No deal yet.
Albany insider Jack O'Donnell of O'Donnell and Associates said Thursday was a strange day, even by Albany standards.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the framework of a deal on a $268 billion dollar state budget, but Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie immediately disputed that, claiming, "there is no budget deal".
"Whenever a deal is announced and the other parties are not there, it's subject to scrutiny," said O'Donnell. "It sounds like things are close, but they're not there yet."
He noted, the same thing happened last year as well. A framework of a deal was announced and then it was another ten days before the Legislature started voting.
"There are some really big pieces left. A lot of it is around funding for New York City, as well as pension funding, And SEQRA, the state’s environmental review requirements, for construction.
Gov Hochul has been asking legislators for a longer runway to meet the mandates.
"I think she's going to get the longer runway, just not all the way. She had pushed for 2030, but it sounds like they've arrived on 2028, as sort of a middle ground," said O'Donnell.
A 10th budget extender has been passed by the legislature
"There are some really big pieces left"
"There are some really big pieces left"
