MTA revenue plan becomes clearer while fourth extender to pass Thursday

And Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie is proposing a bill to keep lawmakers paid amid late budget talks.

Good afternoon — it’s Wednesday and Unicorn Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• The Legislature will approve a fourth extender Thursday and head home. No surprises are expected in the legislation.

• Some items are being closed down in budget talks but the door remains open.

• We now have a clearer picture on the anticipated revenue proposal for the MTA, including a regional approach.

• On The Bill: Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie has introduced a bill that would allow lawmakers to still get paid amid a late budget. Here’s the reaction.

• A new bill would close a loophole that’s allowed some cannabis license applicants to receive approval despite committing a crime in the interim.

• A man was killed by troopers in Saratoga County Wednesday after opening fire at a State Police barracks.

Names in today’s CapCon: Kathy Hochul, Blake Washington, Carl E. Heastie, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Mike Gianaris, Liz Krueger, Pat Fahy, Charles Lavine, Zellnor Myrie

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(Will Waldron/Times Union)

💰 Lawmakers to approve extender through Tuesday

I know this might come as a shock, but we still don’t have an agreement on the state budget as of Wednesday.

Lawmakers plan to approve a fourth extender Thursday and head home until Tuesday, when the next extender is due. A fifth extender is likely because, even if a deal is struck, they still need to keep the government funded until they approve it.

The extender on the table tomorrow will be a straight extender, meaning there will be no surprises, state Budget Director Blake Washington said Wednesday.

“Other than paying the bills, nothing fancy there,” Washington said.

You might be wondering how the volatile stock market and anticipated federal funding cuts are playing into this. I won’t waste your time. They’re in the back of everyone’s minds but not being factored into the budget as of now.

Some of the “noncontroversial items,” as he labeled them, have been closed. That includes the continued extenders, agency funding and “dozens of things that will never make news.”

“We’re sort of separating the wheat from the chaff as we go so that when we reach an accord on some of the bigger issues of the day, we can hit the ground running,” Washington said.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t other areas of disagreement to be resolved. That also leaves the door open for issues that have the potential to gain traction, like changing the education standards for nonpublic schools, including yeshivas.

“We all live here in Albany. Nothing is dead until it’s really, really dead,” Washington said. I laughed.