After weeks of debate, Governor Hochul and state lawmakers hammered out a budget deal – a full 38 days late, the latest agreement in 15 years. Despite the lateness, the governor has been barnstorming across the state touting her policy victories. The four most notable — changes to the evidence discovery process before criminal trials, changes that make it easier to confine individuals with suspected mental illness for psychiatric evaluation, additional penalties for wearing masks while committing crimes, and banning student cellphones in the classroom — had been the primary reasons for the budget delay.
The actual budget was more or less the same as the one that the governor advanced in January. The final budget was a bit more than the governor proposed – $254 billion or $2 billion more – but was a full 5 percent more than last year’s.
Given the immense size of the budget, it contains a lot of spending that is notable. As a result of how the governor conducts budget negotiations, there are a lot of “non-budget” policy changes included as well.
In terms of spending, the state’s new budget tackles a wide range of issues. New Yorkers will receive “inflation refund” checks projected to cost the state $2 billion — up to $200 for individuals, $400 for families — for middle-class New Yorkers.
The state will spend billions to pay off its Covid-era unemployment benefits debt owed to the federal government and increase unemployment benefits for the first time in six years.
In the area of higher education, the governor’s proposed “New York Opportunity Promise Scholarship,” was approved. That plan allows community college students aged 25 to 55 who do not have a college degree to attend community college for free if they enroll in certain programs within high-demand fields, such as technology, cybersecurity, nursing, and teaching.
The Legislature restored Governor Hochul’s proposed cuts to college opportunity programs, which provide assistance to educationally and economically disadvantaged students.
In the area of the environment, the final budget invested $1 billion in climate programs. That amount – while significant – was far less than the “cap and invest” program would have generated had it been allowed to proceed.
The state’s Environmental Protection Fund got a boost to $425 million this year, a $25 million increase. The budget continued the existing spending level of water infrastructure at $500 million.
The electric bus mandate was pushed back two years in the budget agreement, giving school districts more time to transition from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles.
The New York City mass transit system received revenues from the new budget. It included a payroll mobility tax hike on city companies with yearly payrolls of $10 million. New York City suburban areas businesses with big payrolls will see their rates go up too. The hikes — which will help pay for the $68 billion plan to modernize the MTA’s decaying trains, stations and infrastructure — follow the outlines revealed in a deal between the governor and state legislative leaders.
A myriad of other “non-budget” issues were loaded into the final budget agreement, many negotiated in secret. From making changes to how the state regulates religious schools’ compliance with education requirements to changes to the state’s public financing system, the budget was chock full of new measures.
The budget also delayed the state law that restricts the outside income of state legislators, allowing them to continue to “moonlight.” The budget included a change in how lieutenant governors are elected: From now on, there will be no primaries for that position; lieutenant gubernatorial candidates will run as one ticket with the political party’s candidate for governor as is done for president.
The budget gives the governor broad authority to make midyear budget cuts in order to respond to potential fiscal shortfalls resulting from federal budgetary changes that may result from actions by the President and the Congress. Similar powers were granted to then-Governor Cuomo during the Covid emergency, but the new language has some more rules in place.
And the budget also includes a $10 million fund to pay the legal fees of state officials who are investigated by the Trump administration. Those covered include state workers who are implicated in a federal proceeding as a result of their job duties. In addition, it also applies to cases where a federal proceeding is “unrelated to the employee’s state employment or duties but is reasonably likely to have been commenced because of or in response to the employee’s state employment or exercise of their duties.”
The budget spends a lot and changes a lot of laws. Whether this budget will hold up to the realities of the upcoming year and was worth the waiting, only time will tell.