Good afternoon — It’s Wednesday, and Bee Day.
Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here.
In today’s CapCon:
Lawmakers began voting on the remaining nine state budget bills Wednesday. That’s expected to continue Thursday.
Here’s what’s in the budget bill that came up for a vote Wednesday, including school aid changes, mayoral control, housing incentives and much more.
We also learned more about other parts of the budget, including the human services COLA, the Charter Review Commission in New York City and health care.
Names in today’s CapCon: Carl E. Heastie, Kathy Hochul, Zohran Mamdani, Eric Adams
Today’s Capitol Confidential is sponsored by the Coalition for Ticket Fairness
The “Ticketmaster Protection Act” is the wrong answer.
While the courts are trying to break up Ticketmaster’s illegal monopoly, Albany would undo that work with a bill that saves their monopoly.
Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie on Wednesday (Dan Clark/Times Union)
✏️ Lawmakers began voting on the state budget Wednesday.
The first of nine bills the state Legislature will need to approve to get this year’s state budget over the finish line was introduced and brought up for a vote Wednesday.
It’s the Education, Labor, Housing and Family Assistance Bill. It’s largely education-focused but includes some housing measures as well.
Lawmakers had initially been told yesterday afternoon that voting wasn’t expected to begin until next Tuesday. That changed by yesterday evening, when they were told to expect the first budget bill to pop this morning.
A second bill — the Public Protection and General Government Bill — is expected to be out and up for a vote by Thursday.
Lawmakers approved a 14th budget extender in the meantime that runs through Tuesday, when they expect to begin taking up the rest of the budget bills.
There weren’t a ton of unexpected provisions in the ELFA bill printed Wednesday. But because it’s relatively short, I can tell you about most of what was included.
(New York Governor’s Office)
Part A: School aid, universal pre-K and mayoral control
This is several different items rolled into one part of this omnibus bill.
School aid: Every school district in the state is guaranteed to receive an increase of at least 2% in Foundation Aid, the state’s main stream of funding for local districts.
There are also new weights in the Foundation Aid formula that will drive more funding to schools based on the number of students they have who don’t have permanent housing or are learning to speak English.
Districts with students who are homeless or in foster care will be given an extra weight of 0.12 multiplied by a three-year average of the number of those students.
The weight in the formula for students learning to speak English will be permanently increased from 0.53 to 0.6.
Renewable energy and electric school buses: School districts were set to be required to start purchasing electric school buses exclusively starting in 2027, with a mandate to convert their entire fleet by 2035.
Start your 7-day trial to read the rest
Experience full access to Capitol Confidential New York—expert reporting, policy analysis, and clear insight into what’s moving and what comes next.
Start Free Trial