Governor Kathy Hochul announces tentative deal on state budget (April 27, 2023)

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a tentative deal on the 2024 State Budget.

According to reports by WXXI, Hochul called the news conference after Senate and Assembly members left the Capitol for the weekend, saying that there were too many unresolved issues to approve a spending plan this week.

The governor said in a release that she had reached an agreement with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on the budget plan

Hochul announced adjustments will be made to the state’s current bail laws. The governor said judges will have more authority to set bail and detain dangerous defendants. The agreement that has been reached removes the least restrictive means standard and gives judges discretion to hold violent criminals accountable.

The budget also includes $40 million for public defenders to retain staff and enhance their services. Assigned attorneys will receive a pay increase for the first time in two decades.

The state plans to invest in violence prevention, including $36 million to Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE), increasing stabilization units for the New York State Police, and $40 million to district attorneys.

The state would raise the minimum wage. Starting next year, the minimum wage would rise to $15 in Upstate New York, with additional 50 cent increases in 2025 and 2026 to bring it to $17 by 2027. Future increases would be tied to the rate of inflation.

The budget also appears to include a ban on natural gas in new buildings and funding for free meals for school children.

The next step in the budget process is for the bills to be printed, so that state lawmakers can vote on them. The budget was due April 1.

The New York Daily News reports the budget is expected to exceed Governor Kathy Hochul’s initial $216 billion ask.

Insiders said both the Assembly and the Senate were mostly in agreement on a framework for changes to the state’s bail and discovery laws, an 11th-hour request from Hochul that has stymied and slowed down talks.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie were expected to present the pubic safety proposals to rank and file lawmakers late Tuesday evening.

Criminal justice advocates, fearful that changes to bail reforms enacted in 2019 will lead to more people being imprisoned simply because they are poor, pleaded with lawmakers to reject any overhauls.

One legislative source said that moving past the public safety reforms will allow negotiations on other issues including child care funding and subsidies and a potential suspension of the state’s gas tax to advance.

While the state’s revenue bill was one of the measures expected to be prepared late Tuesday, the gasoline tax reprieve and Hochul’s plan to fast-track licenses for a trio of downstate casinos were not likely to be included. They could still appear in other budget bills later in the week, the source said.

An agreement appears to have been reached on an overhaul of the state’s beleaguered ethics panel that has so far failed to appease good government groups.

At the same time, sources confirmed that an extension of a controversial tax abatement for real estate developers that Hochul was seeking after a revamped version in her original budget proposal was rejected appears to be off the table.

The governor on Monday defended the secretive nature of budget negotiations, maintaining that everything has been “normal” despite the delays and frustration from lawmakers over the last-minute inclusion of her public safety proposals and millions in state funds for a new Buffalo Bills stadium.
Hochul also defended the deal she struck with the Bills’ billionaire owners that could cost New York up to $1.13 billion in state subsidies despite backlash from political opponents and lawmakers.

She said, “It is not majority taxpayer-funded, I want to be clear on that. The state share is 43%. So that’s not the majority, but that’s historically low for any public financing from the state.”

WXXI news reports both houses, led by Democrats, propose spending more than $6 billion above Governor Kathy Hochul’s spending plan.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said his house is adding an additional $3 billion to help fix a broken child care system and revive the economy. He said it includes money to pay workers higher wages and subsidize costs for lower-income parents.

The Senate is proposing over $4 billion in additional funds for child care, saying the goal is to provide “universal” access.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger said both houses also want to reduce chronic shortages of home health care workers by boosting what are often poverty-level wages.

Hochul’s $216 billion budget plan already increased state spending by more than 5% from the previous year. She was able to do so because of generous federal relief packages earlier in the pandemic, and higher-than-expected tax collections, including a new income tax surcharge on the wealthy.

Fiscal watchdog groups warned that the final budget should not spend more than the governor has proposed.

The Citizens Budget Commission said with the additional funds, Hochul and the Legislature have been given a rare opportunity to finally end New York’s chronic year-to-year budget deficits.

Both houses say their plans are balanced for the next two years, but could not say whether their spending plans would create deficits after that.

The Legislature’s budget plans leave out many items that the governor said were important to her, including authorizing alcohol-to-go for the state’s restaurants, a revamping of the troubled state ethics commission and term limits for statewide elected offices.

The budget is due by April 1.

WMHT Live Blog: The New York State Budget (2022) 

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in a joint statement on Wednesday said, “The statutory deadline for the Independent Redistricting Commission to submit congressional and state legislative maps has passed. As per the New York State Constitution, it becomes the Legislature’s responsibility to consider fair maps that ensure all New Yorkers have equitable representation in their government. That is a duty we take very seriously. Given the expedited nature of the political calendar, we fully expect the Senate and Assembly to consider new fair maps in a timely manner. The plan is to vote on these maps next week.”

Spectrum News reports Democrats hold supermajority control of both the state Senate and Assembly, giving them an advantage in the redistricting process. Earlier this month, lawmakers voted to reject a set of competing maps drawn by Democratic and Republican-leaning members of the commission.

The commission itself was devised as a “reform” by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo through a constitutional amendment meant to remove the process from the state Legislature. Critics have long argued elected officials have used redistricting as a way to ensure incumbents are re-elected and parties in power can maximize their advantage by, in essence, choosing their voters.

Redistricting this year comes also as Democrats are facing an uphill battle to retain control of the House of Representatives. With the margins narrow, Democratic victories in key House districts in New York could potentially make a difference in who ultimately wins majority control of the chamber.

New York is expected to lose one seat in the House of Representatives due to its stagnant population growth compared to the rest of the nation.

Kathy Hochul

The private ceremony took place at 12:01 this morning with the public swearing in ceremony set for 10am.
Hochul plans to meet with legislative leaders later this morning and make a public address at 3 p.m.

Andrew Cuomo in his final address as Governor yesterday, continued to attack the State Attorney General’s report for saying he sexually harassed anyone. He also cited his past accomplishments while adding that Kathy Hochul will be able to step up to the challenge as Governor.

Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, released a statement saying the governor was exploring his options for his post-gubernatorial life but had “no interest in running for office again.”

Cuomo’s resignation won’t end his legal problems.

An aide who said Cuomo groped her breast has filed a complaint with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office. Separately, Cuomo was facing a legislative investigation into whether he misled the public about COVD-19 deaths in nursing homes to protect his reputation as a pandemic leader and improperly got help from state employees in writing a book that may net him $5 million.

For the first time, a majority of the most powerful figures in New York state government will be women, including state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Attorney General Letitia James and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore. The state Assembly is led by a man, Speaker Carl Heastie.

Hochul made some initial staff announcements yesterday, saying she is adding Karen Persichilli Keogh to be the Secretary to the Governor and Elizabeth Fine to be Counsel to the Governor.

Keogh served on then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s senior staff as New York State Director and campaign manager for her successful 2006 Senate re-election.

Fine is Executive Vice-President and General Counsel of Empire State Development (ESD), New York’s economic development agency.

Hochul, who has already said she plans to run for a full term next year, is expected to pick a left-leaning New York City politician as her lieutenant governor.

In a joint statement by Speaker Carl Heastie and Chair Charles Lavine, the committee says it will continue to review evidence before it releases its final report.

“The committee will take all appropriate steps to ensure that this effort does not interfere with various ongoing investigations by the United States Attorney concerning nursing home data; the attorney general concerning the governor’s memoir; and local law enforcement authorities in five jurisdictions – Manhattan, Albany, Westchester, Nassau and Oswego – regarding possible criminal incidents of sexual misconduct.”

On Friday, Heastie announced the Assembly would suspend its investigation of Cuomo once he steps down.

Heastie said lawyers had advised the body’s judiciary committee that the state constitution doesn’t authorize the Legislature to impeach an elected official no longer in office.

The decision was met with criticism from Republican members of the Legislature and also some Democrats.

Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will take over as governor when Cuomo steps down.

At least 86 of the body’s 150 members have said publicly or told The AP that they favored initiating the process of ousting the third-term Democratic governor if he doesn’t quit. It takes a simple majority to authorize an impeachment trial.

Assembly Democrats, who lead the chamber, debated virtually for hours Tuesday about whether to impeach the governor now, wait to see whether he resigns, or give the Judiciary Committee time to wrap up its wide-ranging investigation into topics from sexual misconduct to the Cuomo administration’s months-long obfuscation of the total number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19.
At least 40 Democrats back starting impeachment proceedings if Cuomo doesn’t leave on his own.

The 150-member Assembly would need 76 votes to impeach Cuomo and send articles of impeachment to the Senate. The Assembly includes 106 Democrats, 43 Republicans and one Independent.
Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay urged Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, to convene an emergency special session to vote to impeach Cuomo.

Heastie said he wants to conclude the Assembly’s investigation as quickly as possible. Judiciary committee members Tom Abinanti and Phil Steck variously estimated the timeframe at weeks or a month.

The two Democrats said that some lawmakers want to vote for impeachment within days, but time is needed to build a strong case for a Senate trial.

If the Assembly votes to impeach, the state Senate could launch an impeachment trial in weeks. Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris told The Associated Press the chamber has been preparing for months, saying, “We’ll be ready to go if and when the impeachment articles are sent over,” he said. “It could happen very quickly.”

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At least four district attorneys offices in New York have requested additional investigative information from the state’s probe into sexual harassment allegations against Governor Andrew Cuomo.

CNN is reporting the DAs are saying they need the materials to determine whether incidents that occurred in their jurisdictions amount to criminal actions.

The investigation’s report, released Tuesday by state Attorney General Letitia James, found that Cuomo harassed 11 women, including current and former state employees, as well as women outside of state government. Investigators repeatedly described Cuomo’s conduct as “unlawful,” though a footnote in the report said that it was not reaching a conclusion as to “whether the conduct amounts to or should be the subject of criminal prosecution.”

But shortly after the report’s findings were released, Albany County’s district attorney said his office would be requesting investigative materials obtained by James, while the offices for district attorneys in Westchester County, Nassau County and Manhattan made similar announcements Wednesday.
Cuomo has denied the investigation’s findings and has shown no willingness to resign over them. He has frequently accused the probe as being politically motivated.

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Meanwhile, a Marist poll done Tuesday night found that 59% of New Yorkers, including 52% of registered Democrats, think Governor Andrew Cuomo should resign from office in light of the results of the independent investigation which found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women.

32% report Cuomo should serve out the rest of his term. If Cuomo does not resign, 59% of New Yorkers say the New York State Legislature should impeach him.

Marist Poll Director Dr. Lee Miringoff said “The court of public opinion believes the allegations against Governor Cuomo warrant his removal from office. If he does not resign nearly six in ten New Yorkers believe he should be impeached. Even if he survives this scandal, his reelection prospects are rock bottom with even his Democratic base deserting him.”

Calls for him to resign reached as high as President Joe Biden yesterday.

U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement say the “reported actions of the Governor were profoundly disturbing, inappropriate, and completely unacceptable.” They ended with “No elected official is above the law. The people of New York deserve better leadership in the governor’s office. We continue to believe that the Governor should resign.”

State Senator George Borrello called for Cuomo to resign immediately and for the Senate and Assembly to begin impeachment proceedings.

Assemblyman Andy Goodell stated that if Cuomo does not accept personal responsibility and resign, then he fully supports calling the New York State Assembly into special session for the purpose of impeaching the Governor.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie released a statement also calling for Cuomo’s resignation and said, “The report has been forwarded to the members of the Judiciary Committee as well as all members of the Assembly. We will now undertake an in-depth examination of the report and its corresponding exhibits with our Assembly counsels as well the legal firm we have retained to assist us.”

Congressman Tom Reed was notably silent on the news, having given up running for New York Governor this Spring following an accusation of sexual misconduct for an incident in 2017. Reed has since apologized for that incident.

The Independent Investigation’s full report can be viewed here: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2021.08.03_nyag_-_investigative_report.pdf

Heastie has publicly been the staunchest advocate of the law, but the The New York Post is reporting closed-door meetings have been taking place on the issue and it appears to be the speaker’s first admission that bail reform should be revisited.

The new bail reform measures went into effect at the start of this year and involve eliminating the potential to impose bail on those accused of misdemeanor and some “non-violent” felony crimes. Since the law went into effect there has been public outcry over the release of individuals who were then re-arrested and charged with committing more crimes.

Criticism of the law is coming from both upstate and downstate Assembly Democrats, who control the chamber. They join Republican lawmakers along with members of law enforcement. Both those groups have been critical of the reform measures even before the new year began.

Already this year both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) have indicated they are open to changes to the law.

Local Sen. George Borrello (R-Irving, 57th Senate District) has also been an outspoken critic of bail reform and was recently appointed chair of the newly established ‘Repeal Bail Reform Task Force’ by Senate Republican Leader John Flanagan.

Early Sunday morning, on the final day of 2019 fiscal year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced that they had reached an agreement on the 2020 Budget.

A summary of the agreement released by the governor’s office said the budget includes a permanent two percent property tax cap, reforms of the cash bail system and pre-trial discovery process, and an additional $1 billion for education.

The budget would be $175.5 billion, holding spending at two percent growth. Cuomo’s announcement also said there are tax cuts for the middle class – but those were established in a previous budget and are not new.

Both the Assembly and Senate convened Sunday to begin passing bills. Democrats in both houses confirmed that at that time they were notified by their leaders of plans to pass a special resolution authorizing a pay raise for the governor and lt. governor.

As part of the final plan, the governor flexed his budget powers with the distribution of new revenues that will come from collecting sales taxes on all online purchases.

Instead of splitting an annual windfall of $220 million, counties outside of New York City will divide $160 million, because $60 million will be siphoned off to offset a cut in state aid the governor proposed for towns and villages.

The shifting of sales tax revenue was initially proposed in the governor’s February budget amendments after municipalities and state lawmakers rallied against the proposed cut in state aid.

On Sunday, New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario said the shifting of funds was a “fair compromise.”

Another measure in the budget that could impact commerce is the ban on plastic bags.

By March 2020, grocery stores and other retailers will have stopped providing single-use plastic bags for most purchases. Exemptions for the ban set to take effect March 1, 2020, include bags for uncooked meat, fish or poultry; sliced or prepared foods; delivered newspapers; prescription drugs; trash bags; food-storage bags; garment bags, and bags for restaurant carryout orders.

Counties will be allowed to opt for a 5-cent charge for paper bags, with 3 cents going to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and 2 cents kept by local governments.