New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that state lawmakers had reached a tentative deal on a $268 billion budget, more than five weeks after the April 1 deadline.
The proposed spending plan includes funding to expand child care in New York, as well as the new pied-à-terre tax on multi-million dollar second homes in New York City. The money raised from that new tax — estimated $500 million annually — will chip away at the city’s estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit.
Also included in the deal: measures aimed at pushing back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, like limiting local police departments from cooperating with ICE operations. The budget deal also includes rebate checks to offset the cost of utility bills and a cap on auto insurance payouts.
“I promised a budget that works for working people and expands opportunities for all New Yorkers and I was not going to back down from that fight,” Hochul said in a statement.
Final details still need to be worked out before the measure is put to a vote.
The governor’s announcement, however, was quickly contradicted by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who said “there is no budget deal.”
Heastie told a gaggle of reporters on Thursday morning that many “major” points of a deal were still being worked out and the governor’s decision to announcement an agreement was premature.
“The conversations were going well, you know, in terms of what we’d like to see,” the speaker said. “But in no way is it final. There’s just so many unresolved things in the financial side of the budget.”
The budgets for the state and New York City have been delayed as the substantial issue of the city’s deficit remains a sticking point for lawmakers.
At a press conference in Brooklyn, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he looked forward to revealing the city’s budget on Tuesday.
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