What's in the state budget that you might not know about, This Week in New York History
Plus: a new Siena Poll looks at Hochul's favorability and how New Yorkers feel about certain issues.
Good afternoon — it’s Monday, and Earth Day.
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024
TODAY’S CAPCON:
The budget is done, and it was a wild ride
We know the big stuff. What are some other budget nuggets that have flown under the radar?
A new Siena poll looks at Hochul and how New Yorkers feel about certain issues
This Week in New York History
🔨 Is Tomorrow a Session Day? No.
☁️ Tonight’s Weather: Albany: Clear, low 30s New York City: Clear, mid-40s (National Weather Service)
💸 The budget is done, what you might have missed
💰 The state Legislature finished voting on this year’s $237 billion state budget Saturday, about three weeks after it was due.
So, the budget is done. As we told you Friday, the state’s spending plan is now in the rearview.
If you were out of the loop over the weekend and on Monday, lawmakers wrapped up voting Saturday.
Gov. Kathy HOCHUL has signed the budget bills that require her approval.
"I promised to fight for New Yorkers and tackle the thorny issues, and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” Hochul said in a statement Monday.
Some of those “thorny issues” — like housing and school aid — were included in the Education, Labor and Family Assistance (S8306C/A8806C) budget bill..
But before we dive into that, let’s take a step back and recognize how wild this year’s budget season was.
In substance, it wasn’t an unusual budget cycle; nothing came up that was truly left field — like in 2022, when Hochul wedged a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills in at the eleventh hour.
What was unusual was the series of events that ran adjacent to — and at times enveloped — the state budget. Let’s take a quick look back at this year.
Jan. 16: It all kicked off when Hochul unveiled her third executive budget proposal, clocking in at $233 billion.
Feb 13: A special election is held for New York’s 3rd Congressional District, vacated by George Santos. The race was between Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, and Mazi Pilip, a Republican.
After a bitterly personal race for governor between Suozzi and Hochul in 2022, they buried the hatchet. Hochul helped garner support for Suozzi and he won.
March 14: It’s reported that Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie was dating a lobbyist. New York Focus first reported the story.
Four days later, when asked about it, Heastie told reporters he is “never again … addressing my personal life.”
April 5: A 4.8 magnitude earthquake is felt across the state. The epicenter was in New Jersey, but New York residents reported feeling the quake’s rumble.
Hochul held a news conference that day, telling reporters she had dispatched state emergency management officials to assess any damage.
April 8: The path of totality for a solar eclipse stretches across parts of western New York and the North Country, drawing about a million visitors to the state.
It also disrupted budget talks for a day because most lawmakers were back in their districts, and Hochul saw the event in Niagara Falls.
April 15: Hochul announces “the parameters of a conceptual agreement” on the state budget, blindsiding lawmakers who didn’t think discussions were there yet.
She gave the broad strokes of the budget deal, but the actual bills didn’t start to trickle out until nearly three days later.
April 17: Just when the end was in sight, the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission is hit with an unknown cyberattack that derails their system for compiling and introducing legislation.
The commission was able to bypass the hack using 30-year-old computers.
April 20: After a few very tense days, the Legislature approves the budget and heads home for a two-week break. 🎉
⌛ That brings us to today, two days after lawmakers approved the final budget bills.
The big one I mentioned — the ELFA bill — had some of the stuff we were looking for before it was introduced.
Several housing initiatives, including those we’ve already told you about were in there.
The minor changes to school aid this year and the plan to study the current formula for determining that aid made it in there as well.
The housing package takes up a lot of this bill because it was spread out into several different sections rather than pieced together.
If you’re interested in the housing package, you’ve probably already read about what’s in it by now. I’ll lay that out another day.
But for today, let’s look at what’s in there that you might not know about:
Workforce:
COVID-19 Leave: The state law requiring employers to provide paid sick time for workers who catch COVID-19 has been repealed.
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