Lawmakers Rue Late New York State Budget as Talks Continue

It has been more than a week since New York state lawmakers missed an April 1st deadline to reach an agreement on this year’s budget. Capital Region lawmakers say negotiations continue behind closed doors.

State government has been operating a series of short-term funding bills as Governor Kathy Hochul and fellow Democrats who control the legislature haggle over policy sticking points.

Budget Director Blake Washington spoke with reporters Wednesday.

“Exchange of information continues, signing off on non-controversial issues as we go, sort of separating the wheat from the chaff as we go, so that when we reach an accord on some of the bigger issues of the day, we can hit the ground running and deliver a budget,” Washington said.

Washington says threats of tariffs, federal funding cuts, and policy changes are making negotiations volatile.

“It strikes a level of question and doubt and fear, in some cases, in budgeters’ minds,” Washington said. “I mean, thankfully, the 90 days pause seems to have remedied some of the volatility in the stock market, but now we’re just back to where we were about a week ago, when everything started to or even beginning this week, when things started to get really haywire.”

Whenever the budget is approved, that’s likely not the end of the road this time.

Some Capital Region lawmakers agree they will be back in Albany after the close of session in mid-June for a special session to deal with fallout from the federal government’s own budgeting.

Assemblyman John McDonald says with roughly $8 billion in federal cuts expected, the legislature is being prudent. The Democrat represents the 108th Assembly District.

“We can’t be running around with our hair on fire. We have to look at each item one at a time, see what it means, and be prepared that if we do have to come back, we have to be very thoughtful about the cuts that we would have to make,” McDonald said.

Lawmakers are currently working through several policy initiatives included in the budget. One of the major sticking points is changes to the state’s involuntary commitment law. If changed, the law would clarify that individuals could be involuntarily admitted if they do not possess the mental capacity to care for themselves. The change would align New York with 43 other states.

McDonald says the governor’s interest in including major policy changes in the budget is to blame for the impasse.

“The Assembly has had a long-standing position of really not discussing and putting these policy items in the budget,” McDonald said. “We try to avoid that at every instance, because, quite honestly, that is being done because it needs to be crammed in there, because it would never survive on the floor. We really want policy items to really win the day, go through the proper process, have its own separate bill pass both houses and be signed by the governor or considered by the governor.”

Washington says the holdup is over bill language.

Other priorities in Hochul’s $252 billion proposal include banning cell phones in schools from bell-to-bell, enacting restrictions on mask wearing in public, and changes to the way prosecutors share evidence in criminal cases. Senator Jake Ashby, a Republican from the 43rd District, says the majority’s inability to come to a timely agreement is surprising.

“It’s unfortunate that they can’t get, you know, broad support within, within their conference and within, within their party, because I think, I think you’ll find that the majority of New Yorkers support these measures,” Ashby said. “And I understand that, you know, sometimes policy finds its way in the budget process, but I do think that this is worth it, because of the popularity that we see and because of the distress that these issues have caused over the past couple decades. So, if this is a pathway to get to numbers in the budget, then I think we should be taking advantage of it.”

Ashby says he’s communicating across the aisle to make sure the Republicans’ priorities are heard.

“Even though we may be removed from it and being in the minority, I think even in the majority, you will find members often saying that they don’t feel heard,” Ashby said. “So, the important thing is for all of us to communicate on these broader issues and move in support of them so that we can actually get this job done.”

Last year’s budget was over two weeks late. Ashby says late budgets have consequences.

“It’s not as if the policy and the money that comes out of the New York State budget is transcends time, right? There is, there are deadlines that have to be met. We have a short construction season,” Ashby said. “We have a shortened agricultural season, you know, in New York State, and that, you know, the policy and funds that come through this, they need to be met in a timely way in order for them to benefit. You know, the people of our state and the industries across the state.”

First-term Senator Pat Fahy, a former Assemblywoman, says she shares constituents’ concerns over continued missed-deadlines. Fahy is a Democrat from the 46th District.

“I wish we could do both here, address the budget issues while addressing the policy issues. I know it’s increasingly a budget tactic, or over the years it’s been a budget tactic. It is the governor’s budget. All the Assembly and Senate can do is, is amend and it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating. And in the meantime, our budget is slowly eroding, as every single day we are waking up to hear of more alarming cuts from the Federal at the federal level.”

According to the legislative calendar, legislators are not scheduled to return to Albany until April 28th.

Story by Samantha Simmons/WAMC/New York Public News Network

Image Credit: Albany.org