ALBANY – They’re in no rush.
A top New York Democrat on Tuesday shrugged off the overdue state budget as business as usual under Gov. Kathy Hochul, saying it’s “built into people’s expectations” by now.
State Sen. Michael Gianaris, the No. 2 Dem in the upper chamber, made the telling comments as lawmakers traipsed in and out of Albany to pass another stopgap measure extending government funding for another week.
Legislative leaders have failed to come to an agreement with Hochul on her massive $263 billion budget proposal, which was due on April 1. The parties blew through the deadline to little surprise of rank-and-file senators and Assembly members, many of whom skipped town for a regularly-scheduled two-week break coinciding with the Passover and Easter holidays.
“I think it’s built into people’s expectations,”Gianaris (D-Queens) told reporters, indicating lawmakers aren’t sweating the delay.
“I think we’ve become accustomed to the last several years, which is the budget has not been catastrophically late, but it’s been a few weeks late,” he admitted — just after members quickly gaveled in and out to pass the extender.
All of Hochul’s budgets so far have been late, with last year’s coming in on May 8, marking five consecutive years of the state blowing past the deadline.
Hochul’s office signaled that negotiations are bound to drag on even further, with the extender passed Tuesday stretching to April 14 — allowing pols, who don’t get paid during the delay, another weeklong break before forcing them to schlep back to Albany to vote again.
Assembly Republicans blasted Democrats’ lackadaisical approach, arguing it puts local governments in a pinch as they craft their budgets without knowing how much funding is coming from the state.
“The longer this process drags on, the harder it becomes for them to plan, budget and make ends meet,” said Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R-Steuben), the GOP’s top member on the lower chamber’s Ways & Means Committee
“This budget extender keeps the lights on, but it does not provide any direction to the residents we represent in our district,” he said on the Assembly floor.
“This is exactly why this continued process can’t continue the way it has extender after extender,” Palmesano added, before ultimately voting in favor of the extender.
A number of rank-and-file members didn’t even bother to show up in person for the vote.
“This is the most ‘I don’t give a s–t’ budget I’ve seen in 30 years,” one seasoned lobbyist griped of the process, while seated in a largely empty Senate lobby just minutes ahead of the chamber’s scheduled session time Tuesday morning.
Legislative leaders met with Hochul Tuesday morning, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Sticking points include the governor’s secretive proposal to roll back compliance deadlines in the state’s climate law.
“Baby steps,” Gianaris said of progress in the negotiations on that pitch.
Other issues, like Hochul’s proposal around car insurance liability and whether to give New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani permission to hike taxes continue to prove dastardly stumbling blocks.
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