It’s finally happening! The Legislature has started printing budget bills

At long last, the state Legislature has started printing budget bills, paving the way for legislators to begin hours of marathon voting to finally get the spending plan wrapped up. As of early Wednesday morning, the Legislature had introduced three of the remaining nine budget bills, leaving six more that still need printing. 

The Legislature introduced the Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation bill, the Public Protection and General Government bill and the Health and Mental Hygiene bill. The state Senate approved TED on Wednesday afternoon, the first budget policy bill to pass in either chamber. PPGG included a number of fairly high-profile policy items that dominated budget discussions later in the process. But a notable omission from the PPGG bill is language about changes to the discovery law. The debate over the issue served as one of the drivers of the budget delays. That language and other contentious issues like masked harassment legislation will likely get included in a “big ugly” budget bill, typically the last piece of policy legislation introduced.

Still, PPGG had details about a number of other issues that drew attention during ongoing budget talks. When it comes to prisons, which emerged as a focal issue following both the beating death of an inmate and a statewide wildcat strike by corrections officers, the bill includes a provision to decrease the minimum age for some corrections officers from 21 to 18 years old. It’s meant to allow the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to hire more corrections officers to address a shortage, which only grew worse after some 2,000 officers were fired due to the strike. The bill also authorizes the governor to close three prisons in the state, down from the five she had originally proposed in her executive budget amendments.

The budget also includes provisions to permit greater oversight in prisons in response to beating deaths and other abuses reported at correctional facilities. One measure creates a body-worn camera program for corrections officers, which would require them to wear the cameras at all times while they are on duty. The PPGG bill would also slightly expand the authority of the state Commission of Correction, the body that provides oversight of state prisons, and increase its public dissemination of information.

On the general government side, PPGG also included the governor’s proposal to change how the lieutenant governor runs in primaries, so they run on a ticket with a gubernatorial candidate. Currently, lieutenant governor candidates run independent primaries even if they generally run as a ticket, before appearing together on the general election ballot. 

Along with that electoral change, lawmakers seeking tweaks to the public campaign finance system won small concessions as well. Under the soon-to-be approved language, candidates can get the first $250 of $1,050 in donations matched in public dollars. Currently, only up to $250 can get matched, meaning that if someone donates $251, none of it would be matchable. The change would bring the state program closer to the older New York City program, which permits up to a certain amount of any size donation to get matched. Hochul previously vetoed a more expansive set of changes to the public campaign finance program that lawmakers approved.

In another win for legislators – particular Republican lawmakers – the PPGG legislation also includes language that delays the effective date of the law limiting outside income for members of the Legislature. That limit was meant to take effect at the start of the 2025, but a stay from a judge in a lawsuit from GOP legislators had put it on hold. The judge in March upheld the state law, which put into question the legality of legislators who still made more than $35,000 in outside income. The budget will delay enforcement of the law for another two years, until 2027.

Eagle-eyed readers may also notice that the budget will delay the due date for the state Commission to Study Reparations and Racial Justice to issue a report on its recommendations. Under current law, the reparations commission should have that report ready by July 30 of this year, one year after its first meeting. But budget language would extend that deadline by over a year – and until after the 2026 election. The new due date is 30 months after the first meeting, placing it on Jan. 30, 2027. 

Although Hochul celebrated the passage and signing of the reparations bill, the issue is highly contentious and attracts negative conservative attention like moths to a flame. California’s reparations recommendations attracted intense scrutiny back in 2023, and amid the Trump administration’s anti-DEI crusade, the report would surely draw the ire of Republicans around the country ahead of what will likely shape up to be another tough reelection fight for Hochul, should she win her primary.

The TED legislation notably omitted key details about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Plan, save for the fact that it would be funded, but the bill did include some other language that would affect business and consumers.

Cannabis businesses that operate simultaneously recreational and medicinal operations are in for a host of new special license fees, according to the TED bill: $3 million due to the state when their initial license is issued, $4 million within six months of the opening of a second adult use retail dispensary and an additional $4 million for each of the first two times that the business generates $100 million in profit, within 30 days of reaching that benchmark.

Regulation of dynamic pricing is in the final budget, in a slightly tweaked form from the bill that state Sen. Rachel May and Assembly Member Emérita Torres had proposed earlier in session. Businesses would still be able to algorithmically adjust their pricing based on users’ personal data, with the caveat that they would have to include a clear disclaimer whenever they do so: “THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA.” Although the May/Torres bill included a provision banning businesses from using sensitive personal data like race and gender to set prices and deny accommodations, the budget bill does not ban the use of such personal data. It also includes a special carve-out for rideshare services like Uber and Lyft.

The HMH bill includes an expansion of the criteria for involuntary commitment, which was one of the governor’s top priorities during budget negotiations. Under current law, someone with serious mental illness may be admitted to a hospital against their will if a doctor determines that they have a mental illness that is “likely to cause serious harm” to themselves (through threats of suicide) or others (through homicidal threats and violent behavior). The budget bill would expand that definition to include “a substantial risk of physical harm to the person due to an inability or refusal, as a result of their mental illness, to provide for their own essential needs such as food, clothing, necessary medical care, personal safety, or shelter.” 

The bill also includes a new provision, which was not in the governor’s original executive budget proposal, that seems designed to reduce mentally ill individuals’ interactions with the police. The provision specifies that when police or peace officers involuntarily remove someone in accordance with the new language – that is, because they are unable to take care of themselves, not because they are suicidal or threatening violence against others – they “shall  request the transport of such person be conducted by emergency medical services, if practicable,” rather than by the police.

The HMH legislation would also reduce the amount of funding disbursed to major public hospitals by $113 million in the coming fiscal year, with the change in disbursements continuing annually. However, overall Medicaid payments for hospital outpatient treatment operations are slated to increase by $425 million. Medicaid payments for nursing homes would increase by $445 million and then by $385 million in the next fiscal year. 

The future of Medicaid funding in New York is up in the air, as Congress prepares a federal budget that is expected to cut funding to many services. Medicaid, the largest component of the state budget, is a prime target, and cuts to services are expected if adverse financial actions are taken against New York

Although the governor’s executive budget proposal included language that would have made a hospital in New York City guilty of a misdemeanor for refusing to treat a patient, as well making a physician guilty of the same offense, punishable by up to a year imprisonment and a fine up to $1000, this language has been removed from the final budget bill. Instead, language was inserted that would require a hospital to render care rather than transfer a patient, regardless of their financial or insurance status. The bill makes it illegal to retaliate against physicians who refuse to transfer patients to other facilities and requires that emergency medical care be provided within the staff or facilities available at a hospital. Transfers are prohibited if a patient in need of emergency care has not been stabilized unless the patient is informed of the risks and requests one or a health care practitioner finds it’s in a patient's best interests.