(The Center Square) — New York lawmakers passed another “extender” budget Monday with the state’s annual spending plan nearly a month late amid behind-the-scenes wrangling over immigration, auto insurance reforms and taxes.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers blew past an April 1 deadline to approve the spending plan, and so far have enacted seven interim budget bills to keep the government open as the talks continued.
The extender approved by the state Legislature runs through Thursday and funds essential state expenses. The budget was due April 1. Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign the temporary spending bill.
Exactly what is holding up the final budget is unclear, as negotiations are being conducted behind closed doors in Albany. A sticking point in the closed-door negotiations appears to be tax policy, with Democrats pushing to give New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani authority to raise more than $5 billion to help the city reduce a budget deficit through a combination of higher taxes and increased state aid.
Democrats in the Assembly called for raising $2 billion by increasing tax rates on individuals who make more than $5 million a year, $1.9 billion from corporations and $95 million from a “crypto mining facility tax.” Senate Democrats want to raise $5.2 billion by pushing through a new income tax hike on the city’s top earners and eliminating tax breaks for climate polluters, among other changes.
Hochul, a Democrat who is running for reelection in November, released her roughly $260 billion preliminary executive budget in January but has rejected Mamdani’s calls for higher taxes as a “non-starter.” But she reversed course and rolled out a plan to tax the second homes of wealthy New York City residents, which legislative leaders are considering.
Meanwhile, upstate leaders have complained that the Hochul administration is New York City over the rest of the state as it prepares to divvy up taxpayer money as part of the annual spending plan.
Tardy budgets have become a common occurrence in New York politics in recent years, drawing criticism from fiscal watchdogs and Republicans who constitute a minority in the state Legislature.
Last year, lawmakers approved a $254 billion budget that was nearly a month late. That spending was delayed by negotiations over Hochul’s proposed reforms to the state’s pre-trial discovery laws.
