New York State Capitol

After a month and a day late, New York State finally has a 2024 budget.

The State Legislature finished passing budget bills late Tuesday night for the $229 billion spending plan.

Governor Kathy Hochul was successful in getting changes to bail reform that expands bail consideration for judges.

However, her Housing Compact plan was put on the back burner for further post-budget discussion.

The approved budget also includes more than $34 billion increase in school aid. Jamestown Public Schools will receive $9.5 million more in foundation aid, for total state aid funding of $83,706,514.

New York State of Polictics reports the budget will raise the minimum wage in Upstate New York to $16 in 2026 and index the base pay to the rate of inflation.

The budget does not raise the personal income tax.

A planned ban on natural gas hookups in new construction also passed.

State Senator George Borrello issued a statement calling the budget a “bad budget” that ignores affordability and public safety. On the bail reform change, Borrello said, “The promised changes are nothing but a shell game that will do nothing to reverse the tide of rising crime. Ninety percent of crimes are still not eligible for bail. Judges still do not have the discretion they need to hold dangerous individuals, despite rewording of the ‘least restrictive’ standard.”

That’s according to Governor Kathy Hochul in comments to news media on Tuesday.

The budget was originally due April 1.

State lawmakers and Hochul are continuing to discuss issues that would enable the state to address the sale of illegal cannabis sales in the state as well as expand charter schools in New York City.

The budget is expected to include a ban on new natural gas hookups by 2026 in new construction in the state.

Hochul said on Tuesday the measure was necessary to address climate change.

Meanwhile, New York State Republican legislators are celebrating a Federal court ruling Tuesday in California that said Berkeley, California’s ordinance banning natural gas hookups in new buildings is preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

Officials have previously agreed to changes to New York’s cashless bail law that would provide judges with more discretion in setting bail for criminal case.

Hochul’s housing plan was rejected by lawmakers, but she said she wants to continue pushing elements of it after the budget is given final approval in the remaining weeks of the session.

Lawmakers and Hochul also have tentative deals for increasing the state’s minimum wage to $17 an hour in the coming years and funding universal free school meals.

New York State Capitol

Housing and bail reform disputes are holding up the passage of the New York State Budget.

The April 1 deadline for the budget came and went with no bills being passed.

The Democrat controlled Legislature is taking issue with two proposals by Governor Kathy Hochul that would amend the state’s 2019 bail law and set mandates on localities to speed housing growth.

Hochul is seeking to change the state’s bail reforms to remove the requirement that judges use the “least restrictive means” to ensure defendants return to court while awaiting trial or plea deals. Legislative leaders are opposing this.

On the housing issue, Hochul has proposed a Housing Compact that would set mandatory growth targets for all roughly 1,500 municipalities and rezoning to allow dense housing around commuter train and subway stations in New York City and its suburbs.

The Assembly and Senate want to instead replace the mandates with state funding incentives that localities could reap by meeting their growth targets.

An extender is expected to be passed today for the budget, giving lawmakers more time. They are hoping to have an additional one to two weeks to work on the budget.

George Borrello

State Senator George Borrello was disappointed in the lack of emphasis on public safety in Governor Hochul‘s State of the State address.

Borrello said he thought it was good and important that Hochul addressed crime in her speech, “I have my doubts that she’s going to be able to convince the progressives, who really run the State Legislature, that there need to be more changes to bail reform but I’m glad to hear her acknowledge that.”

He also was glad to hear of mention of the out-migration problem the state has as well as the proposed investment in mental health, “New York State has really done a lot of damage in the last couple of decades, closing down institutions that help people who have severe mental illness, closing so many, hundreds and hundreds of mental health observation beds, tying the hands of our mental health professionals, all in the name of, ‘We don’t want to stigmatize mental health.’ It’s turned the streets of our communities into mental institutions.”

Borrello said he took issue with Hochul’s proposed Housing Compact, saying that housing affordability is an issue across New York and that a lot of it is due to bad state policy, “So, if you want to encourage new development, you need to do so by removing so many of the restrictions we have on developers, addressing the high taxes and over-regulation that we have; and trying to force communities to increase their housing stock, particularly by saying, ‘We’re going to override your local zoning,’ which is a lot of what this Housing Compact will do, it will say, ‘You must accept multi-family dwellings. You must accept low-income housing.’ That’s not the way to approach this.”

Borrello added he is planning to reintroduce a bill which is a stronger version of Kendra’s Law. The legislation would strengthen Kendra’s Law by allowing longer hospital stays for people who fail to follow their court-mandated, assisted outpatient treatment. Current law allows for an involuntary 72-hour hospitalization. Borrello and now-retired Democratic State Senator Diane Savino co-sponsored the bill last year, but it did not pass. Borrello said he’s hoping to find new, bipartisan support for it this session.

Governor Kathy Hochul delivers 2023 State of the State (January 10, 2023)

Kathy Hochul delivered her first State of the State Tuesday as an elected Governor of New York.

She pledged to expand the number of available beds in psychiatric treatment facilities, address public safety concerns, and tie the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.

Hochul proposes a $1 billion investment in mental health that will include increasing the number of inpatient psychiatric treatment beds by 1,000, creating 3,500 units of housing for those with mental illness, increasing insurance coverage for mental health services, expanding outpatient services, and creating systemic accountability for hospital admissions and discharges to better address the needs of individuals suffering with mental illness.

Under public safety, Hochul plans to double funding for the Gun Involved Violence Elimination, or GIVE, program to $36 million. This will expand the use of evidence-based strategies – hot-spot policing, focused deterrence, crime prevention through environmental design, and street outreach – and result in the hiring of more than 150 police officers and prosecutors solely dedicated to combating gun violence within their communities.

She also said she will work with the State Legislature to clarify the State’s bail laws.

Hochul’s proposal for increasing the State’s minimum wage would be based on the growth in the year-over-year Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region. To ensure that no single-year increase would threaten employment, annual increases would be capped. In addition, the proposal would also allow for an “off-ramp” in the event of certain economic or budget conditions.

Seventeen other states either currently tie their minimum wage to inflation or some other economic formula or are slated to do so, including three states which have minimum wages at or above $15 in 2023.

Hochul also introduced the New York Housing Compact’s plan to deal with housing shortages that will require all cities, towns, and villages to achieve new home creation targets on a three-year cycle. She said the proposals, if adopted by lawmakers, could spur the creation of 800,000 new homes over the next decade.

View Governor Hochul’s complete State of the State address here: