A month late, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Democrat leadership of the state legislature emerged from behind closed doors to announce a record-breaking $229.8 billion budget with elements distasteful to suburban voters excluded such as an increase in the MTA payroll tax and her plan to usurp local zoning to place multi-family housing in local communities. Bowing to pressure from legislators and residents across the state impacted by an ongoing crime wave, the leaders agreed to give more discretion to judges in setting bail for criminal defendants and invest hundreds of millions in public safety initiatives.
According to the governor in a statement, the “bold and fiscally responsible plan makes historic investments in communities across the state and makes New York more affordable, more livable and safer.” It’s a “transformative budget that improves public safety, transforms our mental health care system, protects our climate and invests in our children's future," Hochul boasted.
Others were not so enthusiastic saying the plan will do little to reduce the state’s tax burden–the highest in the nation–and stop the record out-migration of residents to other states. Rather than advocate for tighter border security and laws to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the state, the budget calls for hundreds of millions of dollars in services for the new arrivals. The plan also implements controversial aspects of the governor’s Green Agenda by implementing first-in-the-nation zero-emission requirements for new building construction and expanding the New York Power Authority's ability to support Hochul’s climate goals which call for the elimination of fossil fuels, including gas stoves in homes.
“While the budget spends record amounts in much-needed areas such as aid to local school districts and resources for mental health, it falls short in addressing the systemic issues that have made New York so expensive,” said Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano. “The budget’s not a month late because they made hard decisions, it was late because it took them a while to figure out where to spend all the money.”
According to highlights released by the governor’s office, the budget, if approved by the full legislature, funnels record funding to P-12 schools and higher education, including the largest-ever annual school aid amount of $34.5 billion, full funding of Foundation Aid for the first time in state history, reauthorizing 22 charter schools, including 14 in New York City, and $2.4 billion for new capital projects for the city and state university systems.
Responding to the crime wave caused by the disastrous Democrat bail laws and the anti-law enforcement agenda espoused by the Progressives, the budget includes $347 million in evidence-based gun violence prevention initiatives; $170 million to support the implementation of discovery reform for prosecutors and defenders, including $50 million in capital for discovery technology improvements in New York City; $92 million in aid for prosecution and defense funding across the state; and more than $66 million to increase the number of State Police academy classes and troopers dedicated to addressing serious crime.
The plan puts $1 billion into mental health services and increases inpatient psychiatric treatment, as well as expands outpatient services and boosts insurance coverage. It also increases Medicaid coverage for more than 7.8 million low-income New Yorkers.
The budget also allocates $100.7 million to fund abortion providers, expand access to abortion care for SUNY and CUNY students, provides access to over-the-counter contraception at pharmacies, enacts additional data protections for patients seeking reproductive health care, and increases the Medicaid reimbursement rate for abortion care.
Addressing child care, the plan dedicates $500 million toward a Workforce Retention Grant Program and $25 million to support the Employer Child Care Tax Credit, as well as an expansion of the Child Tax Credit to include children under four years old.
Increasing the minimum wage for three years, after which the wage would increase at a rate determined by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, giving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who earn minimum wage a pay increase to keep with rising costs of living, Hochul’s office said.
The budget increases rental assistance for New York City Housing Authority and other public housing residents, as well as Section 8 voucher recipients and other subsidized housing residents through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
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In one of the only budget highlights offered by the governor to address the state’s flagging economy, the plan expands the New York Film Tax Credit which, Hochul said, “is one of the most stable film production incentive programs in the nation which will provide a boost to New York's film industry, one of the largest union employers in the state.”
Expanding access and boosting demand for New York food and products while supporting farmers by increasing food manufacturing capabilities in the state is part of the budget, along with $10 million to support the establishment of farm markets, supermarkets and food cooperatives in underserved communities, and $50 million over five years to local school districts to support New York State farm products in meals for K-12 school children.
The budget funds a new $1.7 billion Department of Health research laboratory, $2.4 billion for transformation, maintenance and preservation projects at SUNY and CUNY campuses, $446 million for Phase Three of the Hunts Point Interstate Access Improvement Project, $105 million to upgrade the State Emergency Operations Center, and $51 million for Hudson Valley Bridge Rehabilitation and Replacements.
The budget supports New Yorkers with disabilities by expanding the Medicaid Buy-In Program for working people with disabilities, funding and reinvigorating the Interagency Coordinating Council for Services to Persons who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing and increasing the number of Civil Service Section 55-B positions to grow the representation of those with disabilities in the State workforce, Hochul reported.
In addition, the spending plan expands the enforcement powers of the Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance to further grow the legal marketplace for marijuana, including levying fines on illegal retail operations and closing those shops down.
It also looks to support New York seniors by funding programs statewide for aging in place efforts, fighting financial exploitation, elder abuse, and isolation of the aging, and increasing funding for the Master Plan for Aging, a comprehensive, interagency vision for seniors living in the state.