ALBANY, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she reached a “conceptual agreement” with legislative leaders on the state budget almost a month after the deadline.
If approved by the state legislature, the roughly $229 billion budget will include stricter bail laws, a raise to the minimum wage and a tax increase on worker’s wages.
The closed-door negotiations between Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins blew the April 1 deadline by almost a full month. Voting on the budget is likely to begin early next week.
One of the most contentious issues that kept the negotiations running long was Hochul’s demand to restrict bail rules in an attempt to undermine reform efforts by the Assembly and Senate.
The framework will scrap the “least restrictive means” clause that requires judges to choose the least cumbersome bail option allowed by the law, but will leave in place the portion of the law that instructs judges to use bail solely as a tool to ensure a defendant returns to court.
Hochul initially sought to do away with both measures.
Prosecutors had pushed for changes to discovery laws, the regulations on what information the state must share with defendants, but this proposal was scrapped following pushback from public defenders.
The proposal would raise the minimum wage from $15 to $17 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County by 2026 and tie future increases to inflation.
Workers in the New York City metropolitan area would be faced with an increased payroll tax — a tax on wages or salary — that would go toward the struggling MTA.
Not included in the framework is a tax increase for the wealthiest New Yorkers that progressives in the legislature had pushed for.
Also conspicuously absent was a sweeping housing proposal seeking to increase housing development that Hochul had been advocating for.
Charter schools will see a much smaller bump than Hochul had initially demanded after pushback from teachers unions. Her original proposal would open the door for hundreds of new charter schools in New York City, but the compromise in the budget will allow 14 licenses held by charter schools that are now closed to go toward new proprietors.
The budget framework includes $1 billion in assistance for migrants in New York City, a win for Mayor Eric Adams who has long been advocating for more funding from the state and federal government to address asylum seekers moving to the city.
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