Gov. Hochul signals NY budget deal on the horizon, vows to continue housing push down the road

ALBANY — Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders are finally closing in on a budget deal as they work out differences on a handful of sticking points nearly a month after blowing past the state’s fiscal deadline.

The governor said Tuesday that she sees a deal on the horizon despite discussions continuing on cracking down on illegal cannabis sales and her plan to allow more charter schools to open in the city.

“I do see a path to wrap up the budget perhaps as early as the end of this week,” Hochul said in her first public comments about the slow-moving budget process in over 10 days. “We’ve been working around the clock … and we’re narrowing down the number of issues that still need to be resolved.”

The governor said she, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) are “very close” on a host of issues including raising the state’s minimum wage to at least $17 an hour and a plan to ban fossil fuel hookups in new construction.

Still, some outstanding issues remain. The final details for a plan that would see 22 so-called “zombie” charter school licenses reissued in the city are being negotiated after lawmakers pushed back on the governor’s original proposal.

In her initial $227 billion budget blueprint, Hochul had called for lifting the so-called regional charter school cap, which would have allowed for even more charter schools to open in the five boroughs.

Both Hochul and Heastie said the three sides are also hashing out the details of a potential law change that would make it easier to shutter illicit black market pot shops that have sprouted up across the state and hampered legal sales.

“We have to take some dramatic steps now and give the enforcement tools to the proper agencies,” the governor said.

Lawmakers approved a stopgap measure on Monday, the fifth of its kind since the April 1 start of the state’s fiscal year came and went without a budget in place, that keeps the government funded and state workers paid through Friday.

Hochul said she is not concerned about political fallout or the perception that Albany is again mired in dysfunction as disagreements over her proposed changes to the state’s bail laws as well as her stalled housing plan hampered budget talks in recent weeks.

“New Yorkers want me fighting for bail, they want me fighting for affordability, they want me fighting for ways to help lift up their families circumstances,” she said while declining to provide details about the bail changes.

The governor said she hopes to tackle the Empire State’s housing crisis post-budget after lawmakers put the kibosh on her sweeping housing compact, a central component of her budget proposal meant to spark development and allow the state to step in and approve projects if a municipality failed to meet certain building goals.

“I said it from the outset that this was not going to be easy, but it’s important,” Hochul said. “This is just the beginning of a journey in my opinion, this is going to be something I continue to work on until we solve this.”

Heastie on Monday said that lawmakers needed more time to digest the ambitious plan as well as other housing proposals that were discussed but ultimately dropped, including renewing tax abatements for developers and tenant protections.

“I think sometimes when you want to make transformative change in policy, there has to be an education period,” Heastie said. “I just think there has to be more of an education period to let people understand what’s at stake.”

Hochul invoked hockey legend Wayne Gretzky as she brushed off the budget loss and vowed to keep fighting.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” she said. “I took the shot.”