The MTA sucks a lot of the oxygen out of the room in Albany during state budget season, but upstate transit needs significant investments as well.

It’s a fight that state Sen. Jeremy Cooney is ready to engage in as state Senate Transportation Committee chairman.

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.

Although it’s looking like Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders won’t make their April 1 budget deadline, they appear to be in agreement on a big-ticket item for the governor: an all-day ban on cellphones in schools, known as “bell-to-bell.”

“The majority of the members are more comfortable with a bell-to-bell approach, they really are,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester Democrat, said.

Less than a week out from the April 1 state budget deadline, there appears to be significant movement on at least one of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top demands: a bell-to-bell cell phone ban in schools.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins updated reporters on the progress of negotiations Wednesday, a process she described as “at the end of the middle” but “tedious” as a result of uncertainty over federal funding. Stewart-Cousins indicated that making the April 1 deadline appears unlikely, but those close to the process have suggested it does not appear the delay will push past mid April.

New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, using her Albany lingo, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that state budget negotiations have reached “the end of the middle” but that talks remains impacted by President Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington that could bring various government cuts.

“The process is tedious because what we see on the horizon coming from our Republican colleagues in Washington,” Stewart-Cousins said.

It looks like Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed bell-to-bell cellphone ban has some critics among lawmakers and school administrators.

Last week, Capital Tonight spoke with New York’s Superintendents’ Association and School Boards Association about why they are pushing for less stringent rules around cellphones.

With the annual April 1 state budget deadline looming, Gov. Kathy Hochul says she’s warning New Yorkers about possible federal funding cuts to major services, including Medicaid programs and school lunches.

Meanwhile, a group of Albany Democrats want her to fight back by refusing to send regularly scheduled state tax dollars to the White House.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders are wrapping up their first week of budget talks. By all accounts, discussions remain at a surface level, and headed in the right direction despite a curveball from the governor: a late push for some sort of restriction on wearing masks in public. A previous law went by the wayside amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jack O’Donnell, strategist and founder of O’Donnell & Associates, told Spectrum News 1 that even with the push for a mask policy, things still appear to be relatively tame.

There was significant outrage among both moderate and left-wing Democrats over U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s decision last week to vote to advance the Republican continuing resolution without asking for anything in return.

At the same time, Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are currently negotiating a state budget without explicitly addressing the probability of big federal budget cuts coming down the pike.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday she is worried about the impact of President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the shutdown of the U.S. Department of Education.

The governor was at Eagle Point Elementary School in Albany, a place she said relies heavily on the federal government for subsidizing school lunches. According to Hochul, Albany County gets $6 million from the federal government for student school breakfasts and lunches and elimination of the Education Department could jeopardize that.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools in her executive budget, along with a $13.5 million appropriation to implement the ban.

While the proposal has the support of the teachers’ unions, there are a couple of other ideas floating around that aren’t as stringent as the governor’s that are gaining traction.

Lawmakers expect a fairly peaceful budget process this year, but Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are at odds over how much rental assistance to put in the annual spending plan as they look to reverse the state's ongoing shortage of affordable housing.

The governor isn't backing $250 million the Senate and Assembly proposed in each one-house budget to create a Housing Access Voucher Program and remains focused on building up a lacking housing supply instead.

The "mothership" landed in Albany on Monday — the traditional kickoff of the budget negotiation process. Known more formally as the General Budget Conference Committee, the meeting has been billed in recent years as an exercise in transparency, but in reality the rest of the process outside of that 20 minutes of formality will take place almost entirely behind closed doors.

“Now that the [one-house budgets] have been passed, we’re ready to go to work,” state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters. “At some point, we’ll walk out holding hands.”

The Rockefeller Institute delivered its suggested overhaul of New York state's school funding formula in December. Since then, neither Gov. Kathy Hochul nor the two legislative houses have adopted more than a few of the think tank’s 32 recommendations.

According to attorney Michael Rebell, executive director of the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia, the few data points that have been updated in the executive and one-house budgets have harmed districts that serve the most vulnerable students.

Nearly 400 mayors and local officials from across New York sent a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders asking the state to continue increasing funding for small governments as state budget negotiations take place in Albany, the New York state Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials (NYCOM) announced late last week.

Known as AIM, or aid and incentives for municipalities, cities and towns received a $50 million boost in unrestricted funding in last year’s budget following an aggressive campaign from local leaders, the first increase in 15 years. These state funds are used by small governments to pay for things like supplies and wages for police officers and firefighters.

The heads of state agencies charged with sealing about 5 million criminal records did not ask New York lawmakers to target additional funding in the upcoming budget to complete the task, and maintain they have the required resources to get it done by the mandated deadline.

A policy known as the Clean Slate Law makes 5 million criminal records in the state eligible to be sealed by Nov. 16, 2027.

Both houses of the New York state Legislature on Thursday voted to adopt their one-house budget proposals, their rebuttals to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget pitch that will fuel the negotiation process as Hochul and legislative leaders work to come up with a deal by April 1.

Democratic leaders have aggressively pushed an “affordability” agenda this year in the wake of November’s election in which they were widely seen as being out of touch with voters.

This week, the New York legislative houses released their budget proposals in the next stage of the state budgeting process.

Nathan Gusdorf, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, joined Capital Tonight on Wednesday to help make sense of the proposals and what they mean for the state’s fiscal future.

While not reminiscent of the battle over Foundation Aid that took place at this time last year, with the release of one-house budgets Tuesday, there is daylight when it comes to education policy and funding between Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal and that of legislative leaders.

When it comes to a cell phone ban in schools, Hochul is gearing up to push her bell-to-bell proposal across the finish line when the state budget is due April 1, with the backing of the powerful New York State United Teachers union and other education groups.

New York lawmakers have included a correction to the overtime tax credit in the budget proposals, which previously excluded some farms from receiving the credit, industry advocates said Wednesday.

Prior to the correction, the law, which mandates farmers pay overtime to workers after a decreasing number of hours, didn’t allow farms that operate through a management company or payroll company to receive the tax credit meant to help offset the increased costs.

Two of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s big proposals — a cellphone ban in schools and tax rebate checks for New Yorkers — may not survive state budget negotiations, which have now begun in earnest ahead of the April 1 deadline.

“What a radical concept, the thought that students should be paying attention to their teachers!” Hochul said on Tuesday in Albany, building off her successful crusade against social media targeting minors.

With New York state on Monday declaring the illegal corrections officer strike over, lawmakers are still reacting as the state budget process moves into a phase many on the picket lines had hoped to use to their advantage.

While always highly unlikely, a top-line demand of those on strike was a legislative repeal or significant revision of the HALT Act, which limits solitary confinement and replaces elements of it with rehabilitative programming.

The legislative chambers on Tuesday released their one-house budget proposals in the latest advancement of the state budget process.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger joined Capital Tonight after the release to talk about what made it in as legislators prepare for negotiations with the governor.

One of the most urgent campaigns of this state budget cycle is one to end child poverty in New York state.

A diverse group of organizations sharing that mission converged on the state Capitol earlier this week urging lawmakers to help improve long-term outcomes for children and families from households experiencing economic hardship.

Democratic lawmakers are expected to push Gov. Kathy Hochul to spend the extra $1 billion in her executive budget to address climate change a few years faster than the governor proposed.

Hochul's budget commits an extra billion dollars for sustainable energy projects and other programs to reduce emissions to keep up with requirements mandated under the 2019 Climate Act.

Several state lawmakers said Wednesday they do not expect either the Senate or Assembly's counter budget offer to Gov. Kathy Hochul's spending plan will amend a controversial change to a $9 billion Medicaid home care program that takes effect April 1.

More than 150,000 disabled and elderly people who use the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program need to be registered with new management company Public Partnerships LLC with just over three weeks to go.

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.

The state Legislature is considering three animal-related bills as part of the state budget due on April 1.

The New York State Animal Protection Federation (NYSAPF) is asking the governor and the Legislature to create a $2.5 million New York State Animal Crimes Fund to help shelters pay for the costs associated with taking in abused animals.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The State University of New York system says the outlook is bright.

Chancellor John King told legislators at a joint budget hearing on higher education Tuesday SUNY has seen system-wide enrollment increases in back-to-back years for the first time in 15 years with record setting investment from the state.

Political groups that advocate for LGBTQ+ people are pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders to include millions of more dollars in the budget for health care programs that serve the community — especially for transgender youth.

Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, NYC Pride and Power and Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn sent a letter to Hochul, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie asking for more in the budget for transgender people who cannot access health care and funding for HIV/AIDS housing, prevention and treatment.

New York lawmakers learned more about one of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget proposals that many have viewed skeptically as an effort to stall a universal child care plan: a New York Coalition for Childcare. The body would be made up of business leaders, labor unions, tax and revenue experts, and child care providers.

Critics question the need for the panel when the state’s Child Care Availability Task Force already made recommendations, and a roadmap to universal child care exists.

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.

In her proposed executive budget for fiscal year 2026, Gov. Kathy Hochul has allocated $45 million, through the state Office for the Aging, for in-home and community-based services to meet the needs of older adults.

"This is the best budget I've ever seen for older adults. It takes a look at all those services that are needed, how much they cost annually they to provide in certain counties," said Greg Olsen, director of the state Office for the Aging.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $252 billion executive budget proposal includes plenty of good news for families, including a middle-class tax cut, an inflation rebate check and a tripling of the child tax credit.

But the proposed spending plan is enormous, fueled in part by an 8% increase in revenue that some budget watchdogs say is not sustainable.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is feeling the heat from environmentalists angry at what they claim is her decision to delay a “Cap-and-Invest” program.

At the same time, the interim head of the Department of Environmental Conservation denied that there was any delay. But changes to the program outlined in the governor’s executive budget prompted three environmental justice advocates to resign from the state’s Climate Justice Working Group, saying in a letter that they believe the governor is backpedaling on her climate commitment.

New York state’s health commissioner on Thursday praised Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to provide free meals to students across the state as beneficial to both children’s health and families’ wallets.

“We all need food, and kids need food. And you know, this means everybody gets food. So one, you're not going to see this stink anymore about who's getting the free breakfast or the free lunch—everybody gets it now, and it saves everybody money, $165 a month,” Commissioner James McDonald said during an interview on “Mornings On 1.”

A Christmas Eve letter from the state legislative leaders was coal in the MTA’s stocking, rejecting its $65 billion 2025-29 capital plan.

But in her budget address, Gov. Kathy Hochul reaffirmed her support for the MTA in her budget address Tuesday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul released the details behind her $252 billion state budget proposal for the next fiscal year complete, with tax cuts for the middle class, new spending for cops on the subway and increases for the state’s mammoth Medicaid program.

While her top budget official warned potential financial decisions out of Washington, D.C. could negatively affect the state, Hochul had her own message for New York’s Republicans now in power.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to announce Tuesday a budget that increases state spending by nearly $10 billion, offers tax cuts and backs a slate of affordability measures.

The fiscal year 2026-2027 state budget proposal is projected to grow to $252 billion in combined state and federal funding if approved by Hochul and the state Legislature.

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.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing funding universal school meals in the next state budget as part of her State of the State executive agenda that she estimates will feed more than 2.7 million students, she announced Friday.

The governor's office said this program will help save families an estimated $165 on groceries per child each month. And if students currently buy meals at school every day, the state says it will save parents $2,000 per child a year, as well as address food insecurity among children and create more opportunities for students to succeed.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will announce in the coming days her support to fund universal school meals in the next state budget as part of her State of the State executive agenda, sources told Spectrum News on Wednesday.

It is estimated to cost about $250 million for universal coverage for all school districts in the state. Currently, about $145 million of the state's $237 billion budget funds free school meals in low-income districts.

In 2019, the New York State Board of Regents under Chancellor Betty Rosa created a Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) to travel around the state and collect information from stakeholders regarding the attributes and skills that students need to get them ready to graduate from high school, whether they choose to go to college, a trade school or participate in the economy in another way.

Fast forward to 2024 – the state has now determined that there should be multiple pathways to graduation, and that a Regents diploma isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the only option for students.

“We have more students who are coming to school who are not potty-trained.”

Marie Wiles was blunt about the increasingly basic needs of her pupils. She has served as superintendent of the Guilderland Central Schools, a suburb of Albany, for 14 years.

The New York state Division of the Budget has released its mid-year update to the state’s financial plan.

The update details how much tax revenue is coming into the state’s coffers, and whether spending is on track with projections.

The primary school funding formula for public schools in New York is getting a reboot.

The Foundation Aid formula, which has been the vehicle by which lawmakers direct money to school districts based on need, has been the blueprint for education advocates since 2007. But the formula is 17 years old and requires new inputs and updated data to accurately reflect district need.

The New York state Division of Budget sent a letter to state agencies on Tuesday warning them to keep their funding requests flat ahead of the FY25-26 budget that New York lawmakers will have to pass in April of next year.

“While there is a growing consensus that the national economy is proceeding toward a ‘soft landing,’ New York’s status as the world’s financial capital makes it susceptible to a multitude of economic, geopolitical, and market risks,” the letter to agency commissioners from state Budget Director Blake Washington, reads. “A thorough consideration of state commitments will allow the state to be better positioned to meet planned out-year spending growth, and in the event of an economic downturn, will lessen the need for potential reduction in critical services at a time when New Yorkers would otherwise be in most need of our support. To accomplish this, agency budget requests for State Fiscal Year SFY 2026 should not exceed the total SFY 2025 Enacted Budget agency funding levels, excluding one-time investments."

The 2024-25 New York state budget features $500,000 allocated for the review and update of Holocaust curricula in schools, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblymember Nily Rozic announced.

This comes roughly two years after legislation was passed requiring the state Department of Education to examine whether the Holocaust is being properly taught in schools. That survey showed all school districts that were required to include Holocaust education in its curriculum did so. The 2022 review also showed most districts taught students about the Holocaust in social studies and English Language Arts (ELA) classes, not through specialized courses or events.

The New York state budget from a progressive perspective is a mixed bag, according to one of the co-directors of the influential Working Families Party.

In a conversation with Capital Tonight, New York Working Families Party Co-Director Jasmine Gripper lauded the full funding of campaign finance reform which helps boost small campaign donors, as well as the restoration of education aid.

People aged 65 and over are the fastest-growing segment of New York state’s population, but according to AARP, the nation's largest organization dedicated to empowering older Americans, you wouldn’t know it from this year’s enacted New York state budget.

“Older adults were, for the most part, left out of the budget,” Beth Finkel, AARP’s New York state director, told Capital Tonight.

Many of New York state’s mayors are celebrating a bump in state funding for their municipalities in the state budget.

AIM, or aid and incentives for municipalities, will see a $50 million boost in unrestricted funding for cities, the first in 15 years.

Landlords of rent-stabilized apartments in New York City are saying this year’s budget was a lost opportunity.

Jay Martin, executive director of CHIP-NYC, the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents the owners of New York City’s 400,000 rent-stabilized rental properties, told Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter that the math doesn’t add up.

On the surface, the housing deal in the enacted state budget includes many of the provisions that activists had fought for, including elements of the Good Cause Eviction bill and union wages for construction workers.

It also includes a new tax incentive for New York City developers and incentives to convert unused office space into affordable housing.

Over the weekend, state legislators passed a $237 billion budget. As usual, the big story isn’t the budget itself—it’s all of the policy decisions that were rolled into it, sometimes as a result of last-minute negotiations. NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan breaks down some of the highlights.

null

The New York state Legislature still hasn't voted on a state budget, despite Gov. Kathy Hochul announcing the "framework" of a conceptual agreement on Monday.

The governor has acknowledged that details still need to be ironed out, but it is still not clear when the budget process will be wrapped up. State senators meanwhile told reporters as they left conference for the day that they plan to pass another budget extender Thursday possibly bumping the budget deadline to next week.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state’s residents want to see a state budget “that delivers for them” and says there is a lot in the conceptual agreement reached Monday between her and legislative leaders that those residents can be proud of.

The governor sat down with Capital Tonight on Tuesday to discuss some of the parameters of that agreement that includes public safety measures, record funding in education and a housing plan.

New York budget conversations in Albany are winding down — and that's how Gov. Kathy Hochul wants it after announcing a budget framework without details while lawmakers continue to discuss parts left unfinished.

State lawmakers on Wednesday are scheduled to conference remaining details of the the $237 billion Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget, including parts of the housing package, mayoral control of New York City schools and proposed cuts to Medicaid programs.

One of the major topics this state budget cycle was K-12 education funding, and whether Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to make changes to the Foundation Aid formula would survive the negotiating process after legislative leaders came out against it.

The governor announced a “conceptual” budget agreement Monday that she said commits $36 billion to education, the highest in state history.

After Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she struck a “conceptual” agreement on a $237 billion spending package on Monday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie appeared to back her up.

However, fellow Democrats in the state Legislature on Tuesday had various questions because they still had yet to discuss final details tied to big-ticket items like housing and health care.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York legislative leaders have come to a preliminary agreement on the state budget that includes a comprehensive housing plan, record funding in education and increased emphasis on public safety measures, the governor said.

Lawmakers on Monday appeared to have found consensus on a spending plan worth $237 billion, which is up from $233 billion that the governor proposed at the start of the legislative session in January.

The New York state budget is now more than 10 days late.

On Friday, the state Assembly passed another extender. The measure passed in the state Senate on Thursday. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the measure into law Friday afternoon.

New York is currently taking a look at state liquor laws that many criticize as being antiquated and harmful to businesses.

Some of that is up for discussion in the state budget, including a pandemic-era policy allowing restaurants to sell to-go cocktails that is scheduled to sunset next year. Another would allow bars and restaurants to purchase a limited quantity of liquor from a nearby store.

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 city’s public school system is the largest in the U.S., with over a million kids and upwards of 1,800 schools, and the mayor is responsible for setting the agenda.

It’s called mayoral control.

We still have no state budget deal.

It’s been more than a week since the April 1 deadline and it seems we will have to wait a bit longer.

Twenty-six organizations across New York state have issued a memorandum of support for two pieces of legislation aimed at protecting children on social media as final budget negotiations continue.

The organizations, which include New York State United Teachers, the National Alliance on Mental Illness NY, the state School Boards Association, various Urban League branches and other organized labor, say the state Legislature should act now to pass the "Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act" and the "Child Data Protection Act."

Schools are breathing what will likely be a temporary sigh of relief.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week that changes she had recommended in her executive budget to the Foundation Aid formula, the primary school funding formula, would wait until next year’s budget.

Another state budget extender was passed Monday by the New York state Senate to keep the government running through Thursday, but will fund pay for state employees through next Tuesday.

The state Assembly approved the measure over the weekend. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed it into law Monday afternoon.

While upstate New York has been mesmerized by athletic, seismic and astronomical activity this week, there are some mundane (but important) financial issues that need to be discussed, namely New York’s annual spending plan, which was due on April 1.

A veteran of multiple state budget negotiations, attorney Shontell Smith, a partner at Tusk Strategies and former chief of staff to state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, discussed how the budget process works in Albany with Capital Tonight anchor Susan Arbetter.

The final state budget will continue to be late through the weekend as priorities appear to be getting eclipsed.

Lawmakers Thursday approved a second budget extender to keep the government running through Monday. With no final budget agreement expected, a third extender lawmakers will need to pass an additional extender by noon Monday to ensure thousands of state employees get paid on time.

New York lawmakers are pushing for more higher education funding in the final enacted state budget.

While Gov. Kathy Hochul’s excutive budget includes significant funding, those lawmakers are hoping to go further, making changes to the Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, which helps eligible New York residents pay tuition at approved schools in New York state.

While some New York state budget watchdogs are warning lawmakers to rein in spending, the union-backed Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) has recently released an analysis that shows the Legislature is simply proposing spending growth that would return the state to its 2014 level of spending, before former Gov. Andrew Cuomo implemented tax cuts and a 2% spending cap.

Nathan Gusdorf, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, discussed spending, inflation and raising taxes with Capital Tonight host Susan Arbetter on Thursday.

The New York state Legislature on Thursday passed another state budget extension and it was promptly signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The extension through April 8 makes sure National Guard members are paid on time, but another will need to be passed by Monday to ensure other state employees are paid on time.

Last week's death of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller has prompted state leaders and lawmakers to revive talks of New York's bail reform law and questioning if the policy that ended cash bail requirements for many criminal charges should be amended a fourth time.

Diller, who was 31, was killed March 25 in Far Rockaway, Queens, while conducting a traffic stop. The man accused of fatally shooting Diller had a record of 21 prior arrests — sparking conversation across the political spectrum about flaws in the state's criminal justice system.

Good government groups are pushing the state to do more when it comes to political “deepfakes” generated by artificial intelligence. They say it’s especially important as we head into an election season that will see offices across the state and national levels on the ballot.

It’s an issue that also has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle concerned.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New York state is losing thousands of journalists and the stories they would tell.

Empire State Local News Coalition Founder Zachary Richner said in the past two decades the state has lost roughly half of its newsrooms, including recently, three prominent Westchester newspapers.

State budget negotiations continue in Albany and there are last-ditch efforts being made to get various pieces of legislation included in its final version.

One proposal involves the creation of a short-term rental registry. Some municipalities have introduced something similar on the local level and it’s a measure included in both the state Senate and Assembly budget proposals.

The city public school system’s top bureaucrat lobbied Albany lawmakers Tuesday, holding out hope that the Legislature grants Mayor Eric Adams an extension of mayoral control.

“We think that we’ve done a great job rebuilding trust with our families and our communities, and we’ve been delivering real results,” city Department of Education Chancellor David Banks told reporters in the State Capitol Building on Tuesday.

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.

State lawmakers are on track to return to Albany Tuesday to try to close on a budget deal by their new deadline April 4.

Among the many open topics is New York’s foray into the world of artificial intelligence and a multi-million dollar investment in a research hub.

While New York state lawmakers are debating where to cut health care, there are tax breaks in the state budget for people who buy private jets and luxury yachts.

The budget watchdog group Reinvent Albany calls these among the most obscene tax breaks in New York’s budget history.

Instead of missing a deadline for the state budget, lawmakers Thursday moved it.

They now have until April 4 instead of April 1 to make a budget deal with the governor.

Earlier this week, New York lawmakers, advocates and people living with cancer came to Albany to outline their budget and legislative priorities as lawmakers continue to hammer out a final budget deal. The advocates are looking for more funding for the Cancer Services Program, expanding access to paid family medical leave and diminishing the impact of medical debt, among other things.

Advocates are calling for more funding for two programs in the state, the cancer services program and the tobacco control program. The Cancer Services Program provides breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screenings to New Yorkers without or with inadequate health insurance while meeting certain age and income requirements.

The New York state Legislature passed and Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a bill into law to keep the government running through April 4 since the state budget's April 1 deadline will not reached due, in part, to the coming Easter holiday.

Hochul said on Wednesday evening that she believes a final budget agreement is within reach, but said, "I recognize many New Yorkers would like to spend the holiday weekend with family and loved ones."

On Wednesday, New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins confirmed that the Legislature will be pursuing a budget extender as talks will likely go past the April 1 deadline.

With the extra time for negotiations, Patrick Orecki, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, is urging lawmakers to rethink their spending plans.

Some New York lawmakers and advocates are pushing the state to invest more in prevention, treatment and recovery when it comes to substance use disorders. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Senate and Assembly all made slightly different budget proposals for fighting the crisis.

Advocates like Addiction Recovery coach Judy Moffitt are asking for addiction in New York state to be declared a state of emergency, and what is behind that effort is a series of items being pushed to address the crisis, some that are included in those budgets and some that aren’t.

New York state Senate Republicans unveiled a package of legislation Tuesday aimed to deal with affordable housing, incentivize home ownership and protect homeowners against “squatters.”

Championed by Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and Pam Helming, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development, the package includes tax credits, removes certain regulations and incentivizes new construction.

With less than a week to go until the state budget deadline, animal advocate Libby Post of the New York State Animal Protection Federation joined Capital Tonight to discuss what advocates are prioritizing this fiscal year.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With a complex journey of child development, early intervention can make all the difference.

"Rochester Hearing and Speech Center is the only not-for-profit left with a footprint in Monroe County who still does early intervention and we have developmental groups, which involve a special education teacher, speech pathologist, occupational therapist and a physical therapist in each classroom," director of educational and clinical services Beth McLellan said.

A number of business, public health and agricultural groups want to increase the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) minimum benefit to $100 a month in New York, according to a letter they sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday.

The letter’s signatories include the Business Council, Instacart, State Association for Rural Health, AARP, American Farmland Trust and the National Supermarket Association.

It's been several days since New York budget officials commenced serious spending talks, and they have not moved very far from the starting line.

Budget officials in the Legislature have been embroiled in ongoing talks for hours each day this week, often until midnight, but continue to be stuck on a core component of the next record-high multi-billion-dollar plan: how much to spend.

In January, Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that proponents said would protect tropical rainforests against deforestation and degradation.

Along with Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, Sen. Liz Krueger sponsored the "New York’s Tropical Deforestation-Free Procurement Act,” which would have closed loopholes in an existing ban on the use of tropical hardwoods by New York state’s agencies and authorities.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament isn't just an opportunity for mobile sports bettors to make a quick buck.

It's also a very lucrative time of year for New York state.

Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, joined Capital Tonight on Wednesday to discuss how the legislative budget proposals leave some behavioral health staff in the cold.