Greetings from Albany, NY  

In this edition, we provide an update on the NYS budget timeline, what the sticking points are, and what to expect over the next few weeks.

Budget Timeline

As expected, the April 1 deadline for adopting the New York State budget passed without a final agreement. This has become a familiar pattern—over the past five years under Governor Hochul’s leadership, as each budget has been finalized after the deadline. Last year, the budget was enacted 38 days late, slipping into May, though there is hope that this year’s delay will be shorter.

Members from the majority and minority parties hold differing views on the late budget. Senate Finance Committee Chair and member of the majority party, Liz Krueger, has emphasized that while she would prefer an on-time budget, a delayed budget that fully meets the needs of New Yorkers is ultimately better than one that is on time but falls short. Whereas Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra told reporters it appears there doesn’t seem to be any desire, or any urgency, to meet this deadline.

Since the new fiscal year began on April 1 without a final budget agreement in place, a budget extender was introduced on March 30 and later unanimously passed on March 31 (S.9630 Krueger / A.10760 Pretlow) allowing the current spending plan to remain in effect through April 7.

Although the Legislature is scheduled to be on break from April 2 – April 19, as of today, members will be returning to Albany on April 7 to pass another budget extender since a final budget agreement has not been reached. Given that Passover began this week and Easter is this weekend, current expectations are that an additional extender will be necessary to ensure continuity of operations while negotiations continue through mid-April. Notably, legislators do not get paid until the budget is adopted – so while they may hope to enjoy a potential recess, there is added pressure to reach an agreement promptly in order to get paid.