government than New Yorkers send to Washington in federal taxes. Not only is this four-year trend about to end, but it is also a shift from a decades-long imbalance that former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan would rail against in an annual report nicknamed "the Fisc."

A new bill would give the state the ability to withhold payments to the federal government if the Trump administration withholds funds from the state in defiance of court orders.

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Wednesday night that state leaders have reached a deal on discovery reform, which has held up budget talks for over two weeks, and made significant progress on other policy items in the spending plan.

After a roughly one-hour leaders meeting with Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday evening, Heastie told Spectrum News 1 the meeting went well.

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, one of the “three people in a room” who hammer out the contours of a state budget, announced Tuesday that progress was being made on one of the stickier issues holding up the spending plan: Discovery.

He told Capital Tonight that over the last four days, he and his staff, working with the five New York City district attorneys, came up with a framework of a deal on the issue that he presented to his conference Tuesday.

With the state budget over 11 days late and no end in sight to negotiations, freshmen state lawmakers are getting a real taste of what Planet Albany's made of.

A late state budget may be business as usual in Albany, but it's a brand new process for those who took office in January.

With the mood at the state Capitol souring by the day, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie threw a curveball: A bill which would make it so that lawmakers don’t have their paychecks withheld for a late budget— if the governor inserts policy proposals into her pitch.

In an interview with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter, Heastie explained the move.

As first reported by WNYC’s Gothamist, New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is proposing legislation that will continue paychecks to lawmakers if the budget is late and if the governor includes unrelated policy items in the spending plan.

The proposal comes as the legislature and the governor appear to be stalled on a variety of policy issues in budget talks.

Just last week, Secretary of U.S. Veterans Affairs Doug Collins announced he would be cutting the department’s workforce by 80,000 people, which includes numerous veterans.

It’s an issue close to the heart of Army veteran and Syracuse Assemblywoman Pam Hunter, speaker pro tempore of the state Assembly. Hunter is a member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs as well as the chair of the Subcommittee on Women Veterans.

New York youth sports leagues and schools are struggling to find referees. Games are being postponed and some canceled as a result.

There are a number of reasons why, but a big one is the negative and often hostile behavior of spectators and parents as they watch the games.

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Thursday afternoon that state budget negotiations are “kind of at a standstill” and reiterated his frustration with the amount of policy that gets included in the state’s spending plan every year.

“Things are kind of, kind of at a standstill. We’re going to pass this debt service bill and the members will go home, do work in their districts and we’ll pick it back up next week,” Heastie said.

Eighty-seven percent of roads in New York are owned and maintained by the state, which means you probably drove on at least one such road on your way home from work today.

But funding for repairs and maintenance of those roads hasn’t been increased in three years. This budget cycle, there have been calls by lawmakers from both parties to increase funding for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program, or CHiPs.

The New York state budget is due in a month. While we’ve seen a barrage of news coming out of Washington, D.C., as well as ongoing wildcat strikes among New York correction officers, the state Legislature has been quietly working behind the scenes on the annual state spending plan.

Both houses held revenue consensus meetings last week. It appears that the one-house budgets, which are being released on Monday, will call for spending that is between $500 million and $800 million more than Gov. Kathy Hochul had planned on.

New York state Assemblyman Robert Smullen is pushing a bipartisan bill to raise awareness around the fatal consequences of impaired and reckless driving.

The legislation is named after Smullen's son, Alexander John Smullen, who died at the age of 14 last March after being hit by a car.

The city of Albany may be getting a major facelift.

In her State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed spending $400 million to revitalize the city, which has struggled with issues like safety in the wake of the pandemic.

Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar is pivoting her political ambitions to New York City’s public advocate office.

The Democrat who has represented the 38th Assembly District — which includes parts of Glendale, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood and Woodhaven — since 2020 announced Monday she is withdrawing from the city comptroller race to pursue the public advocate position.

There were a few issues that Gov. Kathy Hochul didn’t mention during Tuesday’s State of the State address that are of interest to a variety of New Yorkers. Two such issues are the MRTA, the marijuana law, which has created a legal quagmire for some farmers and retailers. The other is AIM (aid and incentives for municipalities) aid, which is the direct financial support that municipalities receive from the state every year.

Last year, AIM was increased by $50 million for the first time in 15 years. While a good start, state Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a booster of cities like Buffalo, told Capital Tonight that it’s not enough.

While New York state is currently dominated politically by Democrats, the past few elections have chipped away at the notion of Democratic invincibility – a move to the right that could be seen and heard Tuesday in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address.

She’s proposing to cut taxes, support first responders, “clarify” discovery and expand Kendra’s Law – all ideas that would feel at home in a speech delivered by a Republican governor.

Wednesday was the first day of the new legislative session in Albany. New York state lawmakers returned to get to work on legislation as they also stare down an April 1 budget deadline.

In addition to opening remarks, small talk in the hallways, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins being re-sworn into their posts, the battles for the upcoming session are taking shape.

On Wednesday, Democrats in the New York state Assembly are expected to reelect Carl Heastie as their speaker.

It will be the beginning of his 11th year as house leader; he was elected to the post after former Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested and had to step down in February 2015.

In the aftermath of the 2024 elections, which left Democrats without a base of power in Washington, the word "affordability" has become a political yardstick for Gov. Kathy Hochul and other top Democrats in New York.

The notion of affordability has become so paramount that Hochul’s State of the State address features an aptly named “affordability agenda” which she’s begun fleshing out with her first two proposals: inflation refund checks and expanded child tax credits.

New York state Assembly Republicans are viewing what happened on Election Day as an indication that politics in New York is changing. In fact, they see the political landscape here as more friendly terrain, if not just a little weird, with the New York City mayor on good terms with Donald Trump, and the Democratic lieutenant governor not denying he’s interested in challenging the sitting Democratic governor.

Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay spoke with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter about the state’s shifting political sands.

A small plane carrying three people made an emergency landing on the state Thruway on Friday as an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived in Western New York to look into Thursday's fatal small plane crash. Last week, a small plane crashed on Interstate 684 in Westchester County, killing one person.

The NTSB, which this week released a preliminary investigation report on a plane crash that killed a pilot last month in Windham, is documenting the site and wreckage from Thursday's crash. It is investigating more than two dozen plane crashes across the state this year. At least seven crashes involving small airplanes were fatal.

A joint hearing of the Government Operations Committees in the New York state Senate and Assembly took testimony in Albany Thursday to consider what to do about the state’s policy for videoconferencing by members of the Legislature, which is set to expire in July 2026.

Rooted in COVID-era changes, the rules have been extended and expanded multiple times already.

The holidays are just around the corner with families and loved ones joining together over good gifts and food.

But for families experiencing food insecurity, this can be a stressful time.

New York state Assemblymember Mary Beth Walsh has been named the new state Assembly minority leader pro tempore, the second-highest ranking position in the minority conference, Minority Leader Will Barclay announced Monday.

Walsh succeeds Andrew Goodell, who decided to retire this year and not run for reelection.

Air medical services provide crucial care to New Yorkers, especially in the state’s health care deserts. State Assemblymember Carrie Woerner toured LifeNet of New York’s 7-1 base in Selkirk Wednesday.

It was a valuable opportunity to get an inside look at how the facility operates, but it also represented a chance for Woerner to ask questions and gauge where a bipartisan effort to reform EMS services in New York is hitting its marks, and where work still needs to be done.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will deliver her 2025 State of the State address — her fourth as governor — on Tuesday, Jan. 14, her office announced Thursday.

Hochul will give the annual address at 1 p.m. at Hart Theater at the Egg in Albany, a departure from her past addresses in the traditional setting of the Assembly chamber in Albany, which she had called the “original and rightful setting." Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo had moved them to the convention center at the Empire State Plaza, which allowed for more people to attend beyond the members of the Legislature.

Central New York state Assemblyman Will Barclay has been re-elected as Republican leader in the Democratic-dominated chamber.

The vote was held with Republican lawmakers Monday afternoon as they prepare for the 2025 legislative session set to begin in January.

A group of New York state lawmakers, who are mothers and call themselves "the Mom Squad," are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign several pieces of legislation aimed to improve access to child care, according to a letter they sent to the governor this week.

The lawmakers say they are addressing legislation that would:

Democrat Paula Kay has officially defeated Republican Louis Ingrassia in New York's 100th state Assembly District to capture the Hudson Valley seat held for 20 years by Democrat Aileen Gunther, the Associated Press declared Wednesday.

Kay defeated Ingrassia with 26,117 (52.5%) to 23,656 (47.5%) votes with 99% of the expected vote tallied, according to the AP.

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. -- Turn on a television in Western New York and there's a good chance you'll see a political advertisement about the 143rd state Assembly District.

According to Federal Communications Commission political files, incumbent Democrat Monica Wallace has spent roughly $270,000 on ad buys from the three network affiliates.

Republican Christine Esposito is challenging incumbent Democrat Marianne Buttenschon in New York's 119th Assembly District seat.

“I think you need somebody who is willing to stand up for change, stand up to have their voices heard in Central New York, the Mohawk Valley,” said Christine Esposito.

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.”