ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers announced late Thursday that they have neared an agreement on a 2016-17 state budget that includes a timeline for increasing the $9 minimum wage to $15 and introduces paid family leave.
“I believe that this is the best plan the state has produced in decades,” Cuomo said at news conference.
Negotiations blew past the midnight deadline for an April 1 agreement, but the Senate was expected to keep working into the wee hours Friday, with members of the Assembly returning later in the morning to vote on the remainder of the $156 billion spending plan.
Wages will be hiked to the new minimum for 2.3 million workers in New York, a move Cuomo says will infuse $15.7 billion into the state economy, but the increases will come at a slower pace than the governor had proposed.
In New York City, the minimum wage will hit $15 in 2018. On Long Island and in Westchester, the wage will rise over six years.
Microbusinesses” with 10 or fewer employees would see the hikes phased in over four years.
Beginning in 2019, the state can suspend increases if economic conditions sour, Cuomo said.
Paid family leave will be phased in over the next four years, with workers contributing about 70 cents a week into a fund that will provide two-thirds of their pay for up to 12 weeks while they care for family members.
SUNY and CUNY tuition will be frozen, and the state will fully fund city colleges while passing rules that require them to find $250 million in future cuts.
A snag in the talks was a move by Cuomo to keep about 70 primarily city schools on a state receivership list of 144 failing schools.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie called it the “biggest outstanding issue” for Democrats.
Jasmine Gripper, legislative director for the teachers-union-backed Alliance for Quality Education, said it would be unfair to keep the schools on the list.
“The schools celebrated coming off the list for receivership. Kids already celebrated with cupcakes; they had balloon celebrations to celebrate the achievement of their success,” she said.
Meanwhile, the state will give the MTA the $1.5 billion promised for the Second Avenue Subway — but funding will be spread over the next eight years.
The first $535 million comes over the next two years, another half-billion in 2019, and the last half-billion between 2020 and 2024.