State budget deal not expected next week, top lawmakers say

And New York's medical cannabis regulations are expected to change.

Good afternoon — It’s Thursday and Spinach Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• A state budget deal is not expected to come together before the April 1 deadline or soon after, top lawmakers said Thursday, with two top sticking points.

• Wall Street bonuses rose again last year, reflecting record profits in the industry, the state comptroller’s office said.

• Rules and Regs: New York’s medical cannabis industry is expected to soon be subject to new regulations intended to expand access.

• Rules and Regs: New York requires entities that produce a lot of food waste to donate or recycle it. New rules would subject more entities to that law.

• New Bills of Note: New York isn’t liable for damages to vehicles caused by road defects. A new bill aims to hold the state accountable.

• Bills on the Move: The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act moved through a key committee for the first time since Hochul vetoed it in 2023.

Names in today’s CapCon: Kathy Hochul, Michael Gianaris, Liz Krueger, J. Gary Pretlow, Carl E. Heastie, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Thomas P. DiNapoli, Andrew Hevesi, James Skoufis, Latrice Walker, Andrew Gounardes, Karines Reyes

---

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

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (New York State Senate)

🗓️ The earliest to expect a state budget deal, per top lawmakers

If you were still holding out hope that Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature would reach a state budget deal by the April 1 deadline, I have bad news.

Lawmakers in both chambers gaveled out Thursday afternoon and went home to their districts with no expectation that such an agreement would materialize by the time they’re scheduled to return to Albany Monday.

“I can assure everyone here we will not have budget bills completed before the April 1 deadline,” state Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan, said on the floor Thursday.

Krueger was debating the first of 10 budget bills lawmakers will have to approve to finalize the state’s spending plan for the next fiscal year, which begins next Wednesday.

That bill, the debt service bill, passed both chambers of the state Legislature Thursday. It’s always the first to pass because it lays out the state’s debt payments ahead of the start of the new fiscal year.

With the remainder of the state budget bills not expected by then, lawmakers expect to approve an extender of current spending next Tuesday, March 31.

“Normally it would be for a week,” Assembly Ways and Means Chair J. Gary Pretlow said on the floor Thursday. “But the calendar this year is really working against us in this entire budget process.”