Here's what's in Hochul's $260 billion state budget proposal

And what top lawmakers had to say about it.

Good afternoon — It’s Tuesday and Cheese Lovers Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a $260 billion state budget proposal Tuesday. Here are the toplines and each budget bill.

• We spoke with legislative leaders from both the state Senate and Assembly to hear what they had to say about Hochul’s budget.

• Here’s the schedule of state budget hearings for the next month.

• A new bill seeks to raise new revenue for the state through a change in tax code.

Names in today’s CapCon: Kathy Hochul, Blake Washington, Carl E. Heastie, Mark Levine, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Thomas P. DiNapoli, Liz Krueger, Rob G. Ortt, Donald J. Trump, Will Barclay, Andrew Gounardes

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Hochul on Tuesday (Will Waldron/Times Union)

💰 Hochul is proposing a $260 billion budget without new taxes

Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing to raise spending by $6 billion over last year’s state budget agreement and says no tax hikes will be necessary to get there.

But projected total spending for this fiscal year has also increased from to $258 billion. That means Hochul’s budget increases current spending by $1.6 billion.

The state is now anticipating $11.7 billion more in revenue in the next fiscal year than what was projected when the current state budget passed last May. For this fiscal year, the state is expecting $5.3 billion more than projected.

That money will more than close the $4.2 billion gap caused in part by changes to federal health care spending from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and fund Hochul’s $1.7 billion proposal to expand access to child care in this year’s state budget.

Because of that, we’re now starting with a clean slate, budget-wise. There is no anticipated gap to fill.

The outyear gaps have also decreased based on new revenue projections. The $10 billion gap in fiscal year 2028 has been reduced to $6 billion and the $12.6 billion gap in fiscal year 2029 has dropped to $9 billion.

But the state is now projecting a budget gap of $12.5 billion in fiscal year 2030, which begins April 1, 2029.

I’ll unpack some of the larger items in Hochul’s budget and reaction to it from top lawmakers, including legislative leaders, in just a moment.

But I know many of you have been waiting for the bills that comprise her spending plan.