New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters Tuesday that legislative leaders have made a lot of progress toward a deal on the state budget, which is now more than a month late.
“We are — I would say — pretty much having conceptual agreements on the governor’s four major policy proposals,” Stewart-Cousins said, referring to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposals to reform the state’s car insurance laws in an effort to lower rates, dial back the 2019 climate law, change the state’s environmental quality review (SEQRA) to spur housing development and pass an immigrant protection package which has been brewing since the beginning of the legislative session.
“I think we are really close to the beginning of the end,” the upper chamber leader said, using her annual budget lingo, about where she believes the spending plan lies overall.
In regards to the climate law, one of the largest sticking points this year, Hochul had proposed to move the date by which the state must release regulations for how it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 85% by 2050 to 2030. An updated proposal would move that deadline to 2028 and establish an interim target to reduce emissions by 60% by 2040 while keeping the 2050 date intact. When asked, Stewart-Cousins said there has been no further movement on those date changes.
Lawmakers on Monday passed their ninth state budget extender, which runs through Wednesday. The budget was due April 1. There have been frustrations among some lawmakers about the slow process. If Hochul signs budget bills later than Saturday, it will be the latest state budget since 2010.
“Every budget deadline has its own particular flavor and every governor has a process,” Stewart-Cousins said. “We are certainly mindful, very much so, of the budget deadlines and I think all of us try to get it done during that timeframe. There is an ordinate amount of time that has been spent on policies generally that the governor puts forward. And, you know, we can’t just rush through those things.”