Budget deal or no budget deal? Depends who you ask.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday she had reached a “general agreement” with legislative leaders on a $268 billion state budget, which is now over a month overdue and the latest of her tenure. “We got it done,” she declared. 

Not so, says Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. “There’s no budget deal,” he told reporters in the state Capitol.

Ground control to Planet Albany: We’ve got a problem. 

Hochul said she was “really proud” of the spending plan and the deals she reached with legislators on a variety of issues, including on immigration, changes to the state’s climate law and auto insurance reform. “I'm not going to mince words – the negotiations were not easy,” Hochul said. “There were very substantive disagreements, tough choices and powerful special interests trying to influence the outcome.”

Perhaps she was mincing her words: Those “substantive disagreements” aren’t over, according to Heastie. He said he conveyed to the governor Wednesday evening that he was comfortable with her telling reporters they were close to a deal – not that they had reached an agreement. “I’m never doing this again,” he said. He added later, “I’m not conferencing anything else until I know what the financial picture is.”

That’s a problem for Hochul, who said it’s up to legislators now to conference specifics on policy in hopes of getting bills printed some time next week. “And as always, the final details will be worked out through that process,” she said.

Asked for comment, a spokesperson for state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins referred to what she told reporters on Tuesday about the status of negotiations. At the time, she said leaders had “conceptual agreements” on four major policy proposals from the governor – but that they were “nearing the beginning of the end” and had not reached the finish line yet.

Hochul spoke in broad strokes about major policy sticking points that have held up negotiations, but overall details remained scarce – including on potential changes to the state’s pension system and on how a new tax on ritzy second homes in New York City, known as a pied-à-terre tax, will be implemented. On the latter, Hochul admitted leaders needed “four or five” more days to release additional information.

Pressed by reporters, she offered more information on issues she claimed to have come to agreements with legislative leaders on, including modifications to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and auto insurance. “These are all agreements we've come to a consensus with the leaders,” Hochul said, insisting she had not jumped the gun on discussing these measures. 

Again, a clearly frustrated Heastie strongly disputed the governor’s account, saying it was “very premature for the governor to make this announcement.” “Even on the policies that she put out there today, some of these things are still incomplete,” the speaker told reporters. “We don't even have final language on, like, the CLCPA.” Heastie said the topline $268 billion number isn’t settled either, since they haven’t discussed finances in depth, and added he still had no details on the pied-à-terre tax.

Hochul’s counsel did confirm previous reporting on the CLCPA that she and legislative leaders an agreement for a 2028 deadline to implement necessary regulations to meet the state’s climate goals, a new 2040 interim target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from 1990 levels and a 100-year accounting method for measuring those emissions reductions. “This is what we've been negotiating for weeks as to how to still hit those goals,” Hochul told reporters Thursday. “And we came to an agreement on this.”

But by and large, Hochul’s penchant for announcing broad policy agreements days before budget bills begin printing is nothing new. As her spending plans have gotten later and later, the governor has taken to declaring victory on issues she’s pushed for – even when negotiations hadn’t totally wrapped up and final details were not agreed upon. Thursday was no different. 

In her prepared remarks, Hochul remained vague for the most part, relying on slideshow bullet points laying out broad policy ideas around immigration, auto insurance, the pied-a-terre tax and the rollbacks to the state’s climate law. “Lot of details I didn't mention,” Hochul quipped to reporters when asked for more specifics. “That's why it's going to give you guys plenty of stories to write out for the next few weeks or so. I didn't want to give it to you all at once.”

What was new, however, was the tenor of Heastie’s rhetoric. Asked about Heastie’s qualms, a spokesperson for Hochul referred back to Hochul’s comments from her Thursday morning announcement thanking both Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins for their partnership. “I want to thank them both for all of us spending a lot of time together,” Hochul said. “A lot of meals, a lot of conversations, getting to know each other at a personal level.”

That congeniality may not continue next year, even as the speaker insisted he’s not personally angry at Hochul. “I'm not doing, ‘I’m not talking about money until the governor is satisfied on policy,’” Heastie said. “I don't care if the budget doesn't get passed for six months. This thing about thinking you can starve members out, like, it's over. In my mind, it's over.”