STATE CAPITOL — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is “cautiously optimistic” there will be an agreement reached on the state’s budget ahead of the holiday weekend.
Heastie updated reporters at the state Capitol Tuesday afternoon on how the negotiations are going so far with state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Gov. Kathy Hochul. The state budget is due April 1 of each year.
“I can't predict a handshake deal," he said. "I guess I use the analogy that when the government does a budget and resolutions that we're in the same galaxy. I think where the budget negotiations are now, it feels like we're on the same planet. I don’t think we’re in the same country or in the same state yet, but we're at least on the same planet on what has to happen on all of the big items.”
The major issue in this year’s state budget negotiations appears to be housing. Last year, Hochul announced a major push to address the housing crisis in New York, but after budget negotiations dragged on throughout April the issue was largely left out. Hochul is once again pushing a plan to build 800,000 new units of housing across the state. Heastie said he believes there is a path to a deal on housing, but doubled down that any deal must include tenant protections and a wage deal for workers.
“As I’ve been saying for the last couple years, in order to get a housing deal there’d have to be key components and tenant protections is one of them,” he said. “So, I think there is an understanding that tenant protection has to be a part of it.”
Another issues being discussed are the Foundation Aid formula and the Hold Harmless provision. After fully funding the state’s Foundation Aid formula, Hochul has repeatedly said the funding formula is overdue for an assessment, which appears to still be on the table.
“The formula hasn't been updated in what, 15 or 17 years or 16 years? So, I do think — particularly when you're using census data from two census ago — it's only right, but we want to have it to be a review and have it adjusted, but we always want to make sure that the school districts have the resources that they need in order to educate our children.”
Other issues being negotiated are Medicaid spending, internet safety provisions for children and increasing penalties for violence against retail workers.
“All the other times that we’ve raised penalties on different classes of people, that hasn't stopped assaults. We still need to get to the root issues of what’s going on. We’d be open to talking about the organized crime rings that people have, but I just don't believe raising penalties is ever a deterrent on crime,” Heastie said. “You can stop anybody in the street and ask them what is the penalty for assaulting anybody and they probably won’t be able to give you an answer.”
The speaker did confirm, whether there is a handshake deal or not by Friday, that the chamber will pass the debt service bill, which is typically the first of the 10 state budget bills passed each year.
The state Legislature is scheduled to meet through Thursday this week and there is added pressure to reach at least a handshake agreement among leaders ahead of the holiday weekend. Session isn’t scheduled to resume again until April 2. Last year, Hochul and legislative leaders didn’t announce a handshake deal on the state budget until the evening of April 27 and the state Legislature voted and passed the budget bills the following week on May 2.
Heastie said he feels better about how negotiations are going this year than in previous years.
“I think one of the big reasons why this budget is [moving ahead more smoothly is] because it's not loaded with policy. I've always told you that one of the reasons why budgets take a lot of time is when you get bogged down on policy. At the end, the numbers are the numbers, money is money. You can only spend what you have,” Heastie said. “And I should say, even on those policy issues, there are not huge differences. But, it is still a lot. I mean, today's Tuesday, I don't know if we'll finish by Thursday. But, I would say probably — this is my tenth budget that I'm negotiating — I probably feel the ‘most best’ — if that makes sense — this year than I have in any previous year.”
