ALBANY – There seems to be no urgency in the air.
On Tuesday, a leading New York Democrat downplayed concerns over the state’s delayed budget, suggesting that under Governor Kathy Hochul, this has become a familiar scenario. “It’s something people have come to expect,” he remarked.
State Senator Michael Gianaris, who holds the position of Deputy Majority Leader in the Senate, made these candid observations as lawmakers shuffled in and out of Albany. Their primary task was to pass yet another temporary measure to keep the government funded for an additional week.
The legislative leaders have yet to reach a consensus with Governor Hochul on her proposed $263 billion budget, which was due by April 1. Missing the deadline came as no shock to many of the senators and Assembly members. In fact, a number of them had already left the city for a scheduled two-week recess, aligning with the Passover and Easter celebrations.
“I think it’s part of what people expect now,” Gianaris (D-Queens) conveyed to reporters, suggesting that lawmakers are not overly concerned about the delay.
“We’ve grown used to the pattern over the past several years,” he confessed, noting that while the budget has not been disastrously late, it has typically been delayed by a few weeks. His comments followed a swift session where members convened briefly to approve the funding extension.
All of Hochul’s budgets so far have been late, with last year’s coming in on May 8, marking five consecutive years of the state blowing past the deadline.
Hochul’s office signaled that negotiations are bound to drag on even further, with the extender passed Tuesday stretching to April 14 — allowing pols, who don’t get paid during the delay, another weeklong break before forcing them to schlep back to Albany to vote again.
Assembly Republicans blasted Democrats’ lackadaisical approach, arguing it puts local governments in a pinch as they craft their budgets without knowing how much funding is coming from the state.
“The longer this process drags on, the harder it becomes for them to plan, budget and make ends meet,” said Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R-Steuben), the GOP’s top member on the lower chamber’s Ways & Means Committee
“This budget extender keeps the lights on, but it does not provide any direction to the residents we represent in our district,” he said on the Assembly floor.
“This is exactly why this continued process can’t continue the way it has extender after extender,” Palmesano added, before ultimately voting in favor of the extender.
A number of rank-and-file members didn’t even bother to show up in person for the vote.
“This is the most ‘I don’t give a s–t’ budget I’ve seen in 30 years,” one seasoned lobbyist griped of the process, while seated in a largely empty Senate lobby just minutes ahead of the chamber’s scheduled session time Tuesday morning.
Legislative leaders met with Hochul Tuesday morning, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Sticking points include the governor’s secretive proposal to roll back compliance deadlines in the state’s climate law.
“Baby steps,” Gianaris said of progress in the negotiations on that pitch.
Other issues, like Hochul’s proposal around car insurance liability and whether to give New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani permission to hike taxes continue to prove dastardly stumbling blocks.
