No NY budget deal yet as Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders face pushback on minimum wage hike, late spending plan

ALBANY — There were few signs of a budget deal coming together on Wednesday despite Gov. Hochul’s optimistic tone a day earlier and pressure mounting from all sides to reach a wrap up a host of outstanding issues.

A day after the governor expressed hope that a spending plan could be finalized by the end of the week as she and legislative leaders focus on charter schools and cracking down on illegal cannabis sales, some of her fellow Dems panned a plan to raise New York’s minimum wage to $17 an hour downstate by 2026, and upstate by 2028.

“We are here to denounce a $17 minimum wage proposal. It is outrageous that Gov. Hochul would settle on a wage that is inadequate to meet the basic expenses of life,” Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens) said Wednesday.

Ramos and others are hoping to see the minimum wage increased to at least $21.25 before being tied to inflation. Hochul’s initial $227 billion budget proposal called for linking future increases to inflation but did not include plans to raise the wage first.

Hochul said she’s on board with a compromise plan being discussed at the moment that would raise the current $15 minimum wage in the city, Long Island and Westchester County to $16 next year. The downstate wage would hit $17 in 2026.

Upstate, where the minimum wage is currently $14.20, would see base wages go up to $15 in 2024 and then jump 50 cents a year until hitting $17, according to a plan shown to Senate Democrats earlier in the week.

“I put out the talking points, I put out what I’m looking for, and then we come to a consensus,” Hochul said Tuesday at the Capitol. “I support raising the minimum wage along the lines that we’re talking about.”

Other outstanding issues remain as negotiations between Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) drag on nearly a month past the April 1 start of the state’s fiscal year.

“We’re just talking, trying to close this down,” Heastie told a NY1 reporter. “It’s just things have not been tightly closed down yet. Like I said, I hope the end is near.”

Heastie indicated that a tentative deal has been reached regarding 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.

He also said differences remain over the final details of a plan that would see around 22 so-called “zombie” charter school licenses reissued in the city after lawmakers pushed back on the governor’s original proposal.

Hochul had called for bringing the lapsed licenses back as well as lifting the so-called regional charter school cap, which would have allowed for even more charter schools to open in the five boroughs. Progressive lawmakers and politically-powerful teachers unions have opposed the idea of opening more privately-run charters in the five boroughs.

New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew issued a joint statement Wednesday saying they are disappointed that any expansion may be included in the final spending plan.

“As budget negotiations wrap up, the governor’s refusal to acknowledge the will of the people is deeply disappointing and shows she is more interested in supporting the ultra-wealthy owners of corporate charters than in defending New York’s students,” the trio said. “Once again, the rich will benefit; our students, public schools and communities will lose.”

The governor and her fellow Dems must reach a final budget agreement and begin passing bills or approve a sixth temporary stopgap measure by next Tuesday to ensure state workers are paid next week. The current extender expires on Friday.

Initial disagreements over Hochul’s proposed changes to the state’s bail laws as well as her stalled housing plan hampered budget talks in recent weeks.

Republicans from both chambers, meanwhile, railed against the secretive, closed-door negotiating process and called on Hochul and Dem leaders to resist using so-called “messages of necessity” to speed up the passage of budget bills once they are finalized.

The messages from the governor allow lawmakers to bypass the constitutionally required three-day aging process for legislation.

“It is important legislators deliver a budget promptly, while also keeping transparency intact—these are not mutually exclusive,” said Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Nassau). “The public of New York has the right to review budget bills before they are enacted as law.

“Spending of any kind, especially when it is upwards of $230 billion, cannot be done in secret,” he added.