Albany’s Full Plate: Taxes, Immigration (and Maybe More Wine)

State lawmakers say they will weigh expanding access to child care when they reconvene in Albany this week, contending with a centerpiece of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s agenda that comes with a high price tag.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who endorsed Mamdani, has said in recent interviews that she will continue to enhance subsidies that thousands of families around the state already use to subsidize the cost of child care.

“We have a moment of opportunity,” said Shoshana Hershkowitz, who manages the Empire State Campaign for Childcare, an advocacy coalition. “People can’t afford to stay here. If you want to keep young families here, you have to address child care.”

Mamdani estimated it would cost $6 billion to provide universal child care in the five boroughs. Hershkowitz said she expects a program for the entire state would cost between $12 and $15 billion. The state already spends $2.2 billion a year on a voucher program for child care, but demand outstrips funding in many of the state’s most populous counties.

Hochul said she will announce details of a child care expansion later this month when she delivers her annual State of the State message and proposes a roughly $250 billion budget. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, both Democrats, will outline their priorities when they formally convene their sessions on Wednesday.

In addition to the push for child care subsidies, here are some of the other big issues on deck at the State Capitol:

Taxes
The need to secure additional funding is a key component of Mamdani’s agenda and has strong support among Democratic legislators at the Capitol. The mayor has proposed raising income taxes on the state’s highest-paid taxpayers.

Hochul has said she won’t raise income taxes, but has left the door open to other levies — including an increase in the state’s corporate tax.

“I want people who are successful to keep creating jobs and investing here,” she said in early December on “Good Day New York.” “But we have to look at other revenue sources to fund — again, we’re dealing with a lot of hits from Washington.”

Fiscal conservatives warn there could be a cost. The Washington-based Tax Foundation ranks New York 50th out of 50 states for its current tax climate. Jared Walczak, the organization’s vice president of state projects, said raising corporate taxes would make it harder to do business.

“There is a tipping point on all of this, and increasingly in this mobile environment, more people are going to say — it isn’t worth it anymore,” Walczak said.

Polls show that a majority of state voters favor increasing taxes, and both the Democrat-controlled Senate and Assembly included higher corporate and income taxes in their budget resolutions last year. They weren’t adopted.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan who chairs her chamber’s Finance Committee, said she believes large businesses can and should pay more.

“Smaller businesses are the ones we’re supposed to be feeding and watering. They create the most jobs,” Krueger said. “But giving giant tax giveaways to some of the largest companies in the world who say they’ll only come here if we give them no taxes — that’s been a disastrous economic model for this state for a long time.”

Even as the state searches for more revenue, Hochul proposed an additional tax cut.

The governor announced last week that she will include language exempting up to $25,000 in tip income from state taxes. The move would match a federal exemption that was passed by Republicans last year.

Climate and energy
Krueger said she wants Hochul to take action on supporting renewable energy and addressing climate change. Krueger is co-sponsoring a bill that would ease regulations on plug-in solar panels, which could be an attractive option for renters.

Hochul said recently that she is pursuing an “all of the above” energy strategy that includes state support for new nuclear power plants. She also attacked the Trump administration for halting work last month on a wind farm in the Long Island Sound.

State Republicans, too, say they plan to put the cost of climate and energy issues at the center of the political conversation. Assemblymember Phil Palmesano, a Republican from Corning, said laws mandating a switch to renewable electricity in new residences and the purchase of electric school buses have raised costs for consumers.

“The more people learn about these green energy mandates, the more they have raised opposition and concerns about it,” Palmesano said.

But Krueger said changing to green energy will be cheaper in the long run.

Immigration
State lawmakers adjourned last year without taking any significant steps to curtail local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. But after more high-profile raids in upstate New York and elsewhere, they think the ground is ripe for action.

State Sen. Patricia Fahy, a Democrat from Albany, is pushing for a bill that would prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from concealing their identities during their official duties. Other states are considering similar legislation, which Fahy said is important for keeping public trust.

“The idea of federal agents acting like secret police or paramilitary units abducting people off our streets in broad daylight has been destroying that trust,” she said during a recent press conference.

The Department of Homeland Security has said some officers wear face coverings due to fear of retaliation and of being identified and having their home addresses and other personal information published online.

Hochul hasn’t taken a position on the broader New York for All Act, which among other things would prevent all local police departments in the state from cooperating with ICE. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running against Hochul in November, entered into such an agreement and says it has made his county safer.

Criminal justice and prisons
State Sen. Julia Salazar said that a recent oversight bill signed by Hochul is just the first step toward improving the culture of New York’s prisons. Salazar said she will push for more laws, including one that would make it easier for older incarcerated people to be considered for parole.

“It’s not actually good for public safety for us to keep people incarcerated in perpetuity, who otherwise do not pose a threat to public safety,” she said.

Hochul has said she is committed to more changes to prisons. The state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision recently proposed rules that would make it easier for people who commit crimes as juveniles to be paroled.

Republicans and corrections officers are pushing the governor to roll back parts of a 2021 law that restricted the use of solitary confinement. A task force including major labor unions recommended changes to the rules, but Hochul hasn’t indicated whether she will embrace them.

Wine in grocery stores
Krueger said she is hopeful that this might finally be the year the state passes a bill legalizing the sale of wine in grocery stores — a perennial issue that’s been debated for decades.

The Business Council of New York State supports the change, but liquor store owners have fiercely lobbied against the bill for years. They say the change would put them out of business, and that many stores are already located near grocers.

Krueger said those fears are overblown.

“We’re one of the very few states left in the country that hasn’t allowed wine to be sold in a broader universe of locations,” she said. “It’s working everywhere else.”

Story by Jimmy Vielkind/New York Public News Network

Image: The sculpture of General Philip Henry Sheridan, dedicated in 1916, stands out front of the New York state capitol building in Albany. (Credit: Brian Sharp/ WXXI News)