For Kathy Hochul, a late budget isn’t a problem – it’s a successful tactic

At the start of the year, when Gov. Kathy Hochul presented her State of the State and executive budget, many in Albany believed that 2026 could have been a return to timely budgets after four years of progressively later spending plans. Based on what the governor presented, nothing stood out to lawmakers or other political observers as something that could cause weekslong delays like the past several years. 

Hopes were uncharacteristically high – but Hochul wound up leaning on her now-signature tactic: maximizing her budget policy wins at the expense of the spending plan being her most delayed one yet, launching a prolonged victory tour to tout how her actions will benefit New Yorkers in an election year. 

That sluggish process left lawmakers frustrated, and they finished voting on the latest budget in 16 years Wednesday night, nearly a full two months after the April 1 deadline. That’s 19 days later than last year, and nearly three weeks after Hochul declared victory on the spending plan with a “general agreement” announcement. And much to lawmakers’ chagrin, only six scheduled legislative session days remained to get through most other priorities, as well as other typical end-of-session necessities like home rule measures and confirmation votes. 

Upon taking office, Hochul promised a new era of collaboration with the Legislature on the heels of a particularly poor relationship between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers. But that didn’t stop her from figuring out how best to use the executive-led state budget process to her advantage, abandoning her predecessor’s focus on timeliness in favor of delay to get what she wanted. 

“She’s absolutely utilizing this tactic to increase her victories and her success,” Jeff Lewis, a longtime former Hochul adviser, told City & State. “And when has she not gotten what she wanted thus far with that tactic?” He argued the delays this year were a testament to Hochul’s willingness to make hard decisions, and the entrenched interests that make something seemingly simple like auto insurance reform far stickier than anticipated.

Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group had a slightly less charitable view of Hochul’s strategy from the past several years. “She’s getting nonbudget victories, and that’s the problem,” he said. “She holds the budget hostage and says, ‘We’re not going to deal with the budget until you deal with my nonbudget priorities.’” He said he’s not sure why things ultimately devolved the way they did despite early optimism, but added that in an election year, the tactic has allowed Hochul to keep the spotlight on her for longer, and highlight her own narrative on how she’s fighting for New Yorkers.

According to Democratic consultant Jake Dilemani, a governor never would never explicitly aim for a late budget, especially in an election year when it would provide Republicans fodder to attack Hochul over dysfunction. The governor has repeatedly said – including to reporters on Thursday – that she always aims to have an on-time budget. But Dilemani said that, given a choice between avoiding potential attacks on the process and having the strongest series of policy victories to bring to the campaign trail, the answer is clear: “At the end of the day, the legislative achievements (and) the policy coming out of Albany is way more salient and more electorally useful than a late budget is harmful.” 

The delays left legislators particularly exasperated. “I don’t know if it's on purpose or not, but of course I'm frustrated,” state Sen. Gustavo Rivera told City & State shortly after the budget finished passing in his chamber. “This is not the way this process should work … I mean, there’s just no time to do anything, and this was not the way this should work. This is way too difficult, way too complicated.” 

Rivera called himself “naive” for commenting a few weeks before the budget deadline that he felt confident the budget would get done in a relatively timely manner, adding to his annoyance with how things ended up this year. “I sincerely and strongly believe that we need to change the constitution, because the constitution – Silver v. Pataki – gives the governor way too much power during this process.”

State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris gave Hochul the benefit of the doubt on whether she was purposefully messing with the Legislature. “If this was Andrew Cuomo’s governorship, I would say it was intentional for some Machiavellian purpose, but that’s not my experience with Kathy Hochul,” he told City & State Tuesday. “But … if someone is interested in the Legislature not doing its job, this would be an effective strategy. I hope that’s not what’s going on.”

Gianaris won’t be in the chamber next year, but many of his members will be, like state Sen. Michelle Hinchey. “I think everybody feels – and I would hope the governor feels it too – that this is an unsustainable process that we’ve kind of gone through,” Hinchey told City & State. She added that there is an appetite in the Democratic conference to spend time doing a “postmortem” and discussing potential process changes for the future. 

In the Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie has not been shy about his aggravation with the process, though not the governor herself, whom he said was just leveraging the tools at her disposal. On the day Hochul announced a budget deal, he declared he was “never doing this again” with regards to policy before finances. And his members have faith he’ll stick with making changes next year. “As far as I’ve been here, Carl Heastie has never broken one promise to me as the speaker,” Assembly Member Brian Cunningham told City & State. “I think he was frustrated with the way it went down (and) he was very adamant about this not being a return to normalcy … I think there’s an opportunity for us to take a step back and actually do something next year that can be very different.”

Assembly Member Michaelle Solages criticized a process that limits how much time legislators have to actually legislate. “We’re closest to the people, we’re individually elected for a district and we actually represent what the people need,” she said. “So this should be a process where it’s co-equal branches all working together to produce a document we can be proud of … The process does need to change, I agree with the speaker.”

Whether those changes happen are a big if, especially as Hochul continues to defend her budget strategy. Speaking to reporters in Albany after signing the final two budget bills Thursday, Hochul touted her success and brushed off the legislators’ concerns about how little time they have to do other work. “What has stopped the legislators since January from passing bills?” she questioned. “A lot of time there.”

“They will still pass an enormous number of bills.” Hochul added. “I will have the opportunity to spend my next six months reviewing them, as I always do.” And the governor  pointed to an op-ed from state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins published Thursday morning laying out various wins for her members in the enacted budget that benefits more than just herself electorally. “(Stewart-Cousins) laid out what all her members and other members can run on as well,” Hochul said.

Hochul said the process in place allows her to best deliver on issues New Yorkers care about. “These are priorities that are not just Kathy Hochul priorities,” she said. “They're my priorities because they're important to New Yorkers, and I'm the vehicle to get that done.” And she stood firm that she still aims for a timely budget every year – including next year. “I’m shooting for April 1,” she said.