As the battle surrounding the state budget continues to unfold, lawmakers in both houses of the New York State Legislature are sounding off on how long the budget process is dragging out.
Missing its April 1 deadline, the budget is more than five weeks late.
“We need the voters to team up with us and show the state that we actually want our democracy to work,” said Democratic Assemblymember Emily Gallagher. “We don’t want a dictatorship, and that’s really what this is becoming with the governor making the budget last the entire legislative session.”
Gallagher is among a group of lawmakers who are accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul of a demonstrated pattern of holding up the budget process for her own priorities.
Some assemblymembers said this year, Hochul’s focus is using her power to “gut the climate law and double down on fossil fuels.”
“It really takes away all of our agency to pass legislation that our constituents have asked for,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher is proposing an amendment to the state’s constitution to limit the governor’s power of the state budget process. She said the process needs more legislative input and less of the governor’s.
Democratic Assemblymember Michaelle Solages said lawmakers “want to make sure they’re responding for New Yorkers” on key issues like affordability, and a dragged-out budget process makes it hard to do so.
“When we put extraneous budget issues in this physical document, we are missing out on a real conversation,” said Solages. “We talk about issues on a diluted timeline, and we talk about issues in a boiler room, which is never good. It should be done in a transparent way where voters, New Yorkers, can have these conversations.”
Republican State Sen. Tom O’Mara, ranking member of the Senate Republican Conference Finance Committee, echoes the argument that there are other issues lawmakers need to pay attention to in addition to the budget.
O’Mara said he wants everyone to get on the same page.
“Unless you have the leaders of both the Senate and Assembly saying there’s a deal we don’t know what it is, and there are major issues out there right now that are concerning that New Yorkers deserve to know about in advance of us passing budget bills,” said O’Mara.
The governor’s office doesn’t agree with lawmakers.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson highlighted some remarks Hochul recently made to Spectrum News 1 saying she believes some of her victories for the state of New York have come late in the budget process.
“Everything I have stood for and fought for is for the betterment of the people of this state,” Hochul said in an April 28 press conference. “The necessary bail changes that took two late budgets to get through. A third year was built on the discovery changes, involuntary confinement, to help people who are living off the streets without the proper care get into safety.”
Lawmakers tell Spectrum News 1 that once the budget is passed, they’ll work to address issues sidelined by this process. With less than a month left in the legislative session, time is of the essence.