ALBANY, N.Y. — With a number of knotty issues continuing to stymie negotiations, state leaders seemed intent on blowing past a midnight deadline on Thursday to reach agreement on a new state budget.
The April 1 deadline had seemed achievable, with ample federal funds allowing Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, to propose a record $216.3 billion in spending. Her first executive budget was aimed at jump-starting the state’s pandemic recovery through investments in education, infrastructure and health care.
But members of the Democrat-controlled Legislature had countered with even more robust financial plans, costing at least $6 billion more than the governor’s proposal.
And on Thursday afternoon, the odds of an on-time budget evaporated as the State Senate adjourned until April 4. (The Assembly, the larger, slower-moving chamber, also gaveled out on Thursday.)
Nonfiscal policies are often stuffed into the springtime budget process, and the biggest obstacles this spring are complicated social issues that have divided lawmakers, particularly the question of revisiting the sweeping bail reform law that was part of the 2019 budget deal.
Other contentious issues also loom, but veterans of the budget process can testify that once the big stuff gets done, less complicated deals tend to fall into place.
While the April 1 deadline is in the State Constitution, no state checks will be delayed unless a deal is delayed past 4 p.m. on Monday, according to the state comptroller.
After the Legislature adjourned, Ms. Hochul issued a statement offering a hopeful prognosis, even though her first budget is late. “We are getting closer to agreement, with consensus on major policy items,” she said. “New Yorkers should know that progress is being made.”
Here’s a quick look at where negotiations lie on some outstanding issues, from more money for child care to takeout alcohol.
Bail reform could be the key to everything
Three years later, the 2019 landmark changes to bail law are still rattling around the halls of Albany, causing agita for some Democratic lawmakers and anger for others.
Ms. Hochul has proposed a series of new changes, responding to a pandemic-era rise in violent crime and, perhaps, Republican success in attacking Democrats on bail reform. She called for an expansion of the number of crimes eligible for bail and for allowing judges to consider the danger a defendant poses in deciding bail. But those ideas, backed by Mayor Eric Adams, have met resistance in both the Senate and Assembly.
Republicans — in the minority in both chambers — have continued hammering Democrats on bail, hoping to use the issue to gain seats in the fall’s campaigns, including for governor. (That race, at least, is a long shot: Republicans are badly outnumbered in the state and haven’t won a statewide race in two decades.)
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who leads the State Senate, said on Thursday afternoon that she expected some changes to the bail laws to be included with the budget, but she flatly rejected the dangerousness provision. “We’ve always stood the same way,” she said. “We’re not introducing dangerousness.”
New York City casinos are still on the table
The state has already hit it big with mobile sports betting, which began in January, and lawmakers seem ready to press their luck by allowing a handful of new casinos to start taking bets in New York. Those new gaming halls would probably be authorized in the New York City area — including inside city limits — unlike earlier expansions which focused on upstate economic development.
Such a plan — which would authorize three new casino licenses — already has developers and casino operators salivating and lobbying hard: Millions have been spent by gambling companies to push the state to fast-track the current timetable, which called for expansion to be delayed until 2023.
Now, however, with support from Governor Hochul, the deal seems to be gaining momentum, perhaps because of…
Read More: New York Is About to Blow Its Budget Deadline. Here’s Why.