Hochul's anti-climactic Climate Act amendments arrive

And vote in our poll on when we'll have a state budget deal.

Good afternoon — It’s Friday and the Spring Equinox.

In today’s CapCon:

• Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her long-awaited Climate Act proposal Friday. It wasn’t a surprise but that didn’t soften the blow for her critics.

• It was Sunshine Week at the state Capitol. Here are four bills good government groups say lawmakers should pass if they’re committed to transparency.

• At the Capitol: What’s happening next week and cast a vote in our poll for when we’ll have a deal on the state budget.

• Bill on the Move: Freezing utility rates, investigating deaths in state prisons, and new power for the state attorney general’s office. (New section alert!)

• New Bills of Note: Connecting content creators with businesses, stronger oversight of health programs and proximity to pollution.

Names in today’s CapCon: Kathy Hochul, Al Stirpe, Liz Moran, Liz Krueger, Edward P. Ra, Rachael Fauss, Michelle Hinchey, Jonathan Jacobson, Grace Lee, Jamaal Bailey, Julia Salazar, Erik Dilan

---

News on the state budget, including proposals, negotiations and results.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (right) (Will Waldron/Times Union)

🔥 Hochul unveils her Climate Act proposals at the ire of environmentalists and lawmakers

This year’s state budget is going to be late, according to Assemblyman Al Stirpe, a Democrat from the Syracuse area.

If negotiations on the spending plan proceed beyond the April 1 deadline, it won’t be a surprise to anyone who’s had an eye on Albany in recent years. The state budget has been more than a week late each year since 2021.

The culprit of a delayed deal this year will be Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to New York’s emissions mandates under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, Stirpe said.

“This is going to be a protracted battle, making the budget late, which is a bad thing for the whole state,” Stirpe said.

Hochul finally unveiled those changes Friday after weeks of teasing her desire for amendments.

Her proposal was largely anti-climactic in the sense that it reflected what she’s already said she would seek from state lawmakers: a delay in the state’s implementation of regulations to meet those mandates.

It was unveiled in an op-ed, which means we don’t have legislative language to review. But the broad concept is there.

“These proposed changes preserve the intent of the law while realistically recognizing the economic and political challenges we face,” Hochul wrote.

Her administration has argued that, if they don’t amend the mandates under the Climate Act, the required regulations will impose costs on utility companies and energy producers that will then be passed on to consumers.

She’s seeking to allow the state to wait until 2030 to promulgate the law’s regulations for reducing emissions and change how progress toward the law’s mandates are measured.

For a closer look at Hochul’s proposal from Friday, read this story from the Times Union’s Ezra Bitterman. (Free link)

Despite expressing strong opposition for months against Hochul’s anticipated proposal, most Democrats in the state Legislature were largely silent Friday after it was finally released.

Stirpe was an exception. He joined environmental advocates on a press call shortly after Hochul’s proposal was released, saying he was frustrated she hadn’t engaged with lawmakers before it was made public.

“I think she just could have done a much better job because now what’s going to happen is, now you’re going to have certain members of the Legislature who are going to just dig in,” Stirpe said. “This is the wrong way to do it.”

Environmental advocates weren’t as diplomatic on the call with Stirpe Friday.

“This is a manufactured election year climate law crisis that the governor is trying to push onto the Legislature to cover for her own failure of leadership,” said Liz Moran, New York policy advocate at Earthjustice.

Hochul has — literally every year since she became governor — brought something into budget negotiations near the April 1 deadline to pressure lawmakers into an agreement.

Stirpe said Friday was the first time lawmakers had been presented with any iteration of a proposal from Hochul, though it should be noted that the broad strokes of what she’s seeking have been reported for several weeks.

Based on those reports, top Democrats in the state Legislature have made clear that they have no interest in renegotiating the law they passed in 2019.

Among them has been state Sen. Liz Krueger, who was similarly critical of Hochul’s approach to her proposal in a statement Friday.

“The only problem it would solve is the manufactured political crisis that the governor has created for herself,” Krueger said.