It's official: This year's budget is the latest in 15 years

It's May 2, do you know where your budget is? 

Unfortunately, none of us do – and when the clock strikes midnight tonight, this will officially be the latest budget in 15 years. Gov. Kathy Hochul may still have quite a ways to go to break the record for latest budget in state history, but if the trend continues, one never knows.

Lawmakers approved Hochul’s second budget in 2023 on May 2, 32 days after the April 1 deadline. That’s still 100 days better than the latest budget in state history – which legislators passed a whopping 133 days late in 2004 – but at the time, it was the latest the spending plan had been since former Gov. David Patterson’s final budget in 2010. That year, Paterson’s budget passed in August, coming close to the record for latest ever at 125 days late. After years of much improved budget timeliness under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it was notable when Hochul’s 2023 budget didn’t pass until May.

May 2 has rolled around again, and despite Hochul’s premature announcement Monday of a “general agreement,” the actual budget bills are still in the wind. Some big-ticket policy items – including substantial equivalency standards for private schools and a rental voucher program – are still getting finalized. And crucial funding specifics, especially for local and school aid, remain a mystery.

Longtime Albany observers don’t exactly like what they’re seeing. “The worsening trend of late budgets not only damages public confidence in state government, it causes real headaches for local school officials who are trying to channel ‘Carnac the Magnificent’ in order to figure out state aid,” Blair Horner, legislative director at the New York Public Interest Group, said in a text.

Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, called Hochul’s new lateness record "disappointing," even if it’s not yet as dire as in the past. “There is no evidence that the extended time made for better budget decisions,” he told City & State, while acknowledging that the policy items Hochul has focused on are important. “We sit in a place where the culture of Albany has gotten to a place, not always, but sometimes, you need the cudgel of the budget to get people to agree on policy issues,” Rein said, adding that “we’d all be better off” if state leaders could get an on-time budget focused on finances and then leave themselves enough time for debate on policy afterwards.

The later the budget has gone, the more policy issues seem to come up in negotiations. Hochul’s push for a measure to criminalize mask-wearing in certain instances came up late in talks, but quickly ranked among her top priorities. A proposal from the governor to change how the lieutenant governor runs in a primary also entered the mix at a time the budget should have already been done or wrapping up. Discussions around substantial equivalency standards – now one of the last outstanding issues – emerged as the budget got later, as did talk of tweaks to the state public campaign finance system. The Housing Access Voucher Program and Hochul’s push for a condo conversion bill are the latest in the line of last-minute budget additions as the spending plan is a month late. And as more items come up, the more negotiations drag on.

Hochul has continually defended her budget tardiness, and it’s no different now with her latest budget ever as she goes on a victory lap – before the Legislature has even printed bills. “Everyday New Yorkers aren't worried about a bureaucratic deadline, they're worried about public safety and the cost of living,” Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said in a statement. “That's why Governor Hochul held out for a budget deal that makes major improvements to our discovery laws, bans cell phones in schools and reforms our mental health laws.” The governor announced a deal on Monday, but until lawmakers vote, the budget is not actually finalized.

Small said that New Yorkers support Hochul’s policy agenda and her strategy of holding up the budget to achieve it. The assertion is supported in part by a Siena College poll from last month, which found bipartisan support for the governor’s top four policy priorities, and also found that voters backed her delaying the budget to achieve them in most cases. 

Except that same poll concluded that 72% of New Yorkers were concerned that the spending plan was not approved on time. Siena conducted the survey in mid-April, and half a month later, the budget remains delayed. Unlike budget negotiations, the grace that voters have so far  given Hochul to achieve her goals may not last forever.