NYS budget: What's included for transportation, environment, economic development

Gov. Kathy Hochul presented her proposed $260 billion state budget for 2026-27 on Tuesday. Here are details on some key topics.

Economic development

Stony Brook University would become a center for businesses and research firms involved in quantum technology under a three-year, $300 million plan from Hochul. On Tuesday, she included the first $100 million installment in her proposed budget.

The money would go toward establishing a Quantum Research and Innovation Hub. The technology has been likened to a new kind of internet, but with more power, data security and speed. It’s expected to be used in finance, health care and other fields.

Hochul wants to spend $60 million across the state on commercializing inventions tied to quantum technology and $65 million on those tied to biotechnology, medical devices and other life sciences.

Her budget proposal also includes $25 million for a semiconductor chip design center downstate to complement the chip factories planned for Albany and Syracuse. She didn’t disclose the center’s location.

Small- and medium-sized factories would receive help in modernizing their operations through a new network of technical assistance centers funded with $10 million.

Hochul wants to provide $30 million to specialty crop growers, dairy farmers and livestock producers who’ve been hit hard by the Trump administration’s trade wars. The payments would average about $3,000, she said.

With $750 million in the budget proposal, the state would continue to support business expansions and downtown improvements through additional rounds of the Regional Economic Development Councils’ competition, Downtown Revitalization Initiative, New York Forward and other programs. — James T. Madore

Environment

The governor plans to earmark $750 million for water infrastructure improvements next year and in the following four years. The funds can be used for replacing lead service lines, wastewater treatment and other clean water projects.

Hochul also proposed $668 million for U.S. Army Corp of Engineers climate resiliency projects aimed at protecting "some of our most geographically vulnerable areas from the effects of climate change."

Her budget allocates $425 million to the Environmental Protection Fund for land conservation, clean water, recreation and climate projects, including the Green Resiliency program, which replaces impermeable concrete and asphalt with trees and other plantings, helping reduce runoff and flooding. The fund also provides money to communities contending with intensifying storm surges and sea level rise.

Other significant funding proposals include:

• $340 million to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which runs the state’s parks, historic sites and hiking trails.
• $90 million to the Department of Environmental Conservation for repairing and rehabilitating campgrounds, trails, wetlands and waterfronts, as well as for dam safety.
• $50 million to decarbonize the state’s operations and facilities.

Environment groups praised the budget line for clean water infrastructure, a 50% increase from the $500 million in previous years. These projects are "not only good for our environment and public health but also great for our economy," said Adrienne Esposito, director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. But Esposito and other advocates were dismayed the Sustainable Futures Fund, which was dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and was funded at $1 billion last year, was cut from this year’s budget. — Tracy Tullis

Transportation

The spending plan includes modest increases for the state transportation department (3.1%) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (4.7%) while holding steady funding for the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Counties, towns and villages have long complained that high inflation in the construction industry has eaten into their road budgets, but state road aid will remain at last year’s levels. The aid is largely distributed according to formulas based on lane mileage, government type, vehicle registrations and precedents set decades ago. As Newsday has reported, the formulas tend to favor urban and rural areas but disadvantage suburban areas such as Long Island.

The budget includes $9.6 billion in operating support for mass transit across the state, $8.6 billion of which will go to the MTA and $640 million to other transit systems in the downstate region. A breakout for Nassau Inter-County Express and Suffolk County Transit was not immediately available.

Besides setting spending amounts, the governor has included several traffic-safety proposals, such as a pilot program to install speed limiters for cars driven by "super speeders" in New York City, and a requirement for an in-person motorcycle safety course before licensing.

The budget also includes $50 million for upgrading Jamaica Station, $25 million for preliminary planning for extending the MTA’s Second Avenue Subway west through Harlem and $25 million for specialist outreach to homeless people on city subways. — Peter Gill

Public safety

The budget continues investments to combat gun violence, subway crime and hate crimes, as well as millions of dollars to improve policing and New York’s State’s criminal justice system.

Hochul plans to spend $352 million on community and law-enforcement programs to prevent and reduce gun violence, as well as $500,000 on a task force of experts to recommend regulations that will protect New Yorkers from 3D-printed firearms.

The budget also includes legislation that would require 3D printers sold in New York to be equipped with technology that prevents the producing of untraceable weapons known as "ghost guns."

Hochul called for the state to continue to spend $77 million a year to partner with New York City to beef up police patrols in subway stations and trains.

Hochul’s budget, like last year's, dedicates $35 million to combat hate crimes. The money would go to the Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes program, which provides grants to boost security for certain organizations at risk of hate crimes and attacks because of their ideology, beliefs or mission.

Hochul wants to continue to provide $115 million to the Joint Task Force Empire Shield, established to deter and prevent terrorist activity in the New York City area. The budget also would improve policing on Long Island and across New York State by awarding $50 million to law enforcement agencies to purchase technology to strengthen public safety. Long Island agencies have used these grants to invest in technology such as body cameras and license plate readers.

Hochul hopes to spend $6.7 million on New York’s Crime Lab to upgrade DNA and drug analysis technology and increase forensic staffing. The governor's budget also seeks $4.5 million to expand the state’s Crime Analysis Center network and establish a center in Westchester County. The state invested nearly $1 million to expand the Crime Analysis Center in Suffolk County, housed at the police department’s Yaphank headquarters, in recent years. — Michael O'Keeffe

Health

The 11.4% increase in Medicaid spending is by far the largest among the state’s major operating funds.

"Medicaid spending growth is driven by increased minimum wage costs, medical cost increases, enrollment remaining at elevated levels, benefit expansions, higher reimbursement rates, escalating drug prices and utilization of high-cost drugs, and continued growth in aging and high utilization populations," the budget briefing book said.

Cuts in federal health care funding will shift more Medicaid spending to the state, the budget said.

The governor is proposing an increase in Medicaid spending from $34.3 billion to $38.2 billion. About 34% of New Yorkers are covered by Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to low-income residents and some people with disabilities. Another 2.3 million New Yorkers receive state-funded insurance through other programs, such as Child Health Plus.

The governor is also proposing a $1 billion increase in its Safety Net Transformation Program, to shore up hospitals with a large percentage of uninsured and Medicaid patients.

Hochul also wants to allow physician assistants "with sufficient training" to run their own practices, something the state’s main doctors’ lobby has adamantly opposed. She also would permit medical assistants and certified nursing assistants to perform more services and allow the state Department of Health to make further decisions on expanding which procedures and services licensed health care workers can provide.

With artificial intelligence increasingly being used in health care, Hochul is proposing a consortium of health care leaders to "share best practices on the implementation of AI health tools." — David Olson

Energy

With many of her signature green-energy initiatives under fire from the Trump administration, Hochul’s budget is relatively light on new funding to prop up initiatives that lost crucial federal tax credits last year.

The budget briefing document said she has earmarked $50 million to fund an existing program known as EmPower Plus, which helps low-income New Yorkers cut their energy bills. The program provides funding to buy energy-efficient appliances, and assists low-income homeowners convert from fossil-fuel heating to "clean efficient electric alternatives."

Hochul’s budget includes a new program called Excelsior Power that would offer discounts of $25 a month to customers who install smart thermostats to lower usage and costs. LIPA/PSEG already have programs that incentivize customers to buy the smart thermostats. The $25 bill discount would last for a year.

The budget also includes $5 million for a new program by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority called Mechanical Insulation Energy Savings. The program would offer grants to school districts, public housing and public hospitals to boost the use of mechanical insulation, which provides a protective layer for pipes, holding tanks, ducts and other parts of heating/cooling systems to increase their efficiency.

The budget document doesn’t discuss any subsidies for new nuclear plants Hochul discussed in her State of the State message, or for solar initiatives for schools, which Hochul also broached last week. — Mark Harrington