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CityAndStateNY.com
SETTING THE AGENDA LOOKING FORWARD TO ALBANY 2022 Every new year is a fresh start in Albany, but this one seems especially so. Gov. Kathy Hochul will unveil her first budget proposal while she competes in a challenging Democratic primary to hang on to her office. There are many open questions this session, but it is clear that the era of Andrew Cuomo, with his arm-twisting and intimidation, is over. It’s time to set a new agenda. In this special section, we explore Hochul’s negotiating position as well as three major issues facing lawmakers this year: criminal justice reform, climate action and eviction prevention.
December 6, 2021
Speak softly and carry a big stack The new governor has a lot riding on the annual tradition of getting a spending plan done by April 1.
By Zach Williams
T
HE STATE BUDGET PROCESS has followed a certain routine for the past decade or so. The governor would propose a spending plan in January. Legislators would hold hearings and issue their formal responses weeks later. The two sides then haggled over the details. Political drama sometimes ensued – and then a ginormous spend‑ ing package would pass sometime around the April 1 deadline. The $212 billion budget that passed last spring arrived a few days late and contained nearly a dozen bills that included record spending on schools and an array of policy initiatives ranging from mobile sports betting to COVID‑19 relief aid for undocumented people. Budget negotiations could go a similar way when Gov. Kathy Hochul delivers her first proposed budget next month. Hochul has touted how she wants to work with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart‑Cousins as part of a wider effort to distance herself from the infamously heavy‑handed governor she once served. That is one reason why budget traditions are likely to contin‑ ue next year. “It’s safe to say that the relationship between the Legislature and the governor is better than it’s been for the last 10 or 11 budgets purely because of the change in the executive,” Democratic political consultant Evan Stavisky said in an interview. “That doesn’t mean the Legislature is going to get every‑ thing they want.” So a lot has changed in state politics over the past year, but a key truth about the state budget process remains the same: Executive influ‑ ence looms large, though it is hardly absolute. How the unexpected incumbent uses her formidable powers as governor will be a key variable in the budget process this year. State lawmakers expect that she will use carrots more than sticks while negotiating a spending plan for the fiscal year that begins April 1. However, controversial issues like raising taxes on the wealthy and bail reform could test her reliance on diplomacy alone in the months before she faces voters in the June 2022 Democratic primary for governor. “I’ll accomplish the goals I need to get done and I will do that with strength,” she told City & State in November. “My first position is to reach out a hand in friendship and collaboration.” Sounds like what one of her famous predecessors once said
