The discovery debate is almost done. What’s next for the budget?

The debate over discovery blessedly appears almost settled (barring a last-minute blowup while finalizing language), which hopefully means that the stalled state budget can finally start moving towards completion again. Legislative leaders and the governor had also managed to come to a tentative agreement earlier about banning cellphones in schools, which means they have two items down and… basically everything else left to go. 

On the policy side – much to the continued chagrin of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who would prefer a straightforward spending plan – Gov. Kathy Hochul still has at least two more priority items she wants to get included: expanding the state’s involuntary commitment laws and enacting some version of a mask ban. Both have faced resistance in the state Senate and Assembly, much like the governor’s proposal to roll back parts of the 2019 reforms to the discovery laws. 

Although Hochul has recently spent much of her and her surrogates’ political capital and public appearances pushing the discovery issue, her team did put together a small press conference to discuss the involuntary commitment issue in Albany last week. It featured Dr. Ann Sullivan, commissioner of the state Office of Mental Health, as well as Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and Albany County Executive Dan McCoy. “We hear from the mental health professionals that they need more tools… and we have far too many people who are dying on our streets,” Sheehan said. “Because let's put this out there – the alternative to the changes that the governor is proposing is that people will continue to die on our streets.”

On the mask side, Hochul kept a potential ban out of her executive budget proposal released in January and only injected it to the conversation after budget negotiations had already begun. Supported by several civil rights and Jewish groups, the measure would reinstate a version of the state’s ban on wearing masks in public that lawmakers repealed during the pandemic. Supporters of the proposed ban charge that people are wearing masks in order to conceal their identities while intimidating others or engaging in hateful acts. They say that the issue has become more prevalent since the surge in pro-Palestine protests, although they are careful to say that the measure is not a response to any particular protest and is not meant to curb free speech. But opponents of the proposed mask ban like the New York Civil Liberties Union say it would have a chilling effect on protests and lead to disproportionate enforcement against people of color. 

The mask issue has deeply divided Democratic lawmakers in the Legislature, with some vehemently opposed and others advocating for it strongly. State Sen. James Skoufis, who sponsors the legislation that has served as the basis for negotiations so far, told City & State that he is “cautiously optimistic” that some version of the mask bill will make it into the final budget. 

As the budget talks have dragged on, other potential policy items have wormed their way into the discussion as well. As has happened in the past, opponents of the state’s substantial equivalency standards for private schools have quietly tried to include language to delay the implementation of new rules, or roll them back in other ways. The rules in particular affect yeshivas and have faced strong pushback from the Orthodox Jewish community. Legislators both for and against new changes suggested last week that the matter is not yet settled.

Setting aside the rest of the finances of the budget, legislative leaders and the governor also have a $30 billion question to answer when it comes to funding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 2025–2029 capital plan. Officials have flitted around the question while making assurances that they’ll find the money and offering few concrete details. But at the very least, Heastie told reporters last week that he and his negotiating partners were close to agreeing on some form of tax hike to fund the plan. He described a menu of options at their disposal without disclosing where they landed, though a payroll tax hike on New York City businesses has emerged as the most likely option.