Hochul says it's a budget deal — but no one else does

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that she has reached a general agreement with state Senate and Assembly leaders on a $268 billion state budget — a sunny declaration that those same leaders immediately contradicted.

Hochul, appearing at a State Capitol news conference without legislators, said the agreement centers on policy issues such as adjusting climate laws, limiting federal immigration agents, establishing buffer zones at houses of worship and capping profits on automobile insurance.

She acknowledged that the bulk of any budget deal — the actual details of spending for the thousands of programs the state funds — are still to be determined.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie was more direct. "There’s no budget deal," Heastie (D-Bronx) told reporters.

Several key financial points, which have dragged negotiations a month past the budget deadline, remain. Financial help for New York City? Pension rewrite for state workers? Tax on second homes? Electricity bill rebates?

There are no final answers yet.

"In the next few days, the Legislature will be conferencing and voting on budget bills and, as always, the final details will be worked out through that process," Hochul said.

For example, Hochul said lawmakers will approve a $1 billion energy rebate program but not whether this would include rebate checks as legislators proposed.

She said they will create a new tax on second homes in New York City — called a "pied-a-terre" tax — but acknowledged they haven’t settled on what that should be, other than it should raise $500 million a year.

Just minutes after Hochul concluded her news conference, Heastie walked over to the media area of the Capitol to essentially say: Not so fast, governor.

'Very premature'

Heastie said the governor has refused to get into the money details of a budget until legislators agree with her on policy issues.

"Budgets are supposed to be about money not policy," he said. "There’s so many open issues on money. ... We’ve signed off on nothing major.

 "Even the policies that she put out there today, some of these things are incomplete," including the final language on changes to the climate law and what to do about utility rates, Heastie continued. "I just think it was very premature for the governor to make this announcement."

Heastie said even the top line number, $268 billion, could still change.

When asked if he was angry with the governor, Heastie responded, "No."

The office of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) concurred.

"We’re making good progress, but there’s certainly no deal," spokesman Mike Murphy said. "The Senate agrees with the assessment of the Assembly."

The budget was due, by law, on April 1, the beginning of the state's fiscal year.

Republican Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive running for governor against Hochul, promised to cut income taxes if elected and blasted the Democrat for delivering a late budget and raising spending by $14 billion.

"Kathy Hochul, go straight to the detention office, because you are tardy, you’ve been excessively tardy on all your budgets," Blakeman said at a press event outside Hochul's Manhattan offices. "A late budget, a bad budget, and by the way, you’re not making it more affordable."

General agreement

With Democrats dominating the Senate and Assembly, the majority legislators have been in general agreement with the Democratic governor about what they want the final budget document to include.

One item is a package of immigration-related legislation that would prevent counties from signing cooperation agreements with federal immigration and customs agents, restrict federal agents from going into "sensitive" locations such as schools and churches without a judicial warrant, and establish a right to sue federal officers for constitutional violations.

Another is a climate package to give New York more time to meet its clean energy goals. In general, Hochul and leaders will agree that climate/emissions regulations will be written by the end of 2028, instead of this year as originally by the state's ambitious 2019 climate statute and instead of 2030 as the governor proposed earlier this year. The regulations essentially would spell out how to charge polluters for emissions and raise money for renewable energy projects.

Environmentalists have claimed Hochul is trying to gut the 2019 law. The governor has countered the state can't meet 2040 emission goals set in the law in part because the Trump administration has moved aggressively to stymie or kill wind and solar energy projects.

"This is what leadership looks like when you’re the one person in the state who looks at the reality of the world as it is, and not looking at it through these rose-colored glasses," Hochul said Thursday, when asked about the criticism.

She said a car insurance and safety package eventually will include capping insurance company profits, limits on damages payments to those involved in car accidents and a way to address problem speeders in the five boroughs. It would require those who receive 16 or more speed camera violations in a year to install speed limiter devices on their vehicles.

The governor was equally proud of what she said won't be in the budget: No income tax hike and no new corporate taxes.

Said Hochul: "I'm really proud of this budget."

Newsday's Matthew Chayes contributed to this story.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com,keshia.clukey@newsday.com@yanceyroy,