While much of the conversation around farms and the New York state budget has revolved around a planned hike in the minimum wage, there is some good news for farmers. Jeff Williams, director of public policy for the New York Farm Bureau (NYFB), calls passage of a renewable investment tax credit for farmers, “wonderful."

“[The tax credit] is designed to spur investing in farms across the state, whether it’s equipment, machinery, land, buildings,” Williams said. “It’s really a watershed program.”

The $229 billion state budget finalized last week could have done more to address the needs of immigrants living in the state, according to New York Immigration Coalition Executive Director Murad Awawdeh.

The budget did not provide enough of a boost in legal assistance for immigrant communities, while a proposal to allow undocumented adults living in New York the ability to access the Essential Plan for health insurance faltered in the final days of the negotiations.

New York state finally has a budget — albeit a month late.

State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Republican from Western New York, and state Sen. Jabari Brisport, a self-proclaimed socialist from Brooklyn, joined Capital Tonight to discuss what made it in and what was left out of the budget.

It was a good New York budget for environmental advocates.

According to Liz Moran, New York public advocate at Earthjustice, the spending plan “exceeded expectations” by attacking greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from buildings.

The $229 billion budget was ultimately a mixed result for the state's agriculture sector.

On the one hand, farm organizations are concerned about the financial effect an increase in the minimum wage and its subsequent tie to inflation. But at the same time, farmers will benefit from the funding of environmental, marketing and research programs in the final spending agreement.

A voluntary program of publicly financed campaigns will be funded as part of the state budget agreement finalized on Tuesday evening after lawmakers initially considered delaying its implementation.

The budget includes $39.5 million for New York's newly formed campaign finance system of public elections, in which campaigns can match low-dollar donations with public money.

State lawmakers completed a marathon day of voting to finalize a $229 billion state budget late Tuesday night that avoids broad-based increases in the personal income tax, boosts education aid to more than $34 billion and sets in motion a minimum wage increase.

The budget was completed more than a month past its April 1 due date as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul negotiated changes to the state's 2019 law that limited circumstances in which bail could be required. Hochul was able to win those changes to expand bail consideration for judges, but failed to reach an agreement on her wide-ranging housing plan.

New York state lawmakers finalized the passage of a $229 billion budget Tuesday night, a month after it was initially due.

The Democratic-led houses of the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to a spending plan that will boost direct aid to schools by more than $2 billion, fund mass transit in the New York City metropolitan region, make changes to the state's bail law and raise the minimum wage in the coming years to $17 and then index it to the rate of inflation.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Language in the final version of the New York state budget agreement makes major changes to the oft-maligned Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation.

The so-called "Big Ugly" bill includes a section changing the voting structure of the Western Regional OTB's board of directors. It gives more power, among the 17 municipalities that govern and share the public beneift corporation's profits, to the largest counties — Erie and Monroe — and two cities — Buffalo and Rochester.

Additional money to help maintain public higher education campuses, as well as make renovations, will head to schools in the State University of New York and City University of New York systems as part of the state budget agreement.

As expected, lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to a budget that does not increase tuition for in-state students.

Lawmakers are expected to finish passing the state budget Tuesday for Fiscal Year 2024 — now one month late.

Senators and assemblymembers debated and voted Monday on several budget bills that were printed over the weekend. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said the two remaining to be published will drop late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

Personal income tax rates won't increase in New York's state budget, a move that never seemed to gain much traction in the talks and a development that disappoints progressive advocates who had called for the increase.

The budget is expected to be finalized this week and is more than a month late.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Thursday night announcement of a budget framework came as a surprise to many in Albany, but according to Shontell Smith, a veteran of budget negotiations as the former chief of staff and chief counsel to the Senate Democratic Conference, and currently executive vice president for Tusk Strategies, what happened wasn’t new or unusual.

“This is typical,” she told Capital Tonight. “We forget that…Gov. Cuomo would do it via press release, (announce) that there was a conceptual agreement amongst the leaders.”

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.

Federal aid during the pandemic expanded tax credits for families with young children and provided free breakfast and lunch to students in schools.

With that aid expired, the state budget could step in to partially fill the void of what advocates have contended were beneficial programs for families struggling with the cost of living.

New York has a "conceptual" budget deal, as announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday.

But what exactly does that mean?

For the third time in the last four years, New York's law for when cash bail is required in criminal cases is set to change, an amendment driven by ongoing concerns over crime and public safety registered by voters, but opposed by the progressive supporters of a 2019 law.

An agreement in the tentative state budget deal announced Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul will end the so-called "least restrictive" restrictive standard when bail is being considered by judges in serious criminal cases and give them more discretion when considering bail.

Nearly a month after its initial due date, New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have agreed to a $229 billion state spending plan that will make changes to a controversial bail law, boost direct aid to schools by billions of dollars and keep personal income tax rates the same.

"A conceptual agreement has been reached," Hochul said at a press conference Thursday evening.

Gov. Kathy Hochul made an unprecedented commitment to funding mental health services in her executive budget.

But advocates are worried that Hochul and the Legislature will neglect what they argue is needed the most: an 8.5% cost of living increase for those who work in this field.

Hospitals and nursing homes in New York could receive a higher reimbursement rate under a tentative agreement in the state budget.

But a broader deal for a state spending plan was not finalized on Thursday, and state lawmakers have left Albany for the next several days as issues addressing climate change are yet to be locked down.

New York lawmakers have reached an agreement with Gov. Kathy Hochul to expand the child tax credit in the state to include children under the age of 4, a source familiar with the talks on Thursday said.

Expanding the tax credit is expected to be included in a finalized budget agreement, which could be struck this week.

The New York state budget is 26 days late. The reason, according to several lawmakers, is that Gov. Kathy Hochul packed her executive budget proposal full of policies, like her Housing Compact, bail reform, charter schools and the minimum wage — and each issue is taking time to negotiate.

This isn’t unusual; former Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the same thing.

A tentative agreement to raise New York's minimum wage to as much as $17 in the coming years has drawn critics from both sides of the aisle.

Progressive Democrats, labor union organizations and advocates are holding out for a $21.25 proposal initially made earlier this year in order to support low-income New Yorkers. Republicans and leading business groups argue the wage hike, which is also expected to be tied to inflation, will hurt job creation and drive up costs further.

Republicans in the state Senate and Assembly Wednesday urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to allow for ample time to review any finalized state budget agreement and not rush the process when a deal is finally struck.

"There's a lot in there," said state Sen. Tom O'Mara. "There will be a lot in there. There's a lot unknown."

New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul must have either a finalized budget agreement in place or approve a sixth temporary extension of state spending by next Tuesday in order to avoid disrupting state employees paychecks on May 4, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli in a letter said Wednesday.

Institutional payroll for thousands of state workers is scheduled for May 4, DiNapoli wrote in the letter.

Mayors from a half dozen upstate cities on Wednesday signed onto a letter released by a powerful health care workers union urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to increase Medicaid support for hospitals and nursing homes as part of the state budget.

The letter was facilitated by 1199SEIU, a key health care worker labor organization that has called for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates in the yet-to-be-finalized state budget, now more than three weeks late.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is committed to working on how to address the state's housing crises after she and legislative leaders could not overcome their impasse on the complex issue and make corresponding investments and policy changes in the next state budget.

"We're going to go back," Hochul told reporters Tuesday in wake of divided housing negotiations. "This is just the beginning of a journey. We're going to work on this until we solve this."

Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to use the state budget process to address the proliferation of unregulated and illegal sales of cannabis that she worries could hinder the growth of the legal marketplace.

Lawmakers and Hochul are working to finalize a budget this week, but the discussion surrounding enforcement of illegal cannabis in the state has created a snag in the budget negotiations with the spending plan now more than a month late.

Progressive advocates and lawmakers on Tuesday criticized a tentative plan to increase New York's minimum wage to $17 an hour for not going far enough to cover basic expenses of low-income working people.

The proposal would gradually increase the state's wage in the coming years, a provision that is coming together as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul hope to finalize a budget this week.

New York’s state budget, now nearly a month late, could be closing in on a final agreement in the coming days, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday.

Hochul, addressing reporters in Albany, said she was optimistic a plan can be in place by the end of the week.

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.

Democrats have supermajorities in both houses of the New York state Legislature, which is why some people are scratching their heads over the fact that New York has the latest state budget in 13 years.

Capital Tonight spoke with Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt about how he views budget-making in Albany, as well as possible changes to how Court of Appeals judges are selected.

New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says Democrats in the upper house will stand firm to include tenant protections in the final state budget, which is 19 days late.

Budget negotiations broke down this week as the governor and legislative leaders discussed how to fund affordable housing programs and incentives.

It’s a state budget that’s stuck in neutral. And for now, top Democrats and Gov. Kathy Hochul are not discussing the key topic of whether tax rates for upper income New Yorkers should increase.

"We in our one-house [budget proposal] talked about that possibility," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said Wednesday. "But it’s not at the table right now."

An agreement on the state budget is not expected this week as a range of issues from housing policy to charter school and mass transit funding in New York remain under discussion, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Wednesday said.

"This is the most laden budget I have had to deal with," Stewart-Cousins told reporters at a weekly news conference.

New York legislative leaders and Gov. Kathy Hochul aren't close to reaching a state budget deal as they continue to clash on housing, bail reform and other issues with the spending plan 18 days late, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Tuesday.

A compromise on proposed changes to the state's bail laws and housing started to take shape, but remain uncertain after a meeting between leaders and Hochul on Tuesday. The top state officials exited the meeting without taking questions from reporters.

Incentives to significantly expand available housing in New York and make it more affordable will not be enough, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday in a statement as her proposals face headwinds in the ongoing budget negotiations.

Sources on Tuesday said lawmakers were jettisoning key provisions in Hochul's initial statewide housing proposal this year, including fast-tracking qualified housing projects over local objections.

New York lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed Monday to a 3-day temporary extension of state funding as an overhaul deal remains up in the air, but progress made on key issues.

Meanwhile, lawmakers and Hochul have made progress on making changes to New York's law that curtailed cash bail requirements for many criminal charges by jettisoning a proposal that would have ended the "least restrictive" standard for serious charges.

Changes to New York’s controversial bail law have dominated the budget talks. But behind the scenes, further changes to the state’s criminal justice system could be made as part of a final spending plan that is now more than two weeks past its due date.

Lawmakers are weighing with Gov. Kathy Hochul whether to make further changes to the state's discovery law first approved four years ago as a way of accelerating access to evidence for criminal defendants.

New York lawmakers are facing a Tuesday noon deadline to approve a short-term spending measure if no budget deal is in place by then, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli on Friday told top legislative leaders.

A budget extender must be in place by that time to ensure more than 50,000 state workers receive paychecks by Thursday, April 20.

“Secrecy in Albany is like gravity,” quipped Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). “It’s one of those immutable laws of science and political physics.”

But should we care the budget is negotiated in secret?

Discovery laws in New York could be under scrutiny in the state budget talks as organizations representing public defenders on Wednesday raised opposition to any potential amendments.

Prosecutors have called for changes as well as more money to handle the faster turning over of evidence to defense, pointing to how time consuming the recently passed provisions have become for their offices.

Changes to how New York’s bail laws work have courted growing controversy over the last four years – and are coming to a head in the state budget talks this month.

Top Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul are trying to thread a delicate needle: Making changes to a 2019 law that ended cash bail requirements for many criminal charges without undermining the original intent of the measure to ensure low-income people accused of crimes are not unfairly languishing in jail awaiting trial.

Lawmakers leading the climate fight are turning up the heat about which climate protection measures should be in the final state budget and which are a priority for the remainder of the legislative session as Democrats start to fracture over how to pay to successfully meet New York's emission reduction goals outlined in state law.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has made it clear her administration won't include a provision in the next budget to alter the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act, or Climate Act, and the timeline used to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. But it doesn't mean it won't be a possibility later this session, or that the other more robust measures climate advocates are pushing for won't advance outside the budget, either.

New York was slow to adopt renewable energy under the administration of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

According to Inside Climate News, New York is number 24 out of 50 states when it comes to generating gigawatts of power, having created just 6,895 gigawatt hours of wind and solar in 2022 compared to Texas’ 136,000 gigawatt hours.

Potential changes to New York's bail law remains the dominate issue in the ongoing budget talks, now 10 days past its due date.

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Monday the negotiations continue to center around Gov. Kathy Hochul's effort to make it easier for judges to set cash bail when defendants face serious criminal charges.

A stopgap budget provision funding New York's state government for the next seven days was approved on Monday, the second extension since lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul failed to reach an April 1 deadline to have a spending plan in place.

Lawmakers put the finishing touches on the measure just after midday; Hochul's office announced it was signed moments later.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the temporary 2021 federal child tax credit expansion dramatically reduced child poverty.

Now some states, including New York, want to build on that success.

Labor unions this week are urging lawmakers to reject proposals to amend New York's 2019 law that limited the use of cash bail as the late state budget hinges on whether a deal on the issue can be reached.

Hochul wants to end the so-called "least restrictive" provision under the law that could enable judges to require bail under serious criminal charges. A broader state budget agreement has been late by a week over the issue.

In Albany, where lawmaking can move at the speed of smell, the Hochul administration’s retreat on a new climate policy was breathtaking.

On Monday, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos and New York State Energy and Research Development Authority President and CEO Doreen Harris told Capital Tonight they were backing a bill sponsored by the Legislature’s Energy Committee chairs to, in effect, weaken the state’s climate laws. The purpose? To prevent New Yorkers from paying “potentially extraordinary costs."

The 5,000 members of SUNY's Graduate Student Employees Union are fighting hard to include one of the Legislature's proposals in the next state budget to phase out double-digit fees taken out of their annual stipends.

Graduate student teaching staff and assistants make up the backbone of instruction at SUNY and CUNY campuses, but continue to have to pay back 15 to 20% of their annual salary back to the university system.

New York state government is controlled by Democrats. The party holds all statewide offices and supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly.

But some Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt this year have been hearing from the state's top Democrat: Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Another temporary stopgap budget measure by next week was not ruled out by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday as talks continue for a broader agreement on a spending plan.

Hochul continues to seek changes to New York's 2019 bail law that could expand the circumstances in which bail is being considered by judges with defendants who face serious criminal charges as well as a statewide housing plan to add 800,000 units in the next decade.

Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration will not prioritize a proposal to re-calculate methane emissions as part of the ongoing state budget negotiations following an uproar from environmental and climate advocacy organizations over the plan.

But Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos and New York State Energy and Research Development Authority President and CEO Doreen Harrris did not rule out further pursuing the idea, warning that "affordability" for consumers needs to be part of the conversations surrounding how to transition New York from carbon-based fuels to more renewable and cleaner forms of energy.

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.

Strengthening transit systems in upstate New York can often get overshadowed by a focus on New York City's transportation needs.

State Sen. Jeremy Cooney is trying to change that.

Negotiations between top Democrats in the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul for a budget agreement continued on Tuesday even as rank-and-file lawmakers have left Albany for the next week.

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie emerged from a roughly two hour, closed-door meeting in Hochul's office to only say talks were continuing.

New York's state budget debate has included weighty topics that will affect millions of people in the state: How to expand housing, whether the minimum wage should be increased, whether charter schools should expand and if wealthy people should get another tax increase.

But all of those issues are being subsumed in the budget talks by negotiations over once again changing New York's 2019 bail law.

State lawmakers approved Monday a stopgap budget measure that will temporarily fund New York's government for the next week as talks over a broader spending plan agreement continue without a deal.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced she would send lawmakers the spending bill, which will expire on April 10.

Hundreds of progressive-leaning organizations on Monday urged state lawmakers to avoid broad changes to New York's bail law that would result in jailing more defendants.

The plea from the groups, including the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition, CUNY Rising Alliance, Housing Justice for All, Sunrise Movement NYC, and the Alliance for Quality Education, comes as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul are negotiating a state budget that was due to pass last weekend, but remains unsettled.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided meals to all students, but that policy ended last year.

Now, only the very poorest families qualify for federal meals programs. What advocates in Albany want is for the state to pick up the rest of the tab for all kids. The cost would be just up to $201 million a year.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Democratic leadership in New York state government wants to begin making natural gas a thing of the past. However, the plans for getting there differ.

Dennis Elsenbeck, head of energy and sustainability at Phillips Lytle, said buildings represent the state's largest single source of carbon emissions at roughly a third with transportation close behind.

New York will start its fiscal year without a state budget in place as Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers have failed to reach the April 1 deadline amid differences over issues that range from housing policy to making alterations to a 2019 bail law.

Talks are expected to continue into the weekend between the governor and the top Democrats in the state Legislature. But rank-and-file members of the state Assembly and Senate have left the building, and despite the warnings from legislative leaders, indicated they will be out of Albany for at least part of the weekend with no agreement appearing imminent.

Housing policy has become one of the key sticking points in the ongoing state budget talks, the result of which could determine the course of an increasingly expensive cost on many New Yorkers.

At issue is Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposals to set a statewide housing compact with the goal of creating 800,000 additional units of housing. Progressive advocates have called for measures like a Good Cause Eviction measure, which is meant to make it harder for landlords to raise rents and evict tenants.

New York's state budget is due in the next day, but it's unlikely a deal can be reached by then.

But despite going into overtime with the negotiations, state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have signaled they can reach compromises on the key issues that divide them.

Top Democrats in the state Legislature on Thursday signaled a willingness to "clarify" New York's 2019 bail law as conversations surrounding the issue remain a key sticking point in the unresolved state budget talks.

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins did not rule out a potential compromise on the bail issue as Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for ending a so-called "least restrictive" provision for when judges determine bail for serious criminal charges.

Disagreements over changes to New York's controversial bail law, as well as how to expand housing in the state, are fueling what is expected to result in a state budget that blows through Saturday's deadline, state lawmakers acknowledged on Thursday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has pointed to her proposed changes to the state's bail law as well as her housing plan as key issues for her in the budget talks.

Because of falling enrollment and other issues, Gov. Kathy Hochul is urging tuition hikes at SUNY campuses in her executive budget.

She’s proposed 6% tuition increases at the state’s large research facilities in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook, as well as lower increases at SUNY’s other campuses. The hikes would be in effect for five consecutive years, allowing in-state tuition at flagship campuses to increase by 30%, if approved by the Legislature.

Republicans in the New York state Senate Wednesday called for more sunshine — literally — in the state budget process.

The measure, a long-sought goal for Republican state Sen. Jim Tedisco, would require legislative activity to be conducted during traditional waking hours, and ban voting and debates at the state Capitol between 12 a.m. and 8 a.m.

The state’s top leaders, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, are negotiating a plan to spend taxpayer money behind closed doors.

None of them have spoken publicly about it in more than a week.

Money to bolster water infrastructure in New York is being sought in a broader state budget deal as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul negotiate a spending plan due at the end of the week.

Democratic state Sen. Michelle Hinchey on Wednesday along with advocates and technicians touted a $100 million proposal to strengthen water infrastructure in communities across the state.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, New York received billions of dollars to boost safety net programs. But now much of that money is going away.

Programs meant to combat hunger for needy people were boosted during the pandemic — billions of dollars in federal aid sent to New York during the emergency.

Republicans in the state Senate on Tuesday criticized the escalating spending in New York's budget as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul work toward a deal by Saturday's deadline.

But reaching a deal between Democrats who control the state Legislature and Hochul remains seemingly elusive at this point, and lawmakers in both parties were expecting to work at least into next week to reach a compromise.

New York leaders in Albany are close to an agreement on a first-in-the-nation ban on gas and fossil fuel hook-ups in new construction. The ban would likely start in 2025 or 2026, though that’s still being debated. The legislation will likely include exemptions for restaurants and back-up generators.

While both proposals are similar, the timeline for the legislature’s version of the “all-electric building act," sponsored by Brian Kavanagh and Emily Gallagher (S562A/ A920A), is somewhat more aggressive than the governor’s. It would prohibit “infrastructure, building systems, or equipment used for the combustion of fossil fuels in new construction statewide no later than December 31, 2023 if the building is less than seven stories and July 1, 2027 if the building is seven stories or more."

There's little shortage of ideas from Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocates for what billions of additional dollars gained from taxing wealthy people can do for the state.

They want the additional revenue to boost mass transit systems ravaged by the pandemic and a dropoff in ridership. They want to offset the effects of a higher cost of living for some of the state's poorest residents.

More incentives to build and more community input: Those are the key features local government officials in New York are seeking as the debate over a statewide housing plan is intensifying in the budget negotiations this week.

The leading organizations that represent town, city and village governments in New York on Monday signaled they were supportive of housing provisions backed by state lawmakers in their budget proposals this month as Gov. Kathy Hochul calls for expanding housing by 800,000 units in the coming decade.

It’s the busiest time of year in the state Capitol as lawmakers and the governor hammer out the details of a state budget that could end up being well over $200 billion. Political strategist Jack O’Donnell says Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking to put a “personal stamp” on this budget.

For decades, the budget was negotiated behind closed doors with just three men in the room. The doors of the room where the budget negotiations happen may still be closed, but there will be two women, Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, along with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

For more than 40 years, New York’s Stop DWI programs have led to a decrease in impaired driving across the state.

State Sen. Tim Kennedy says the effort is worthwhile.

In her executive budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul included a plan to require drug makers to report to the Department of Financial Services (DFS) planned price hikes in advance, including the reasons for those price increases.

The state Senate included many of these reforms in their one-house budget, but the Assembly did not.

Democrats in the New York state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul this month are negotiating a change to New York's minimum wage that could link the base hourly pay in the state to the rate of inflation.

But lawmakers want to also increase the current wage beyond the $15 an hour in the New York City and $14.20 north of Westchester County. Business organizations, meanwhile, decry the effect the change would have on their bottom line.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday defended the public safety initiatives in her executive budget proposal, including her push to change the state's bail reform laws, after releasing new statewide crime data from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.

Shootings in New York decreased by 16% from 2021 to 2022, including down 15% in upstate communities and a 17% reduction in New York City — or down to pre-pandemic levels, the governor said during a press conference in the state Capitol in Albany.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is hopeful a state budget can be agreed to and approved by April 1, the start of New York's fiscal year.

But as she is also seeking contentious changes to New York's law that curtails cash bail in criminal cases, she's not ruling out holding up a budget deal in order to secure her preferred adjustments.

Expanding housing by 800,000 units over the next 10 years in New York has been a keystone plank in Gov. Kathy Hochul's $227 billion spending proposal.

But as she travels the state to tout the measure, Republicans have opposed the measures as an overreach in suburban communities. Democrats, meanwhile, want to go even further than Hochul's plans.

Both houses of the New York state Legislature are rejecting a proposal from Gov. Kathy Hochul that would require hospitals be paid within days of ordering a treatment or test for a patient.

Lawmakers are against the proposal included in Hochul's executive budget to reform managed health care, including requiring hospitals to be paid swiftly and limit lengthy reviews by a health care insurance provider.

Who will pay for the ongoing damage caused by climate change?

The Climate Change Superfund Act may be one answer. The bill is sponsored by New York state Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. It was included in the Senate’s one-house budget last week, but not in the Assembly’s.

A debate over the extent to which New York's criminal justice laws should be changed — balanced against concerns over crime and public safety — is once again dominating the budget negotiations in Albany.

Measures to address crime, but also create a more equitable system of criminal justice in New York, is part of the push and pull in the state budget talks with less than two weeks to go before the April 1 deadline.

Good-government advocates and progressive organizations are trying to convince New York lawmakers to reject an expansion of subisides for a variety of industries in the state budget this year.

Supporters of the subsidies have argued the tax incentives will help grow and expand jobs and industries, including film, TV and Broadway production in the state. But opponents contend there is little evdience the tax breaks create jobs or spur meaningful economic activity.

New York lawmakers are backing a plan that would boost funding for an oversight program of the state's nursing homes and long-term care facilities as budget negotiations enter their final two weeks before the April 1 deadline.

The Assembly's budget proposal approved last week would add $15 million for the long-term care ombudsman program as advocates and lawmakers worry the program has fallen short of visiting facilities to ensure residents are being looked after safely.

Gov. Kathy Hochul put housing front and center in her proposed state budget. Her “New York Housing Compact” would build 800,000 homes over 10 years across New York state. There are two key elements to her plan: One is the state’s ability to override local zoning. The other is a tax break for New York City developers. Neither of those elements are in either of the legislative budgets.

“I think we all agree that we must build more housing. We definitely need affordable housing. So, I’m sure that will be a broad conversation,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told Capital Tonight on Friday.

Earlier this week, both New York legislative houses outlined their budget priorities as state leaders move through the budget negotiation process. The process is far from over as many late nights await lawmakers before the April 1 deadline.

Shontell Smith, former chief of staff for the state Senate Democrats turned executive vice president and co-head of the New York Practice at Tusk Strategies, told Capital Tonight that when the budget passes is dependent on “how hard people fight” for their priorities.

The specifics differ, but Democratic state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul are backing the same goal of ending the use of fossil fuels like natural gas in new residential and commercial construction.

The competing plans, advancing to the same goal on different timetables and sizes of buildings, are being considered as lawmakers and Hochul negotiate a $227 billion state budget this month.

Universal meals in New York schools is being advanced this week by state lawmakers who are backing $280 million in the budget negotiations for the plan.

The universal school meals proposal has gained traction in the state Legislature over the last several weeks, drawing support from Democrats as well as Republican lawmakers after federal support for the program ended.

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.

Democratic lawmakers once again want to raise taxes on the richest New Yorkers — it's a position opposed by Republicans as well as Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

While Republicans question the effect the tax increases could have the state's broader economy, Democrats want to see the money spent to aid lower income New Yorkers struggling amid rising inflation.