No state budget this week, progress on 'pause,' Senate leader says
And Peanut the squirrel's owner visited the Capitol Tuesday.
Good afternoon — it’s Tuesday and National Empanada Day.
In today’s CapCon:
The logjam to a state budget deal was not broken Tuesday. Lawmakers expect to pass at least one more extender.
Here’s where talks stand on involuntary commitment, masks, revenue for the MTA, a new Foundation Aid formula and the unemployment insurance debt.
The owner of Peanut, a social media famous squirrel who was euthanized by the state, was at the Capitol Tuesday.
A bill to ban flavored nicotine pouches was pulled from the Assembly Health Committee at the last minute.
New bills in response to Teslas being damaged and chatbots becoming therapists have been introduced.
Names in today’s CapCon: Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Carl E. Heastie, Kathy Hochul, Amy Paulin, Jake Blumencranz, Peanut, Mark Longo, Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, Mark Walczyk, Kirsten Gonzalez
💰 There’s finally a revenue proposal for the MTA. It now heads to members
Happy one-week anniversary of the start of New York’s fiscal year. We do not yet have a state budget and one is not expected to come together this week.
“I really wish I could say we’re further along but I think we are stuck about where we were last week,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said Tuesday. “We are at the very beginning of the end with what I would label as a pause.”
Both Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie said Tuesday that discussions on policy items — old and new — are to blame.
“It seems that every day we have new policies being brought up,” Stewart-Cousins said. “Like I say, nature abhors a vacuum. Apparently budgets abhor vacuums as well.”
Lawmakers expect to approve another budget extender Thursday and head home until next week. Another extender is due a week from today.
There is some good news: Heastie, Stewart-Cousins and Gov. Kathy Hochul have coalesced around a proposal to raise new revenue to help fund the MTA’s $68 billion capital plan.
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