No state budget breakthrough ahead of fifth extender

The CapCon podcast is back, starting with State Budget Director Blake Washington.

Good afternoon — it’s Monday and National Gardening Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• Lawmakers will not return to a deal on the state budget Tuesday. Here’s where negotiations stand.

• The Capitol Confidential podcast is back! I recorded an episode Monday with State Budget Director Blake Washington.

• DOCCS has approved three contracts totaling $96 million to help increase transparency in state prisons and solve the staffing crisis.

• Here’s what’s on deck at the Capitol for Tuesday.

• A new bill would shorten the number of days someone has to decline a nomination for office after a primary.

• This Week in New York History: The Original State Constitution, New York’s Civil War militia and the Yankees.

Names in today’s CapCon: Kathy Hochul, Blake Washington, DOCCS, Latrice Walker, Eddie Gibbs, John Lemondes, Jr.

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The state budget was due April 1. We’re keeping you updated on negotiations around the spending plan in the meantime.

The author of this newsletter and State Budget Director Blake Washington recording a CapCon podcast episode (Tim Ruffinen/Division of Budget)

💵 There wasn’t a state budget breakthrough over the weekend

The Capitol Confidential podcast returns tomorrow in your feeds. More on that a little further down. Here’s a quick state budget update first.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Albany Tuesday to approve a fifth budget extender as talks continue between the Senate, Assembly and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

We’re basically where we were when lawmakers left on Thursday. Hochul held a news event Monday in support of her proposed changes to pretrial criminal discovery, which the Legislature is against. Hochul said she’s not giving up.

“I’ll refuse any state budget deal that does not fix that fatal flaw in these discovery reforms,” said Hochul, whose office released an accompanying report analyzing the dismissal rates in domestic violence cases in 2023.

That issue continues to be the main sticking point in budget negotiations, though there’s been progress on other items in the background, lawmakers have said.

Hochul also pushed back on the characterization that’s been made by some members of the Legislature that talks on pretrial discovery have been largely one-sided, with little flexibility on her end.