The April 1 deadline has come and gone. The Democrat for the state\u2019s 127th assembly district, which comprises much of Central New York, gives us the latest on what is holding up the New York state budget for the fifth year in a row.<\/p>\n
This interview is from April 3, 2026, and has been edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s late, period. How close, or maybe how far, are we? Are we fourth quarter? Halftime? Did we even start the game?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re still in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Oh dear.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve stated our positions a couple of times. We\u2019ve gone into a bunch of meetings and\u2026there\u2019s still the positions. I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s moved all that much \u2014 although, there are some things that are happening. There are some of the primary issues the governor [Kathy Hochul] wants to deal with that I think\u2026In the beginning, we\u2019re probably eighty or ninety percent of the way there. But there are a couple issues that are going to take a while.<\/p>\n
What are some of the issues that are holding things up? Why no movement on them?<\/p>\n
Auto insurance is one thing. The governor is on her affordability tour at your local whatever. She\u2019s stopping everywhere to talk about that. And it\u2019s true, everybody wants affordability, so auto insurance is one of those things. We\u2019re ninety percent OK with auto insurance. There are some things about joint and several responsibility<\/a> and comparative negligence<\/a> that some of the people who are in our conference, who have worked in this world for many years, think are a little dangerous, what the governor\u2019s trying to do.<\/p>\n But there are other suggestions they have in order to lower costs. They think that what the governor\u2019s put in is fine, it won\u2019t lower it enough that the ratepayers will see the difference, but maybe some of the executives will get bigger bonuses.<\/p>\n Is there another big issue that you think is holding things up?<\/p>\n SEQR [State Environmental Quality Review Act<\/a>]. We would like to speed up the SEQR so we can build more. We\u2019re trying to build housing \u2014 a lot of housing \u2014 and we need to build it quickly. It\u2019s a problem everywhere in the United States. It\u2019s a problem especially in Central New York with Micron coming, the 5,000 construction workers that are going to be here, and then the 125,000 people that are eventually going to move here to work at Micron and some of the supply chain companies that they bring.<\/p>\n Affordability: that\u2019s certainly a buzzword in the entire world. You hear it everywhere. Is there anything that you, state lawmakers in Albany, can do? Is there anything in the state budget that can help us with some of these high prices?<\/p>\n I think that some of the things the governor is talking about are more longer-term. We\u2019ll see increases down the road. As far as today and now, we [New York state assemblymembers] wrote a letter to the governor<\/a> and we said: There is money [$770.6 million of unused Clean Energy Fund money] that utility companies are holding from charges. It\u2019s supposed to be for things to affect climate change in the future. Why don\u2019t we go ahead and use that money for rebates? You can send people \u2014 singles, maybe $300; couples, maybe $500 \u2014 something like that, something we can give them to help with costs right now.<\/p>\n [You can read a recent letter on the same topic from New York state senators online here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Other than that, unless you go ahead and implement some of the C.L.C.P.A. [Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a>] things. Cap and invest\u2026cap and invest, while they\u2019re going around saying it\u2019s going to raise all costs to everybody, was\u2026cap and invest was built to provide $3 billion a year. What that was supposed to be used for would be rebates to about 85% of the people in New York State<\/a>. So anybody that makes \u2014 I don\u2019t know what it was, $300,000 a year, something like that \u2014 would get rebates. And they would not see an increase, or most would actually see a small decrease in their costs.<\/p>\n Those are things we\u2019re trying to put out there, and hopefully the governor will pick up on some of that.<\/p>\n A lot of people are very concerned about the cost of things and they\u2019re looking for relief. Can the budget deliver some of that?<\/p>\n I think the budget can deliver some relief. It\u2019s not going to be what probably everybody is hoping for. There\u2019s things that are way out of our control. The federal government is still interested in tariffs. There\u2019s a war going on. Not only the one in the Middle East: the one in Ukraine\u2019s still going on. Ukraine provides 20 or 25% of all the wheat in the world [Note: This is a common misconception. In actuality, at the time when the between Russia and Ukraine began, Ukraine produced about 3.7% of the world\u2019s wheat<\/a>, according to the United Nations, though it was still among the world\u2019s top exporters of wheat. Those wheat exports have been further disrupted once the war began<\/a>.]<\/p>\n There\u2019s all sort of stuff going on right now that, frankly, were things of choice, and not necessarily things that had to happen. I don\u2019t think we can compensate for all of that.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n