Apparent deal on state budget announced last night

After a contentious series of negotiations that included the April 1 deadline for adopting a new state budget having been extended a number of times, Gov. Kathy Hochul last night announced what she termed “a conceptual agreement” with legislative leaders on the budget. Expectations were that both the State Senate and Assembly would quickly vote to adopt the budget so that Hochul could sign it into law next week.

The budget for Fiscal Year 2025 would total $237 billion, an increase from the $233 billion budget Hochul had originally proposed. The budget does not raise personal income or business taxes.

Hochul had been the target of a campaign designed to pressure her to restore the approximately $1.2 billion she had proposed cutting in Medicaid funding.

“We’re providing $3 billion to support distressed hospitals and continuing our $20 billion multi-year investment to build new health care infrastructure, expand coverage for seniors and pregnant New Yorkers, and increase the home care worker minimum wage,” Hochul said. “It’s well known that Medicaid is one of the single largest expenses in our state budget. So, we also have a responsibility to rein in these costs, because even though this year our revenues are higher than anticipated, we can’t expect that to be the case every year. We must scrutinize Medicaid spending, so we can continue to provide the essential services to people who need them the most.”

The budget agreement includes $19 million for mental health services for school aged children, $55 million to establish 200 new inpatient psychiatric beds at state-run facilities and mandates for better mental health care at hospitals.

The budget includes several initiatives to address the housing situation in the state. They include new tax incentives for creating affordable housing, making it easier to convert unused office space into residential space, and eliminating caps on residential density in New York City.

The budget includes $40.2 million for retail theft enforcement and a $3,000 tax credit for business owners to invest in security resources.

There is a provision to authorize the Office of Cannabis Management to shut down unlicensed cannabis retailers for a full year and establish fines for landlords knowingly renting to retailers selling cannabis without a license.

There would be $7.9 billion in state aid for New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates Metro-North, the Long Island Rail Road and the city’s buses and subways.

The budget allocates $150 million for a program to build swimming pols across the state and help New Yorkers learn to swim. It provides $35.9 billion in school aid.

“In my State of the State address, I said something I believe with all my heart: New Yorkers are more powerful together than we ever would be on our own,” Hochul said. “And we saw that with this budget process. Yes, with spirited debate, but there was almost unprecedented collaboration between myself, the majority leader (of the State Senate), the speaker (of the State Assembly), and we proved that we can come together for the good of our state, and we did.”