Budget

As state budget process reportedly winds down, will there be time to review the final document?

Some lawmakers are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul not to expedite the vote with a “message of necessity.”

Messages of necessity are often used at the end of the legislative session when the Legislature has limited time to review and pass a slew of bills often referred to as “the Big Ugly.”

Messages of necessity are often used at the end of the legislative session when the Legislature has limited time to review and pass a slew of bills often referred to as “the Big Ugly.” Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

With the state budget almost a month late, state Senate and Assembly Republicans have expressed opposition to a message of necessity from the governor for the final state budget. The message of necessity waives a three-day review period for bills before the state Legislature.

“If politics are important enough that they hold up the budget for nearly a month, then at a minimum they should warrant a full public vetting and honor the three-day aging period,” Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay wrote in a statement.

The state constitution requires a three-day aging process for bills so that lawmakers can read them. In urgent situations, a governor can propose waiving that period with approval from the majority of lawmakers. Messages of necessity are also often used at the end of the legislative session when the Legislature has limited time to review and pass a slew of bills often referred to as “the Big Ugly.” 

Critics – including the good government group Citizens Budget Commission – have often argued using the tool makes it even more unlikely that lawmakers can review complex budget provisions before voting on them. 

The offices of the governor and legislative leaders did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s first budget was approved nine days past the deadline, and the process was largely done behind closed doors (in the tradition of many budgets before hers), sparking criticism because of Hochul’s promise for transparency. Hochul then implemented a message of necessity for the Legislature to vote on the budget.

Amid criticism of the practice, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo used a message of necessity in 2015 to ensure budget bills were passed on time and went on to tout his leadership overseeing four on-time budgets. Critics of messages of necessity also expressed great opposition to the use of the tool in voting on Cuomo’s Safe Act in 2013, a controversial gun-control law following the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. At the time, Republican lawmakers denounced the use of the measure asserting legislators and the press corps did not have enough time to review the legislation before voting on it. Good government groups – including Citizens Union and New York Public Interest Research Group – asserted Cuomo used the message of necessity tool “too readily” in an open letter.

Aside from potential messages of necessity, another issue raised in the current budget process is the inclusion of policy. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has openly expressed his opposition to including policy issues in the state budget while asserting those measures should be negotiated separately. However, several controversial policy issues – including bail reform rollbacks and housing proposals – stymied progress in the early days of the budget negotiation process. 

Ahead of the upcoming budget extender deadline on Friday, the governor and legislative leaders have indicated progress has been made on budget negotiations and hope to come to a final agreement soon. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli wrote a letter to the governor with a deadline of noon on Tuesday for the Legislature to pass a sixth budget extender to avoid a disruption of pay for state workers.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.