State budget: 5 things to watch for in one-house budgets this week

Here's the timing of one-house budgets and where we are in the state budget process.

Good morning — it’s Monday and Harriet Tubman Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• The Senate and Assembly are scheduled to release and approve their one-house budgets this week. Here’s the timing on that and moving forward.

• There’s a lot to digest in the budget. Here are the five big things we’re watching for as lawmakers unveil their one-house budgets.

• At The Capitol: What’s on deck for Tuesday.

• New Bills of Note: Comptroller contract transparency bill reintroduced and bills to limit hours worked by correction officers and overhaul family courts.

• This Week in New York History: Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony and the Great Blizzard of 1888.

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Budget Brief delivers the news you need to know about the state budget, including negotiations on the spending plan and its impact on New Yorkers.

(Will Waldron/Times Union)

💰 What to know about the state budget over the next several weeks

Democrats in the Legislature plan to introduce and approve their one-house budget resolutions this week. Those are expected to be unveiled late Monday or Tuesday and approved by the end of the week.

That’s why today’s CapCon is early. I’m not around this afternoon and we won’t have the one-house budgets to break down for you by then anyway. Expect details on them in tomorrow’s CapCon.

After they’re approved this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers will have about two and a half weeks to work out a budget deal before the April 1 deadline.

But that deadline could very well be missed for a few reasons. For one, April 1 lands on a Tuesday and the Legislature already has session scheduled for the following two days that week.

And two, Passover doesn’t start until the evening of April 12. The Legislature has respected the holiday in the past and allowed members to return home. The state budget was approved April 20 last year, two days before the start of Passover.

The last day of Passover this year is April 20, a Sunday. That means the budget can either pass before April 12 or after April 20, if the holiday is honored.

Right now, we’re on the same timeline as we were last year. One-house budgets were approved on March 14 and the Mothership 👽 landed four days later. The Mothership, if you don’t know, is a public meeting where lawmakers give a brief update on budget talks. It usually doesn’t yield much news.

The bad news is that if we do follow last year’s timeline, the budget won’t be passed until later in April. I’m going to manifest that not happening for all of our sakes.

The daylight between what Hochul proposed in January and what the Legislature will include in their one-house budgets next week should give us a clue about how difficult negotiations will be.

A budget extender vote in 2023 (Will Waldron/Times Union)

💰 5 things we’re watching for in the Senate and Assembly one-house budgets this week

I thought it would be helpful for all of you to know about five things we’re watching for in the one-house budgets ahead of their release.