{"id":3330,"date":"2026-03-30T10:23:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3330"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:23:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:23:50","slug":"governor-hochul-and-new-yorks-late-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/governor-hochul-and-new-yorks-late-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Hochul and New York\u2019s Late Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another year, another late budget. Under New York law, April 1st<\/sup> is the first day<\/a> of the state\u2019s fiscal year, meaning that a new budget should be in place. Like the previous ones during Governor Hochul\u2019s tenure, this one almost certainly will be late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason? Governor Hochul\u2019s insistence that state lawmakers accept her non-budgetary<\/em> priorities as part of the final budget agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of the time of this opinion, all evidence is that there will be no<\/em> on-time budget agreement. Assuming that the budget is late, the governor and lawmakers will have to do an emergency extension of the current fiscal year\u2019s budget. For how long? With the religious holidays of Easter and Passover starting early, the extension could easily stretch into mid-April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, it wasn\u2019t expected that this year\u2019s budget would get held up. Wrestling to develop a state budget that is the second largest<\/a> in the nation is always difficult. Adding to the challenge is the impact of cuts<\/a> approved by the Congress. Yet earlier this year observers<\/a> thought there was a chance that this year\u2019s budget would be less contentious: after all, 2026 is an election year and the budget proposed by the governor in January seemed, at that time, to be one that lawmakers could agree to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after the public review of the governor\u2019s budget was completed, the governor insisted<\/a> that there would be no final agreement unless and until lawmakers agreed to changes to the state\u2019s Climate Law<\/a> and auto insurance regulations. Far from trivial matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of these issues are regulated by the state but play no central role in the development of this year\u2019s budget. The governor\u2019s plan to change major pieces of the state\u2019s auto insurance law in the budget was rejected by both the Senate and Assembly. Why? Because they didn\u2019t have much at all to do with the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor has campaigned<\/a> across the state arguing that New York\u2019s rising auto insurance premiums are the result of fraud and \u201cstaged auto accidents.\u201d No one would defend either, but they are both already<\/em> illegal. What lawmakers found objectionable was the governor\u2019s \u201cfix\u201d: changing the way people are compensated<\/a> after they are hurt in a car crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why put compensation limits for those injured in car crashes? Hard to say, but we do know that ride sharing giant Uber is spending millions of dollars<\/a> on an advocacy campaign to limit compensation for injured car passengers and drivers. Why? Because they<\/em> are on the hook when their drivers are involved in an accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there is a disconnect between what the governor says is the problem<\/em> (fraud which is already illegal) and the solution<\/em> being compensation limits for those injured in car crashes. Thus, lawmakers kicked her plan out of the budget. That\u2019s not to say that lawmakers should ignore the governor\u2019s complaints. If the governor\u2019s allegations that fraud has gotten worse are true, they should examine what insurers, and her Administration, have been doing to fight fraud in recent years as well as the reasons for increasing insurance costs generally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at least the governor actually offered an auto insurance plan in her budget. When it comes to changes to the Climate Law, she did not<\/em> \u2013 and has still<\/em> not offered one. The closest she has come is an opinion piece<\/a> published on a news website. Hardly the stuff of legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the governor\u2019s \u201cplan\u201d is to weaken the state\u2019s regulation of methane emissions (the worst of the greenhouse gases) and push further into the future the requirements for the state\u2019s reduction in greenhouse gas emissions \u2013 which are the drivers of climate change. What does that have to do with the budget? Nothing, but given the governor\u2019s power in the budget process, she\u2019s using the leverage she has to advance climate law and auto insurance changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting the budget done by April 1st<\/sup> is what Governor Hochul and state lawmakers are supposed to do. The state budget is the centerpiece of the legislative session, the most important task that voters \u201chire\u201d elected officials to do when they cast their votes. When the governor links her non-budget agenda to the budget which causes it to be late, it feeds an increasingly cynical electorate\u2019s assessment that Albany can\u2019t get its work done like it\u2019s supposed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It shouldn\u2019t be this way. New Yorkers deserve better. After all, it\u2019s your money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another year, another late budget. Under New York law, April 1st is the first day of the state\u2019s fiscal year, meaning that a new budget should be in place. Like the previous ones during Governor Hochul\u2019s tenure, this one almost certainly will be late. The reason? Governor Hochul\u2019s insistence that state lawmakers accept her non-budgetary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3331,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions\/3331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}