Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York unveiled on Tuesday a $252 billion executive budget that seemed intended to appease New Yorkers dissatisfied with the rising cost of living rather than to address President Trump’s policies that may hurt the state.
The proposed budget includes funding for about $1 billion in middle-class tax cuts, $3 billion in rebate checks for millions of New Yorkers, $800 million for an expansion of the state’s child tax credit, $340 million for school meals for every student and close to $60 million for more police officers on subway trains — all designed to address concerns about affordability, crime and the cost of living.
The spending plan represented a nearly $8.6 billion increase from the current budget, largely because of vast jumps in Medicaid and education spending.
Perhaps most significant is what Ms. Hochul’s budget did not include. She offered no contingency plans in case President Trump makes good on his vow to halt congestion pricing, which would stop the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
It also did not identify potential alternate funding streams in response to the Republican-led federal government’s likely focus on cutting money from social service programs like the Affordable Care Act. Blake G. Washington, Ms. Hochul’s budget director, said in an interview that the governor’s office would wait and see what comes from Congress and the White House.
“There will be a lot of advocacy to prevent a lot of that, but until that happens, we deal with the current law,” Mr. Washington said of potential cuts.
“We have a legislature,” he said. “They are on a calendar from January to June. But in technicality, they are available on a year-round basis if there was a need to adapt to new federal realities.”
Mr. Trump’s name does not appear in Ms. Hochul’s 137-page budget briefing book, though it noted that “uncertainty looms” when it comes to the federal government, including “the potential for a slowdown in economic growth, geopolitical risks, the ongoing implications of climate change” and increased health care costs.
“Potential federal changes to trade, immigration and tax policies could drive further inflation increases,” the briefing book said.
“Likewise, possible reductions in federal assistance that support vital New York programs, including health care delivery, social services and public safety, could negatively impact the state and New Yorkers who depend on these programs,” it said.
The fiscal initiatives were made possible by the state’s higher-than-expected tax receipts for this year and projections for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1.
The result is a roughly $5.3 billion surplus expected for the next fiscal year, enabling Ms. Hochul to champion populist plans to counter her sinking poll numbers as rivals from both parties prepare to challenge her in 2026.
Sensitive to voters’ frustrations about rising costs and the state’s already large tax burden, Ms. Hochul is proposing no new tax increases. Her plan does include an extension of a tax on residents making more than $1.1 million through tax year 2032. It had been slated to expire in 2027.
Ms. Hochul’s budget includes a less-than-rosy outlook for future budget gaps, which it says will reach $6.5 billion in the next fiscal year and jump to about $11 billion by fiscal year 2029. Assemblyman Ed Ra, a Nassau County Republican and ranking member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said Ms. Hochul’s budget does too little to close that gap.
“Our recurring revenues and our recurring spending don’t match,” he said. “We’re committing to a whole bunch of new spending.” Mr. Ra proposed cutting economic development programs that aren’t producing the promised jobs in order to reduce future gaps.
The governor offered a few more details on her proposed cellphone ban, offering $13.5 million to carry out her plan to “restrict the use of smartphones and other internet-enabled devices” during school hours. The proposal, if enacted, would take effect at the beginning of the next school year and leaves it up to individual school districts to enforce the restriction. It includes exceptions for students who need devices for things like tracking insulin and students who are in an English as a second language program.
Raj Goyle, a former Kansas state legislator and founder of Phone Free New York, which supports a ban, welcomed Ms. Hochul’s proposal but said it will need more teeth — something he thinks will be included during the legislative process.
“There needs to be a mechanism to ensure that there is actual enforcement of the legislation,” Mr. Goyle said. “It would be disappointing if there was really a policy on paper only but in reality, they didn’t actually do what we wanted to do.”
The revenue from congestion pricing has been going toward funding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s infrastructure plan that ran through 2024. Last month, Carl E. Heastie, the Assembly speaker, and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate majority leader, rejected the authority’s capital proposal running through 2029. Mr. Heastie and Ms. Stewart-Cousins, both Democrats, cited the plan’s $33 billion deficit, which “can be solved during the upcoming legislative session in the context of state budget negotiations.”
Ms. Hochul’s proposed budget lacked any specifics on how to address the gap and she has said in recent weeks that it is incumbent on legislative leaders to bring her ideas. Mr. Washington, her budget director, said “we are going to have to work with the M.T.A. and the Legislature to arrive at a new plan.”
The budget proposal is the starting point for annual negotiations between the governor and legislative leaders over how to spend roughly $250 billion throughout the 2026 fiscal year. Last year, lawmakers blew through their April 1 budget deadline and talks went on for nearly three weeks.
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