The day after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the framework for a $254 billion budget for New York State, she sought to deliver a celebratory message in two parts.
She visited a preschool and then dropped by the Albany County district attorney’s office, with each stop on Tuesday serving a distinct purpose. To prosecutors, she highlighted how she fought for changes to so-called discovery laws, decreasing the chances that criminal cases might be thrown out because of “some technicality.”
At the preschool, she reiterated how the budget, whose passage is now one month late, had become her fight for families. “I said it back in January that this budget will not be completed until I can provide relief for struggling families,” she said.
State budgets have always provided a fiscal road map for the priorities of the governor and state legislative leaders. But in New York, the budget can also be a blueprint for an assortment of political imperatives, from criminal justice changes to cellphone bans in public schools.
And for Ms. Hochul, who is expected to face a hotly contested re-election next year, the messaging behind the budget — “your family is my fight” — may well be a preview of her campaign strategy and perhaps one that Democrats might follow in next year’s midterms. Here’s a closer look at the budget agreement, which still awaits bill language and formal passage.
Steps to make New Yorkers feel safer
Few things haunt Ms. Hochul and her re-election chances more than outsize attention to a random act of violence in the city’s subway or streets.
Each instance resurfaces a decades-old argument over whether the authorities should do more to forcefully remove dangerous people from public spaces, even if against their will. Left-leaning advocates and many Democratic officials in New York have argued against deploying the police as auxiliary social workers, especially for people who are already in fragile mental health.
But as Republicans hammer Democrats over crime, the pendulum has swung slightly in recent years, allowing Ms. Hochul to prioritize changes to the state’s guidelines for how people in psychotic distress can be taken in for evaluation.
The changes, which codify legal guidance previously released by the state, expand the category of medical professionals able to determine that a person is “at a substantial risk of physical harm” because of their inability to meet basic needs. Some critics said the governor was overstating the impact of the changes and should have focused on adding more services.
The deal also includes roughly $180 million in funding for psychiatric services, staffing and beds in New York City. Another $122 million provides for sustaining an increased presence of the police officers and National Guard in the subway. Separately, Ms. Hochul said the budget would include about $50 million for creating a new rental aid program for needy New Yorkers — less than advocates had wanted.
The governor’s other main criminal justice imperative in the budget was to change how prosecutors exchange evidence with defense lawyers before a trial. District attorneys across the state sought the change, arguing that the current requirements were so onerous that they led to a rash of dismissals.
Criminal justice advocates and public defenders opposed the push, arguing that it would restore an unfair advantage to prosecutors.
Tax help for working people
Ms. Hochul began the year with a pledge to help middle-class New Yorkers with a raft of tax credits and other incentives. Her plan to send taxpayers “inflation refund” checks garnered the most attention, in part because it was projected to cost the state $3 billion.
The proposal immediately drew criticism from budget watchdogs, who said that the money would be better used to offset the cascading cuts from Washington. Even so, Ms. Hochul was able to persuade the Legislature to approve $2 billion in rebates — up to $200 for individuals, $400 for families — for middle-class New Yorkers.
Ms. Hochul told voters that the money, made possible by a boost in sales tax revenue because of inflation, belonged to them. “Some people are saying stash it away,” she said at an appearance Wednesday in New York City. “Don’t worry, I have a lot stashed away.”
The final budget will also include modest but meaningful shifts in the tax burden for most New Yorkers. Taxpayers who jointly earn less than $323,000 will see their taxes cut to their lowest rate in decades, while an extra tax on those earning upward of $1.1 million was extended through 2032.
Similar changes were made to the payroll mobility tax. Businesses with payroll of over $10 million will see a tax increase to help pay for the city’s public transportation system. Small businesses will get a tax reduction, and the payroll tax on self-employed people earning less than $150,000 will be eliminated altogether.
The lonely middle
During her four years as governor, Ms. Hochul, a centrist, has had to fend off attacks from the left and the right.
She did not have a huge margin for error. In 2022, Ms. Hochul was elected as the state’s first female governor by the smallest margin in decades. Potential rivals — most recently Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican who represents the North Country and is a strong ally of President Trump — are beginning to stake out potential lanes of attack for what is expected to be a bruising 2026 election.
Republicans have gained ground in recent years by focusing on an economic message, recently citing the rising price of gas and eggs. And while Ms. Hochul has consistently championed affordability issues — offering rebates, pausing the gas tax and reducing the congestion pricing toll from a proposed $15 to $9 — she has nonetheless struggled to earn credit for her political victories.
A recent poll from Siena College found that the governor may be reconnecting with voters, with 48 percent of voters approving of the job she was doing, the highest level in over a year.
Missing guardrails
In February, as Mayor Eric Adams of New York City awaited word whether his federal criminal indictment would be dropped, Ms. Hochul weighed into the mess.
Some had wanted the governor to exercise her authority to remove Mr. Adams from office because he had apparently entered a quid pro quo with the Trump administration to help enforce its immigration policies in exchange for lenience on his indictment. Trump officials and Mr. Adams denied this charge, but outrage among elected officials in New York swelled.
Ms. Hochul declined to remove the mayor, but she announced that she would seek to impose strict new guardrails on his administration. They would include creating a new state deputy inspector general focused on New York City’s operations; establishing a fund for the city comptroller, public advocate and City Council speaker to hire outside counsel to sue the federal government if the mayor was unwilling to do so; and granting additional funds for the state’s comptroller to scrutinize city finances.
The budget included none of that.
There is still a chance that the guardrails could be instituted, but some of the measures will need to be separately enacted by city and state legislators. Ms. Hochul has blamed City Council inaction for the failure of the budget to include the reforms she sought.
“I was just reaching out a hand to help out, and it’s up to the people in the City Council to decide whether to send it to the Legislature,” she said.
Still under negotiation
Each year, the final days of budget negotiations invariably include the surprise ascendence of late-arising issues. Two such issues this year have become particularly divisive.
The first is a proposal to change the state’s public financing law that would benefit political candidates, typically incumbents, who receive large donations.
Current law allows for matching funds for donations of $250 or below. Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie said that the budget would include language allowing a state match on the first $250 of any donation up to $1,000.
More controversial is a push from Hasidic Jewish leaders to weaken a century-old law requiring private schools to offer an education that is “substantially equivalent” to public schools.
Repealing or diluting the law has become a major goal of the Hasidic community, whose schools receive an enormous amount of state funding but do not always offer basic instruction in English and math.
Legislative leaders acknowledged that changes to the educational standard were being considered, but declined to provide any additional detail.
Eliza Shapiro contributed reporting.
Grace Ashford covers New York government and politics for The Times.
Benjamin Oreskes is a reporter covering New York State politics and government for The Times.
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