Albany, NY (WRGB) — For the first time since announcing what-became a controversial FY2027 budget “general agreement”, on Monday New York Governor Kathy Hochul addressed some of the critiques by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and others.
“It’s not something I came up with, and I look forward to working with the legislature,” Hochul said, referring to the budget process.
Despite Heastie’s immediate criticisms, Hochul brought up his comments a day later in the Bronx to Spectrum News, where he backed off his initial thoughts.
“There’s no rational expectation in the world that you can achieve a $260 billion budget with all the important policies that I want to see in there as well as other members do within two weeks,” Governor Hochul said, referring to One-House budgets being proposed in Mid-March, with a due date April 1st. “So I think we can look at the timing of when we really get into the nitty-gritty of my policies. But, I’ve been able to make transformational policies for the people of this State through this mechanism and I’m using the procedure which has been in place for many years.”
The Governor then spoke about policy issues she’s championed in previous years (of late budgets).
“I mean New Yorkers are excited about the policies probably more than they are to know exactly how many dollars are going to this ‘X’ program,” she said. “They’re excited about what we’ve done in past years whether it was historic investments in not just child care, but also in housing and what we did with changing some of the the laws related to Discovery and Bail and retail theft and making sure that there’s there’s ability to shut down illegal cannabis shops, I mean these are all things that affect people directly.”
The legislature passed another budget extender on Monday, which will fund certain aspects of the government until Thursday. At this point, no budget bills have been introduced, or printed. Once that begins, voting potentially could begin on Friday. June 4th is the last scheduled day of the 2026 legislative session.