ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul outlined the framework of a $229 budget deal Thursday night in the state Capitol, hours after lawmakers left the statehouse following reports there was no deal on controversial policy issues yet to be resolved.
The deal includes changes to the state’s bail laws and continues efforts to crack down on gun violence. It fully funds foundation aid for schools while also boosting the number of charter schools, expanding child care access and adding funding to implement the state’s aggressive climate policies. The budget, though, failed to address Hochul’s top goal: housing.
“This is a transformative budget and I will never shy away from a fight,” Hochul said in the Red Room, promising to pick up the housing fight in the remainder of the legislative session. “You’re not always going to win.”
She was accompanied by a few of her key cabinet members but not by her fellow Democratic leaders, Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, with whom she has been negotiating for the last month.
Hochul pitched the budget deal as a plan that makes New York “safer, more affordable and more livable,” as a part of achieving the New York “dream.” It is the same concept she brought forward three months ago in her State of the State address. But her linchpin housing plan to double the expected housing growth over the next decade was eliminated.
The governor has long argued that increasing the housing supply is instrumental to making New York not only safer, but also stemming the state’s nation-leading outmigration. Her plan faced stiff opposition from both suburban Democrats, who adamantly opposed state mandates and overrides of local zoning, as well as outcry from progressives who ridiculed a housing plan without substantial tenant protections.
Housing “has been central to my agenda since day…
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