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Opinion
editorial

The good, bad and the ugly in Albany budget sausage-making

By
Post Editorial Board
Published April 25, 2023, 7:41 p.m. ET
Albany lawmakers are close to finishing negotiations for the new state budget.
Albany lawmakers are close to finishing negotiations for the new state budget. AP Photo/Hans Pennink

Word out of Albany is that state budget talks are crawling closer to completion in record snail’s pace, with some good but an awful lot of bad and ugly.

Good

  • Fixes to the Cuomo-era criminal justice “reforms” are a big part of why the budget’s nearly four weeks past the April 1 deadline. Reportedly, one tweak will make it easier for judges to impose bail for serious offenses by loosening the mandate that they impose the “least restrictive” condition needed to ensure defendants return to court.
  • Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders agreed to provide $1 billion in migrant aid to the city to cover some of the costs imposed by the Biden “wave ’em in” border policy. (Then again, the city’s now expecting costs to exceed $4.3 billion by the middle of next year.)
  • City Hall dodged a bullet when Hochul agreed to make it pay only $150 million, instead of $500 million, to the MTA each year for the next two years.

Bad

  • The budget will hike the state minimum wage from $15 to $17 an hour; future increases will be indexed to the rate of inflation. (Progressives were pushing for a jump to $21.) So New York will keep pricing low-skilled workers out of the job market, denying them the chance to gain the skills to move up the wage ladder.
  • A ban on new gas-stove hookups, albeit only in new construction, starting in 2026. Expect this pointless pain to be increased with tougher restrictions in the years ahead as New York’s pseudo-scientific anti-climate-change crusade ramps up.
The budget will include $1 billion in aide for New York City's migrant crisis.
The budget will include $1 billion in aide for New York City’s migrant crisis. Andrea RENAULT/Polaris Images
  • Cigarette taxes will rise by $1 per pack, a boon to the black market, and a menthol flavor ban is still under discussion.

Ugly

  • Hochul’s bid to let 100 new charter schools open in the city has failed, though 20 or so “dead” charters may get recycled for new schools. Yet even that may come with strings denying the new schools the use of (amply available) space in existing public school buildings; the deal would force them to build or adapt non-school space, delaying any opening even if the state helps fund the new spaces.
  • Any crackdown on illegal pot shops remains hung up over lawmakers’ concerns about “negative experiences” for store workers.
The budget may not include a crackdown on illegal cannabis shops.
The budget may not include a crackdown on illegal cannabis shops. Matthew McDermott

It may get uglier still: Even the “good” items could wind up holding poison pills that turn progress into regress.

At this point, we mainly hope the talks keep dragging on: The more time they spend on the budget, the less further damage legislators can inflict before the session ends on June 8.