{"id":630139,"date":"2026-05-08T03:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/630139\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:05:08","slug":"breaking-down-albanys-state-budget-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/630139\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking down Albany\u2019s state budget drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bit of Albany\u2019s internal drama spilled into public view Thursday, with conflicting messages from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie<\/a>, both Democrats leaving New Yorkers reading news tickers in coffee shops, airports and car dealerships wondering: is there a budget deal or not?<\/p>\n

After Hochul held a news conference announcing a \u201cgeneral agreement\u201d on key items, Heastie said “there is no deal.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Technically, there is not. That would require the Democrat-led Legislature to pass budget bills and Hochul to sign them into law. We\u2019re at least days away from that.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re stuck in a Planet Albany in-between: the wilderness that exists after the governor announces a \u201chandshake\u201d agreement on major policy proposals and top-line items, but before an enacted state budget, when frustration grows among lawmakers and staff as outstanding spending items remain unresolved.<\/p>\n

On Thursday\u2019s show, Capital Tonight broke down what this means in the context of Hochul\u2019s negotiation habits, and what is still left to address as the process drags on.<\/p>\n

Hochul acknowledged in her remarks that there is still work to be done, but repeatedly used past-tense language to describe negotiations, including the same \u201cWe Got It Done\u201d branding on her presentation graphics that rubbed lawmakers the wrong way last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got it done,\u201d she said. \u201cOver the next few days, the Legislature will be conferencing and voting on the budget bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then went on to tout consensus with the Legislature on her push to change car insurance laws in a bid to lower rates<\/a>; a rollback of the state\u2019s landmark 2019 climate law<\/a> in a classic Hochul-vs.-Legislature budget clash; a loosening of the state\u2019s environmental quality review<\/a> to fast-track projects on previously disturbed land in an effort to spur housing development; and finally, a sweeping immigration package<\/a> that limits formal collaboration between U.S.\u00a0Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local governments and prevents ICE agents from wearing masks \u2014 all part of a $268 billion spending plan that is $8 billion larger than her January proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to say that we did. We\u2019re delivering on affordability, on safety, on childcare, on the environment and on housing. This budget was the culmination of an ambitious agenda I laid out in January,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

Just moments after Hochul wrapped up taking questions from reporters following her speech, Heastie called a news conference contradicting the governor, insisting things aren\u2019t as close as Hochul is portraying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no budget deal,\u201d he said. \u201cEven on the policies we put out there today, some of these things are incomplete. We don\u2019t even have full language on the [Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act] or what to do about utility rates. I think it was very premature for the governor to come out to make this announcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heastie wasn\u2019t alone \u201cThe speaker is correct,\u201d Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris said before the Senate met to pass yet another budget extender.<\/p>\n

Heastie\u2019s frustration stems from what is ultimately a successful tactic for the governor, but one that earns her scorn from fellow Democratic lawmakers and good-government groups alike: her willingness to hold up the budget and the process of negotiating the state\u2019s expenditures as a leverage tool to get a sizable portion of nearly all of the policy proposals she weaves into the executive budget plan thanks to New York\u2019s executive driven process. He has lamented that current process compresses the period of time that lawmakers have to address non-budget items unburdened by the background noise of high stakes negotiations. This year, the legislative session wraps on June 4.<\/p>\n

The speaker told reporters that in a Wednesday evening meeting with the governor, he didn\u2019t sign off on anything resembling \u201cWe Got It Done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her last night I was comfortable saying to you all, ‘we were close’ \u2014 it is close, but this is what\u2019s wrong with this process. I\u2019m only going to talk about policy and then, when the Legislature has given me what I want, then we\u2019ll talk about money. There are so many open issues on money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that he will refuse to call members to conference until more clarity is reached on spending items and indicated he will push for changes next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis thing \u2014 thinking you can starve the members out \u2014 it\u2019s over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hochul often frames conceptual agreements carefully as more of a status update than a fully hammered out deal, but that has never stopped lawmakers from getting annoyed. When asked for her perspective on changes to the budget process, Hochul often points reporters to what she has accomplished in \u201covertime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I\u2019ve stood for and fought for is for the betterment of the people of this state,\u201d she said earlier this month. \u201cThe necessary bail changes, which took two late budgets to get through, the necessary discovery changes, the involuntary confinement to help people who are living off the streets without proper care, cellphones, the cellphone ban, which has been extraordinary … I\u2019d prefer to be done on time. My hands are ready to shake, but we\u2019ve just got to work through some more details because my priorities are very important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heastie says enough is enough, but many point out that the Legislature has unused levers to push back against the governor \u2014 from veto overrides as a show of legislative strength to passing a constitutional amendment, to smaller, inside-baseball tactics the legislature could use to resist policy items.<\/p>\n

Although he complains similarly about the process every year, according to the speaker, there is more to come:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m saying this to y\u2019all very clearly: I\u2019m never doing this again. Budgets are supposed to be about money, not policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bit of Albany\u2019s internal drama spilled into public view Thursday, with conflicting messages from Gov. Kathy Hochul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21337,11638,54436,4,450,451,176141,21335,3,54435,251946,111,452,453,13309],"class_list":["post-630139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-albany-capital-region","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-jack-arpey","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}