State budget has little in it targeted to Long Island

After decadeslong complaints that three men in a room were making budgetary decisions out of sight from the public, New Yorkers now can say that two of the three people at the helm are women.

Other than that, disappointingly little has changed in Albany.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie still are dealing behind closed doors, in an absurdly opaque process. Hochul's promise of transparency has become a refusal to "negotiate in public" and a declaration that the process is "very normal."

Even as an agreement apparently began to come together Monday, details were murky, leaving lawmakers, advocates and voters scrambling to understand the deals and their nuances. There's still too much we don't know.

But what we do know is troublesome.

At the heart of the budget talks — and the most concerning last-minute addition — is the plan to devote $880 million in state funds over the next 30 years to the construction and maintenance of a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills. The state's memorandum of understanding contains more questions than answers but shows a deal in which the state gets essentially nothing — no revenue, no economic development, no meaningful community benefits. Hochul's promise that more than $400 million would come from the state's share of money owed by the Seneca Nation doesn't make the deal more palatable; those funds could have covered a host of statewide needs.

If the Bills proposal didn't already reek of political gamesmanship, an even deeper stink wafts over it when considering that Delaware North — which operates concessions at the Bills' current stadium and whose general counsel and senior vice president is Bill Hochul, the governor's husband — could be a big beneficiary. Although the governor said she'd recuse herself on issues involving Delaware North, she did not. It's not enough to claim that Delaware North was not directly involved in the deal, or that Bill Hochul wasn't directly tied to the effort. The governor's decision not to recuse herself makes an already bad deal even worse.

The lack of clarity extends to other high-profile issues as well, including changes to criminal justice reform and the sudden possibility that the budget will include authorization for three downstate casino licenses, including one in Manhattan.

Also lamentable: The budget frenzy seems not to include any significant benefits targeted to Long Island. While there are general pieces to boost small business, the environment and child care, the Island lacks a big budgetary win, like money for Suffolk County's bus system, critical regional economic development, or other big needs. Where is Long Island's delegation?

Watching from the outside, it seems, as Buffalo gets its millions, the city gets its casinos, and Long Island gets little from deals made secretly by three people in a room.