Stefanik wants DOGE-style cuts to New York's statewide spending

And lawmakers have agreed to an omnibus prisons bill to pass this week.

Good afternoon — it’s Monday and Strawberry Rhubarb Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik was at the Capitol Monday. She said, if elected governor, she would take a page out of Trump’s playbook.

• Democrats in the Senate and Assembly stood together Monday to call on Congress to reject Medicaid cuts under consideration.

• The Assembly and Senate have combined 10 prison bills into an omnibus bill set to pass both chambers this week.

• The Senate is expected to pass physician-assisted death Monday. Here’s what broke the logjam in the chamber.

• And several gubernatorial nominees will be considered this week in the Senate, including former members of the state Legislature.

Names in today’s CapCon: Elise Stefanik, Kathy Hochul, Mike Lawler, Bruce Blakeman, Donald Trump, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Mike Gianaris

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Rep. Elise Stefanik, flanked by Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt (left) and Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay (right) (Will Waldron/Times Union)

✂️ How ‘Gov.’ Elise Stefanik would approach New York’s ‘bloated budget’

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who’s considering a run for governor next year, made a rare visit to the state Capitol Monday to slam Democrats for everything they did and didn’t do in Albany this year.

You’re probably wondering if she said she’s running for governor. She did not.

“Stay tuned. I’ll be making a decision in the coming months,” Stefanik said after appearing with Republicans from the Senate and Assembly.

But she already has plenty of thoughts on how she would run the executive branch of state government if she’s elected to lead it.

“New Yorkers deserve better,” Stefanik said. “They deserve leaders who care more about actually cutting your taxes rather than desperately lie about it and increase spending like Kathy Hochul does.”

She did not elaborate on what Hochul has lied about when it comes to taxes. Hochul actually proposed, and secured, lower income tax rates for low- and middle-income filers in this year’s state budget.

Stefanik referred repeatedly to New York’s “bloated budget,” which rang in this year at $254 billion — an increase of about $15 billion over last year’s $239.2 billion budget. The state’s budget shouldn’t be that large, Stefanik said.

I was curious how she would approach state spending if elected governor, so I asked her what she would specifically look to cut.

Stefanik said she would mirror the strategies used by President Donald J. Trump to cut federal spending since the start of his second term in January, including executive orders and a DOGE-style analysis of the state’s books.