Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced a $268 billion state budget, with a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, investments in universal child care and more money for police officers on the subway — but it’s unclear if there’s additional cash to help New York City fix its $5.4 billion deficit.
The budget, which was due April 1, is $13 billion more than last year’s and $8 billion more than Hochul initially proposed.
The “general agreement” on the budget was still light on details as the legislature will continue to go over the proposal in the coming days, the governor said.
“I’m not going to mince the words. The negotiations were not easy,” Hochul said.
“There were very substantive disagreements, tough choices and powerful special interests trying to influence the outcome, and the dysfunction out of Washington certainly doesn’t help.”
Here’s what we know about the state budget deal:
The governor said legislators are finalizing details of on a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes to help “close the city’s budget gap without eroding its tax base or burdening hard-working New Yorkers.”
Hochul said the budget includes her proposal to streamline environmental reviews for housing developments, letting some projects skip a 51-year-old state law requiring an extensive review that often holds up construction.
And the budget includes a “super speeder” bill which would require drivers with 16 or more speed-camera tickets over a year to install a device that would limit the car’s speed based on the local speed limit.
Hochul to City: I’ve Done Plenty
Hochul’s announcement did not include additional commitments of state funds for the cash-strapped city.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin last week pitched the state on a change to the pass-through entity tax, or PTET, which lets some business people keep state and local tax deductions that were limited by a 2017 federal law. They believe those changes could bring in $1 billion in revenue.
The governor last week slapped down a proposal by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin to roll back a state tax benefit for business owners and investors. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Hochul, who is running for reelection in November, immediately shot it down, and didn’t say whether the proposed budget includes any more of a bailout for the city.
On Friday, she defended what she’s already doing for the five boroughs, pointing to more than $1 billion to support universal childcare and another $1.5 billion to help close the gap.
“We’ve been asked to do a lot for the city, we’ve given unprecedented amounts of support for the city,” she said.
The City Council approved an extension for Mayor Mamdani’s executive budget, which was due around May 1, because of the tardiness of the state’s budget.
A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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