NY misses budget deadline as Kathy Hochul, state lawmakers continue negotiations

New York started a new fiscal year without a budget on Saturday as Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders kept slogging through conflicts over policies she aims to enact through the state's spending plan.

Two main sticking points for the Democratic governor and Democrats who control the Senate and Assembly are her proposals to amend the state's 2019 bail law and set mandates on localities to speed housing growth. Those thorny policy disputes have dominated discussions as negotiators try to reconcile Hochul's $227 billion budget with counterproposals by the two chambers.

The talks are expected to continue in Albany through the weekend and carry over into next week, when lawmakers were scheduled to start a two-week holiday recess.

"There are just a lot of big policy issues that the governor had put in her budget that require discussions that we are happy to have, and are having," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat, told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

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The holdup is reminiscent of last year, when Hochul and state lawmakers also missed the April 1 budget deadline with bail reform changes as a contentious point in negotiations. Lawmakers finally completed that spending plan on April 9.

The blown deadline itself doesn't pose a problem, as long as lawmakers extend last year's budget so state employees will continue to be paid. But talks could get delayed further by the start of Passover on Wednesday evening and Easter on April 9 unless wrapped up by mid-week with votes on the slew of bills that make up the budget.

Hochul is seeking a third change in the state's bail reforms, which restricted when judges can jail criminal suspects and have been a charged topic. Already amended twice, the latest modification — so far opposed by legislative leaders — would remove the requirement that judges use the "least restrictive means" to ensure defendants return to court while awaiting trial or plea deals. Hochul argues that would dispel confusion about when they can set bail.

She and lawmakers also clashed over two mandates she proposed to speed housing construction: mandatory growth targets for all roughly 1,500 municipalities and rezoning to allow dense housing around commuter train and subway stations in New York City and its suburbs.

The Assembly and Senate countered by replacing the mandates with incentives: state funding that localities could reap by meeting their growth targets.

Stewart-Cousins told reporters on Thursday that Senate Democrats recognize the need for more housing but wanted more emphasis on affordable homes and a wider set of steps that also includes tenant protections, rental assistance and housing vouchers.

"We know that we need to build more housing in New York," she said. "And we also know that we need to help tenants in their housing."

Many other policy and funding disputes await resolution in the final budget. Among them: Hochul's proposal to allow more publicly funded charter schools in New York City; lawmakers' support for providing health coverage for undocumented immigrants; and Hochul's proposal to withhold $625 million in federal Medicaid funding from New York City and the 57 counties outside the city.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Budget: New York misses April 1 deadline with housing, bail disputes