ALBANY, N.Y. — After nine budget extensions, the New York State Legislature has finally reached a “general agreement” on the state budget.

Gov. Kathy Hochul made the announcement on Thursday. Hochul said the negotiations over the budget, which was originally due on April 1, were “not easy” and faced several “substantive disagreements and tough choices.” Some local school districts told News10NBC that the budget delay made it difficult for them to plan for the next school year.

Clean energy policy, a proposal aiming to lower car insurance rates, and immigration policies were some of the biggest sticking points in the budget debates. Here’s what’s in the budget agreement:

Plan to lower car insurance rates

Lawmakers have agreed to a plan aiming to lower car insurance rates. Hochul has been pushing for legal reforms to tackle insurance fraud and lower car insurance premiums, but some of her proposals have drawn controversy over how they would cap damages for certain drivers.

The governor’s plan includes cracking down on staged accidents, such as when a driver cuts off another car and then stops abruptly, intentionally causing a rear-end crash. New Yorkers pay some of the highest car insurance rates in the nation, around $4,000 on average, and Hochul says fraudulent insurance claims have contributed. She says lawmakers have agreed to:

Cap payouts for drivers engaging in criminal behavior at the time of the incident, including uninsured motorists, drunk drivers, and drivers in the act of committing a felony.Better define what actually constitutes a ‘serious injury’ so that damages for pain and suffering or emotional distress are reserved for those able to objectively demonstrate that they have suffered a serious injury.Ensure that if a driver is found to be mostly at fault for causing an accident, they cannot claim outsized payments for damages.Prevent insurance companies from exorbitantly raising rates by setting a legal threshold that prevents excess profits and returns savings to consumers.Create new regulatory safeguards to prevent insurance companies from raising rates without seeking express approval from the Department of Financial Services.Protect consumers by prohibiting insurance companies from setting rates based on extraneous, personal factors like homeownership status, occupation, education level or zip code.These measures come in addition to the Governor’s whole-of-government approach to combating fraud by tasking DFS, DMV, DCJS and NYSP with a more proactive and coordinated approach to enforcement.

The controversy over Hochul’s proposals centers on caps for pain and suffering damages. Under one proposal, drivers engaged in criminal behavior at the time of an accident would face a $100,000 cap on non-economic damages.

News10NBC’s Deanna Dewey explained how this could play out in a real-world scenario. Imagine someone sitting at a red light and getting rear-ended by a drunk driver. The accident is so serious that the driver of the car that was rear-ended suffers a spinal cord injury and paralysis. But if the victim was driving without car insurance, he was technically engaged in criminal behavior at the time of the accident. So even though the driver suffered a life-changing injury, his damages for pain and suffering would be capped at $100,000. You can read more here.

Immigration policies

Lawmakers have also agreed on some policies that curb where federal immigration agents can go during their investigations. Hochul says these policies would:

Establish the ability to sue federal, state, and local officials, including ICE officers, for constitutional violations.Deny ICE permission to enter sensitive locations, including schools, libraries, health care facilities, polling locations, and homes, without a judicial warrant.Ban federal, state, and local law enforcement from wearing masks while on duty.Prohibit the use of state, local, or school civil resources, including employee time, for civil immigration enforcement activities.Codify the right to a free public education regardless of immigration status.

Hochul said she wanted to strengthen protections for migrants in New York State due to the Trump administration’s federal immigration crackdown. Assemblymember Josh Jensen said he’s concerned about the governor’s proposals, since they would limit when local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration authorities, like ICE and Border Patrol.

“Certainly, when we look at the role that law enforcement plays, they need to be able to respond to any situation they encounter and vice versa,” Jensen said.

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