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New York Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Five Weeks Late, a $254 Billion New York Budget Still Has Its Charms
The late-night scene beneath the New York State Capitol was unusual, even by Albany standards. Lawmakers from the Assembly and Senate, having finally passed the state's $254 billion budget on Thursday evening, streamed down to the Capitol's lower levels to collect their long overdue paychecks from the payroll office. In New York, state legislators do not receive their salaries if the budget lapses, as it did on April 1. But after five weeks without a budget or a paycheck, both arrived on Thursday. Lawmakers, however, were not the only ones to benefit from the budget's official passage. Ms. Hochul was quick to celebrate expansions of the child tax credit, more school funding and a litany of other programs she said would make the state more affordable. Here's a look at some of the budget's more interesting provisions. Legislators helped themselves A quirk of state government is that lawmakers have the power to write or amend laws that regulate their own actions, no recusal required. This year, legislators took full advantage of that power, crafting several significant changes to how they can collect outside income and raise money. In 2022, lawmakers raised their salaries by $32,000 to $142,000 while also placing a $35,000 cap on outside income. The Albany Times-Union reported this year that nearly 40 legislators had outside incomes above the limit. The income cap was supposed to go into effect this year, after several unsuccessful court challenges. But lawmakers included a provision in the budget that would delay enforcement for two years. Along those lines, legislators altered the state's campaign finance matching system. Donations larger than $250 are currently disqualified from the matching program; the agreement provides for the state to match the first $250 of any donation up to $1,000. Elected officials can now also hold onto $50,000 for future campaigns. These tweaks and others appear geared to help incumbents. Lawmakers also created a $10 million slush fund to pay for private lawyers if state officials were targeted by the Trump administration. You get a refund, you get a raise Ms. Hochul has been eager to trumpet her 'inflation rebate' — $2 billion that will be disbursed to New Yorkers in checks of up to $400 per family, $200 per individual. But the budget also contains a number of other financial benefits for people across the state. The per-day pay rate for jurors in state court, for example, is being raised to $72 dollars, nearly doubling the current amount. This is the first time that New York has raised the per diem rate for jurors since 1995, when Gov. George E. Pataki signed legislation that raised rates for those doing their civic duty from $15 to $40 over a three-year period. And some workers at LaGuardia and Kennedy Airports were given a broad benefits-and-wages package that could help to address some of the staffing shortages that have plagued air travel. Assistance for online shoppers It's a familiar frustration for online shoppers: a product that's nearly impossible to return, or a subscription that's nearly impossible to cancel. New York's budget includes new measures to assist shoppers, including a mandate that businesses provide transparent refund-and-return policies. The state will also require companies to offer clear instructions for terminating subscriptions, as well as advance notices of subscription renewals and their cost. The state is also tightening regulations on 'buy now, pay later' companies like Affirm and Klarna. These firms will need a license from the Department of Financial Services, which requires companies to follow state laws governing advertising, interest rates and debt collection. State troopers can be older and prison guards younger One of the biggest and most disruptive developments in Albany this year was a wave of wildcat strikes among corrections officers, which led Ms. Hochul to call in about 6,000 National Guard troops to oversee the state's prisons. About 2,000 officers were fired as a result of the unsanctioned strikes, exacerbating an already profound staffing shortfall. The state currently has 4,500 fewer corrections officers than the budget allows. Ms. Hochul and legislative leaders tried to address the problem in the new budget, which includes language allowing younger people to become corrections officers and removing state residency requirements. The budget also allows for the potential closure of up to three state prisons by next April. Another change raises the maximum age of State Police recruits; they can now be as old as 43 when they join, up from 39. A continued crackdown on artificial intelligence The State Legislature has been looking for more ways to regulate artificial intelligence as it becomes more ubiquitous in our lives. The budget includes a provision requiring A.I. chatbots to be able to detect when people seem to be expressing suicidal thoughts. The New York Times reported in October on a case in Florida, in which the mother of a 14-year-old boy said her son had become obsessed with a chatbot on a role-playing app, before his death. Now chatbots must remind users every three hours that they are not communicating with humans. Lawmakers also altered child pornography laws to outlaw the creation and distribution by A.I. of material featuring minors. They also added almost $100 million in funding for ongoing A.I. research at state universities.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State lawmakers pass budget
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."
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie makes bombshell bid to reduce Gov. Hochul's power in NY budget negotiations
It's Heastie versus Hochul. State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is going to war with Gov. Kathy Hochul, pushing a bombshell bill Wednesday to curtail her leverage in high-stakes New York budget talks — as disagreements over her policy demands stymie the negotiations. The Bronx Democrat introduced a bill that would allow lawmakers to continue getting paid if state budget talks drag on with no end in sight past the annual April 1 deadline to pass a spending plan. The legislation was not introduced in the state Senate, where Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris (D-Queens) — who hadn't yet reviewed Heastie's bill — said tensions were growing over Hochul's asks, including those concerning involuntary commitment and discovery law. 'I think it's born out of the frustration we all share about the continued insistence on non-budgetary policy into this budget conversation,' Gianaris said. 'We're now a week-and-a-half late and we're still getting new things dropped on the table that have nothing to do with funding the government and keeping it operative.' Negotiations over Hochul's proposed $252 billion budget breezed past the April 1 deadline as the governor stood her ground on her bids to tweak mandates governing discovery evidence-sharing in criminal cases and to make it easier to force mentally ill people into psychiatric care. Hochul smiled last week as she told reporters she's willing to hold up budget talks for months unless lawmakers fall in line with her demands. And this week, Heastie's counterpart in the state Senate — Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) — deemed budget talks at an impasse. 'I wish I could say we're further along, but I think we are stuck at where we were last week,' Stewart-Cousins told reporters Tuesday. Hochul's spokesperson Avi Small argued the issues holding up the budget — including tough-on-crime and mental health measures — have the overwhelming support of New Yorkers. 'If the highest-paid State Legislators in America are worried about their paychecks, there's a much easier solution: come to the table and pass a budget that includes Governor Hochul's common-sense agenda,' Small said. The biggest policy issue causing the legislative logjam continues to be Hochul's pitch to reform the 2019 discovery law – signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo – setting strict timeframes for when prosecutors are required to turn over masses of evidence to the defense in criminal cases. City district attorneys and across the state argue the law has caused a wave of cases to be tossed over technicalities, arguing judges can be overzealous in applying a court decision that governs how evidence-sharing should work and when charges should be dismissed due to non-compliance. Hochul wants to limit how and when cases can be tossed over a discovery violation, but lawmakers argue such changes are unnecessary because judges already have leeway to opt not to dismiss. But another possible stumbling block in the budget negotiations — Hochul's pitch to make it easier to commit violently mentally ill people — appears to be clearing. Heastie told reporters Tuesday that negotiators are 'close' to an agreement, which would tack on priorities from the legislature to Hochul's plan, including enhancing planning for when a person is discharged from a hospital after being committed. The snags still evidently frustrated Heastie, whose budget delay bill – first reported by Gothamist — tries to land a punch against Hochul by effectively removing a potential pressure point on legislators. Under the would-be law, legislators would continue pocketing a paycheck if the the budget is late and policy items have been included in the governor's proposal. Unlike lawmakers, Empire State governors keep getting paid if the budget is late. Hochul has held up budget talks every year since taking office in 2021 by including policy asks in her spending plan. Heastie's bill could face a largely unprecedented uphill battle in Albany's recent memory. The assembly has enough Democrats to pass it on its own, assuming there are no defections. The Senate, however, would need Republicans to get on board. A two-thirds majority in both houses would be needed to override Hochul's likely veto of the bill. Democrats have not overridden a governor's veto since the party reclaimed the majority in both houses in 2019. Lawmakers who spoke with The Post had mixed reactions to the seriousness of Heastie's bid to get them paid during the stalemate. Some said it was unnecessary because they're willing to forgo pay. 'Not getting paid doesn't have the effect of making my colleagues hungry to get a deal,' one Assembly member said. Gianaris said Hochul trying to turn the screws on lawmakers with delays won't work. 'This notion that somehow holding it up will allow any governor to shift blame to the legislature, it never works,' he said. 'Every governor I've served with has tried it, and it's never ever worked.'
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Hochul, Looking to 2026, Pushed to Weaken Oversight of Religious Schools
As Gov. Kathy Hochul prepares for what is likely to be a tough re-election fight next year, she is promoting a state budget deal stuffed with politically popular initiatives aimed at making life in New York more affordable. She has been less eager to talk about a consequential last-minute addition to the budget that is aimed at winning over a relatively small yet deeply influential group of voters — Hasidic Jews — but may be broadly unpopular with her Democratic base. The governor is facing a wave of criticism over her efforts to weaken an obscure, century-old law that requires private schools to provide a basic education. Changing the law has been a top priority of the state's Hasidic leaders, whose endorsements are highly coveted come election season. The measure is expected to pass the Senate and Assembly in the coming days. One faction of the Satmar Hasidic community celebrated the bill on social media on Wednesday, writing that the state budget 'includes amended legislation securing freedom of education!'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hochul says lawmakers ‘very, very close' on deal to revamp NY discovery laws in budget breakthrough
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Let's make a whatever-you-call-it. Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged Wednesday that lawmakers had reached a breakthrough in negotiations to revamp the state's discovery laws — even as she insisted it didn't count as a 'deal.' The governor instead opted for wonky jargon, describing the end of a budget stalemate revealed the day before by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) as a 'conceptual agreement' different from a done deal. 'I think we're very, very close to being done and perhaps, today will be the day we say, 'Pens are down,'' Hochul said during a news conference. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday that lawmakers are 'very, very close' on a deal for changing discovery laws. Robert Miller Hochul plans to meet with Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) Wednesday evening. A deal — or a deal by another name — likely will clear a major logjam to passing New York's massive $252 proposed budget, which has been held up for weeks by Hochul refusing to budge on her policy asks, especially changes to discovery Hochul stopped short of voicing support for the plan crafted by Albany Democrats and approved by all five New York City district attorneys. But rumors swirled around Albany after the deal was announced Tuesday that it was falling apart, prompting Heastie to clear the air. 'Everything is still fine conceptually. Staff is going back and forth on drafting,' Heastie told The Post. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie swatted down rumors that the deal was on the ropes. Zuma / While Hochul contended there's no deal over discovery, last year she unveiled the state budget deal by calling it the 'parameters of a conceptual agreement' — almost the exact same term Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez used to describe the state of play on discovery. Changing discovery laws was one of Hochul's big priorities in the budget talks with state lawmakers, along with making it easier to involuntarily commit mentally ill people — a pair of policy pitches that grew from public safety concerns in the Big Apple. The city's DAs, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, argued that the state's 2019 discovery reforms led to a surge in criminal case dismissals based on often-trivial technicalities. Hochul backed their proposal to tweak the laws, narrowing the scope of evidence prosecutors have to turn over to defense attorneys and setting a 35-day time limit to challenge violations. Critics such as The Legal Aid Society, however, pushed lawmakers to stand firm against the changes — contending they'd give prosecutors too much power. They also argued the surge in dismissals is largely seen in New York City and stems from the NYPD failing to share evidence with prosecutors. Despite the pushback, Heastie said Tuesday that Dems had reached a 'framework' over discovery changes. The deal would: Require prosecutors to just turn over evidence 'relevant' to charges, narrowing it from evidence 'related' to the case, Clarify that judges should only dismiss cases in which prosecutors did not exercise 'due diligence,' Require defense attorneys to file discovery challenges within 35 days of prosecutors certifying to the court they've turned over evidence. Three of New York City's district attorneys — Manhattan's Alvin Bragg, Brooklyn's Eric Gonzalez and Staten Island's Michael McMahon — flanked Hochul during Wednesday's news conference. Robert Miller Three of New York City's district attorneys — Gonzalez, Bragg and Staten Island's Michael McMahon — flanked Hochul during her news conference, which was part of a tour pushing for the discovery changes. Gonzalez said the legislative teams from the DAs and Heastie's and Stewart-Cousin's offices were crafting the actual language for changes. 'Every word matters in a statute, because if a word is off or a standard is off, it changes the entire interpretation,' he said. 'We want to make sure that the language is clear that judges will have discretion to independently and individually review each case, and that a judge would not feel that they have to dismiss a case because a document is missing.'
