Opinion: Don’t let the late budget block priorities like banning ‘excited delirium’

The New York state’s budget was very late, again. But what often gets lost in the budget whirlwind are the legislature’s policy priorities that the governor’s budget squeezes out of the legislative calendar – like banning the “excited delirium” diagnosis.

By law, New York’s annual budget is due on March 31st. After that, legislators stop getting paid. There is some history of the budget being a bit late. Between 2020 and 2022, the budget was consistently about a week late.

That timeline has gotten longer and longer: In 2023, the budget was not signed until May 2.  In 2024, it was April 20. In 2025, it was May 8. This year, it was May 27.

The state legislative calendar traditionally runs through the second week of June, and most state legislative policy is passed between the budget and that date. Most legislation cannot move forward until the budget passes, so the longer it takes to pass the budget, the less time there is for other legislation. This means less time for the legislature to solve New Yorkers’ problems.

Take, for example, the problem of the false medical diagnosis known as “excited delirium.” Last year, we wrote about how the term “excited delirium,” while not a diagnosis accepted by any major medical association, has served both as a justification for excessive force and as an alternative cause of death exculpating law enforcement when they kill. Based on racist pseudoscience from the 1980s, individuals killed by law enforcement and first responders – like Daniel Prude and Elijah McClain – are often diagnosed with “excited delirium,” a made-up state in which an individual gains superhuman strength, loses the ability to feel pain, and may spontaneously drop dead. 

When they are faced with an individual they believe is experiencing “excited delirium,” law enforcement officers are trained that they must rely on more force than usual (in order to overcome the individual’s supposed superhuman strength and immunity to pain) and are not held liable if the individual dies (the cause of death, after all, is attributed to the “excited delirium” – not the police brutality). 

There is widespread consensus that this term should be abolished – both from major medical associations and within the state legislature. Last year, we worked together to advance a bill banning the diagnosis, but the bill died on the Assembly floor because there was not enough time post-budget to pass all the important legislation New Yorkers needed.

We are at risk of that happening again this year. As of today, there are only a few days until the state’s legislative session concludes for the year, leaving little time for priorities like banning the “excited delirium” diagnosis – which would leave another six months for Black and brown New Yorkers to be brutalized without consequence before the bill could be reintroduced in 2027. With broad support from the state Legislature and the medical community, this commonsense reform must be a priority of the 2025-2026 legislature. 

The Assembly has important policy work to do, and budget games have become a distraction from our ability to do our job. Now that we’ve finally passed the budget, we can move on to other meaningful legislation – and eliminating “excited delirium” should be at the top of the list.