State lawmakers pass budget

Yahoo

09-05-2025

May 8—ALBANY — The New York state budget has passed — lawmakers in the state Assembly and Senate wrapped up voting on the $254 billion state spending plan late Thursday night.
In a series of nine bills, the state legislature and Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul agreed on a wide-ranging array of policy and spending goals, putting a billion dollars into environmental issues and funding public school districts at a record-high level, while also expanding the use of involuntary commitment to mental hospitals for people living on the streets and adjusting the rules around discovery in criminal trials.
The legislature also moved to give Hochul near-unilateral power to cut up to $2 billion from the spending plan, with the legislature retaining the option to come back to Albany and reverse the cuts if they so choose.
Albany flaks and lawmakers widely agreed — this year's budget process was a weird one. Speaker of the Assembly Carl E. Heastie said in February that the budget was among the best executive budgets he had ever seen, although he was only cautiously optimistic about negotiations on the final product.
"The hell is in the details," the speaker said at the time.
The state budget in Albany is frequently critiqued for being negotiated largely in private, between essentially three people; the governor, the Senate majority leader and the speaker. Sen. Mark C. Walczyk, R-Sackets Harbor, calls it "three Democrats in a room," frequently on social media.
And for months, those three people and their staff members debated a handful of policy issues to be included in the state spending plan. Because the state budget requires that the governor initiate the legislation and court decisions have given the executive significant power over the budget, governor's for years have pushed their policy agendas mainly through the state budget process.
Hochul has chosen to fight, this year, for changes to discovery rules, involuntary commitment to mental hospitals, a cell phone ban in schools, a criminal face mask ban, and an "inflation refund check," as well as a late-introduction ask for power to choose her lieutenant governor pick for the party primaries and an adjustment to the rules around hiring state prison security staff and early release for a limited group of incarcerated people.
She was largely successful on those goals, although Hochul's efforts to get changes to the discovery rules was watered down by lawmakers last-minute, even as Hochul and her chief counsel outlined the final agreement as a win on her terms. That wasn't apparently the whole picture, and the ultimate legislation now in place falls far short of where Hochul and her team had outlined it on April 28. Hochul outlined a plan that would have essentially taken the dismissal of a case off the table as a penalty for when prosecutors failed to turn over evidence in a timely manner, and state rules on speedy trials were also being violated. But the language now in law keeps dismissal on the table in those cases — when a judge finds the prosecutors did fail to turn over evidence.
But lawmakers did agree to language that would expand the use of involuntary commitment for people deemed unable or unwilling, because of mental illness, to provide for their own shelter, food, clothing or medical care.
The state will also send $200 to $400 checks to about 8.2 million New Yorkers, a slightly watered down version of Hochul's "inflation refund checks" plan outlined in January. Her ask to cut the middle-class tax rate has also been deferred by a year.
Democrats lauded the budget after it passed as a commitment to families and average New Yorkers. Heastie pointed to the inclusion, last minute and after Gov. Hochul had said it wouldn't happen, to pay off the state's roughly $7 billion debt to the federal unemployment system, largely left over from the pandemic which resulted in higher costs for businesses who pay into the unemployment system.
"This budget invests in our people and in our state," Heastie said in a statement. "While the federal government proposes policies that are causing economic insecurity and worries about the future, we are fighting to support our small businesses, put money back into the pockets of hardworking families and invest in programs that will allow our children to reach their full potential.
After it passed, state Republicans largely hammered the budget plan for its size, the policy inclusions and its tardyness. Assembly Minority Leader William A. Barclay, R-Pulaski, hammered the agreement in a statement.
"Most of the policies that held up budget talks for more than a month represent small steps when comprehensive action was needed. Actions to address involuntary commitment, discovery reform and the statewide mask ban could have gone further, and hopefully they will do so in the future," he said.
Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, had a more bipartisan take on the budget; he voted in favor of most of the appropriations bills and two of the policy-laden bills.
He approved of the bills that increased school funding and enacted universal free school meals for legislators, as well as the bill that included a move to allow some school districts to delay the 2032 deadline to fully electrify their school bus fleets.
Gray also said he approved of the discovery changes, which he said will help to streamline criminal cases and reduce the number of cases dismissed based on technical mistakes.
He voted down on four of the nine budget bills, including the bill that allows for the closure of 3 state prisons next year, the mental hygiene law that expanded involuntary commitment, and the transportation, economic development and environmental protection.
"While the overall budget is larger than I'd like, I won't vote 'no' just because my job is to do a deeper dive into these bills and see what they deliver for the north country and all New Yorkers," Gray said. "This budget is imperfect, but it includes important initiatives that benefit our communities. I supported the measures that responsibly invest in our future and opposed those that went beyond what I believe is prudent."