The clock officially started on the 2025 legislative session in Albany on Wednesday, marking the beginning of a months-long dance between Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators negotiating New York’s multibillion-dollar budget.
On the table: discussions about raising taxes and getting mentally ill and potentially dangerous people off the streets and subways.
What You Need To Know
- Gov. Hochul pledged she’ll back measures to make the Empire State more affordable, arguing raising taxes is a last resort
- Meanwhile, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie thinks the poorest New Yorkers should be off the hook for state income tax payments, but he wants to hike taxes to pay for a raft of other items
- Republicans say a tax hike following congestion pricing will hurt Democrats, who are still smarting from losses in the November elections
- Taxes are an issue that will likely force Hochul and lawmakers to go head-to-head on how to fund the MTA’s multibillion-dollar capital plan for spending projects through 2029
“It really has that first day of school atmosphere,” said Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, after she was reelected to her job…