Hochul announces agreement on FY 2023 New York state budget

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced an agreement to address key priorities in the fiscal year 2023 New York state budget. Her team said, “This bold and fiscally responsible plan makes historic investments in communities across the state that will bring relief to New Yorkers recovering from the pandemic and launch New York's economic comeback.”

The state's reserves in this plan will increase to a record level of 15% of state operating funds spending by FY 2025, as proposed by the governor in her executive budget.

"As we make our comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are embracing this once-in-a-generation opportunity to usher in a whole new era for New York, with a bold budget that brings much-needed economic relief to New Yorkers and looks to the future with historic investments in education, health care and infrastructure," Hochul said. "This agreement brings us closer to an enacted budget and makes good on our promise of a stronger, safer, more inclusive and more prosperous New York state. I thank Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie for this collaborative process. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in state government to enact a budget that delivers for all New Yorkers."

Hochul’s team said, “The historic budget will include major priorities that deliver for New Yorkers.” It said this includes:

√ Tax relief for middle-class New Yorkers and small businesses;

√ Suspending fuel taxes to tackle the high cost of gasoline, which has surged in recent months as a result of the war in Ukraine;

√ Helping to support small businesses most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, like restaurants, by authorizing the sale of to-go alcoholic beverages;

√ Billions of dollars to rebuild the health care workforce, support home care workers, and build the health care system of the future;

√ A historic investment in education to strengthen higher education institutions, and support teachers and school employees;

√ Increasing funding for and access to child care;

√ A historic investment in pandemic recovery funding;

√ A comprehensive housing plan to make living in New York more affordable;

√ A record-level investment in a five-year transportation infrastructure plan;

√ A record investment in clean energy infrastructure, climate resiliency and preservation;

√ Improving ethics oversight and restoring trust in state government by replacing JCOPE with a new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government; and

√ Moving forward toward a safer, more just New York by cracking down on the trafficking of illegal guns, stopping the cycle of repeat offenders, protecting the victims of domestic violence and hate crimes, and investing in mental health infrastructure.

Hochul’s team said, “With a conceptual agreement in place, the legislative houses are expected to pass bills that will enact these priorities.

“Since the governor proposed her executive budget in January, additional revenue has been forecast, and surplus funds have been realized. The total budget for FY 2023 is currently estimated at approximately $220 billion, based on a preliminary assessment of the negotiated changes to the executive proposal. The spending plan will include the $2 billion for pandemic assistance that Gov. Hochul indicated was available for use when the executive budget was released in January, but had not been included as a spending line-item.”

Responses

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said, “My Assembly majority colleagues and I know that our state’s economic recovery depends on the success of New York’s working families. We know that now, more than ever, New Yorkers are struggling with the rising cost of groceries, housing, higher education, gas and child care, and that we must seize this moment to deliver the economic relief that is so desperately needed.

“Throughout this budget process, we have worked tirelessly to deliver a spending plan that focuses on the everyday needs of New Yorkers as we continue to navigate our state’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating economic impacts.

“I am confident that, in this budget, we will deliver for families the tax relief they need, including property tax relief, middle class tax cuts, and a gas tax holiday to offer some relief at the pump.

“We fought to ensure that this budget makes unprecedented investments in child care and prekindergarten to help parents and caregivers get back into the work force and get our economy moving again.

“We were able to deliver a meaningful wage increase for homecare workers for the critical work that they do to ensure New Yorkers can live comfortably and with dignity in their homes.

“Year after year, we have led the way to make higher education affordable to more families, and this year we built on those accomplishments. Since rolling out the ‘Higher Education Road to Success’ initiative in 2015, we have doubled our investment in opportunity programs for New York’s hardworking students.

“After nearly two years of interrupted education and uncertainty, we have made a record investment in public education to ensure that our students are safely back in the classroom receiving the high-quality public education they need to thrive.

“I am confident and proud to say that this spending plan reflects our continued commitment to putting New York’s families first.”

New York Republication Party Chairman Nick Langworthy said, “Both on process and substance, this budget can be summed up as a colossal failure. It’s a week late, was negotiated in secret by three Democrats, will be voted on without any time to read the bills and we are still short on key details. Democrats are pissing away billions of dollars with record spending in giveaways to billionaires and socialist programs that are rife with fraud, while the middle class continues to be squeezed. They failed to do what’s necessary to fix the public safety nightmare they created – but don’t take our word for it, the Hochul administration said themselves they are ‘not here to undo bail reform’ and they ‘are not going to have a law and order way of addressing it.’

“This budget puts election year Band-Aids on bullet-sized wounds that are causing New York to bleed out. The only way we are going to truly save New York is by restoring balance with a Republican governor who will make the real changes that will restore safety, prosperity and common sense to state government.”

New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said, “Kathy Hochul’s monstrosity of a budget will ensure that New York remains the highest taxed state in the union. By using one-shot federal revenues to fund growth in state operations, New Yorkers will be perennially on the hook for the Democrat’s exorbitant spending, which will now exceed $220 billion – about the size of Florida's and Texas's combined budgets, states with greater populations than New York.

“The governor also failed to achieve real changes to the ill-advised bail reform laws that have spurred a statewide crime wave. Judges must be able to consider potential criminality at sentencing. Anything less than is worthless window dressing.

“Gov. Hochul pretended to be a moderate. This budget proves she is anything but. New Yorkers needed tax relief and got a Titanic budget boondoggle instead. Thankfully it’s an election year.”