Hochul has continued to blame the impending impacts of a lawsuit <\/a>brought by environmental advocates intended to force the state to develop regulations for its troubled cap-and-invest program for her urgency in amending the law. But advocates have insisted Hochul is mischaracterizing the lawsuit and using it to push what they describe as an unrealistic doomsday scenario. Stewart-Cousins and Heastie will be left to sort it out and telegraph their members\u2019 thoughts and concerns in the coming days.<\/p>\nThe developments came as legislative leaders from the Senate and Assembly met Monday afternoon for the \u201cmothership,\u201d formally known as the General Budget Conference Committee, intended to be an exercise in transparency as the two houses work to consolidate their budget proposals.<\/p>\n
Despite that goal, the meeting typically consists of about 30 minutes of prepared speeches from legislative leaders in both houses and both parties, followed by a series of individual meetings geared toward prioritizing spending needs. It\u2019s no secret in Albany that the remainder of the conversation takes place behind closed doors, save for the small tidbits reporters can extract during brief hallway interactions with leaders or the occasional press availability.<\/p>\n
While attending the mothership, Heastie told reporters he isn\u2019t prepared to comment on the governor\u2019s climate announcement without seeing a concrete proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how to respond to that until I see a plan. I know the governor has spoken about this, but until there is an actual plan, I think I\u2019ll reserve comment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stewart-Cousins agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not seen a plan. We have heard her say she would like to modify,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It comes as state Senate Republicans are urging Hochul to reconvene the Climate Action Council to review the CLCPA.<\/p>\n
Changes to the climate law and how the state intends to respond to the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown have emerged as two oddballs this budget season. The climate law proposal hasn\u2019t taken the form of a traditional State of the State proposal or a 30-day amendment add-on, nor does it appear it will be sprung on legislative leaders in an overtime sneak attack close to or after the deadline, as some of the governor\u2019s pitches have been in recent years.<\/p>\n
The development of an immigrant protection package has also followed a nontraditional blueprint existing largely outside of other budget talks despite Hochul introducing multiple proposals as part of her executive budget. Those include banning formal agreements between local governments and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and protecting certain sensitive locations from ICE intrusion without a warrant. Progressives in the state Legislature, meanwhile, have pushed for a package anchored by the New York for All Act, which further restricts cooperation.<\/p>\n
Despite repeated use of the phrase \u201csooner rather than later\u201d since the legislative session began in January \u2014 and indicating they would like to see a package developed before the rest of the state budget is finalized \u2014 April 1 is closing in with limited movement.<\/p>\n
Stewart-Cousins was ambiguous when asked Monday whether a solution would come before, during or after the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things that are priorities. Certainly the budget is what is in front of us, but the immigration issue has been a perpetual issue that we have to answer in the moment, and we want to do that as soon as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we can get a three-way agreement, it would certainly be outside of the budget. We left an opportunity to do it within the budget, but I think they are on parallel tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart-Cousins has consistently said she would like to see a three-way agreement that comes as close to the New York for All Act as possible. Heastie acknowledged Monday that the final package will have to address how to handle people who commit serious crimes, which has long been a concern of the governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wants the issue of what the federal government says was their mission of deporting the worst of the worst in terms of crime,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re trying to figure out language that would agree with that, but also not allow for the runaway stuff that ICE has been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, budget negotiations have run past the deadline, culminating in a May 9 deal last year that marked the latest budget in 15 years. Heastie didn\u2019t rule out meeting the April 1 deadline this year, but offered little comfort for anyone hoping to flee Albany on the night of March 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always like to have an on-time budget, but a better budget is more important than an on-time budget,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got two weeks to figure it out. I want it to be on time. I\u2019m sure the leader wants it to be on time. I\u2019m sure our members want it to be on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris\u2019 hopes remained elevated Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully March 31 or very soon thereafter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State budget negotiations took flight Monday with the kickoff meeting known in Albany circles as \u201cthe mothership\u201d and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[206,109,116,295,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,112,87],"class_list":["post-165696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany-capital-region","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-jack-arpey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}