New York Capital Brief:

NYS Budget Update

On January 17, 2024 Governor Hochul released her Executive Budget Proposal. The Governor has statutory authority to release 21-day and 30-day amendments to her proposal. Though the window for 21-day amendments has passed, our team expects 30-day amendments to be released on or before February 15, 2024.

The NYS Legislature has continued the budget process by holding Joint Budget Subcommittees on each section of the Budget. Halfway through that process, the hearings have yielded testimony from government agencies and stakeholders. With the Governor’s call to keep spending flat, many of the testimonies given focused on maintaining funding, with very few agencies expecting an increase for programming this year.

Once testimony is gathered from all subcommittees, both Houses of the Legislature prepare their one-house budget proposals. We expect the one-house budget to be released sometime in early to mid-March.
NYS Legislative Retirements, Departures Announced

As the Legislative Session continues, this year’s election cycle is heating up. Candidates that would typically wait until closer to the petitioning period have been choosing to relay their intentions to run for office well in advance. This year’s petitioning period is from February 27th – April 4th.

Already this year, the NYS Legislature has seen the immediate departure of legislators such as AM Joyner, the announced impending retirements of several legislators including Sen. Breslin and AM Aubry, Cook and Dickens, and the transitioning of legislators to both the private sector and to seek other elected positions. AM Zebrowski recently announced he is stepping away from public office, while Senator Kennedy has announced his intentions to run for Congress.

Beyond the special elections needed to fill vacancies, early voting starts on June 15th. New York State’s primary election is slated for June 25, 2024.