This is a Capitol Confidential breaking news alert.
💰 Hochul: State budget agreement reached with lawmakers
We finally have a state budget deal between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature.
Hochul on Monday announced the new budget, which includes billions of dollars more in spending than what she proposed in January but billions less than what lawmakers sought in response.
The budget is nearly a month late after negotiations stalled over disagreements on Hochul’s policy priorities, including changes to the state’s laws on pretrial criminal discovery, a ban on the use of smartphones in schools and more.
It's an agreement that could have a short shelf life. Hochul and lawmakers have acknowledged that if Congress approves cuts to programs for which New York receives funding, they'll likely reconvene to assess if they can soften the blow.
“It would require some level of reassessment with the Legislature,” State Budget Director Blake Washington said earlier in April. “It would require us, more than likely, coming back and assessing if those cuts are deep where it’s a material impact to the financial plan.”
The state currently receives about $93 billion from the federal government each year. More than half of that is for Medicaid, in which nearly a third of the state’s population is enrolled.
I’ll shoot over a few details tonight and have more for you to chew on tomorrow. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we’re always running a 7-day free trial. ⬇️