Legislature passes $1.7 billion extender as state misses budget deadline

It may be April Fools Day, but the soon to be late state budget is no laughing matter in Albany. The state Legislature passed a $1.7 billion budget extender on Tuesday that will fund the state government through Thursday. State Budget Director Blake Washington acknowledged yesterday that despite negotiations over the weekend, the 2026 Fiscal Year budget would not be settled by its April 1 deadline, and more extenders have been prepared. 

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have said that policy disputes, rather than concerns about finances, are the main thing holding up the budget, though there are also questions about how to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital plan. Changes to discovery laws, an expansion of the involuntary commitment standard, a mask ban and a ban on cell phones in schools are among Gov. Kathy Hochul’s non-negotiable policy priorities.

“We'll take as long as it takes to deliver,” Washington told reporters Monday. 

He said that the extender was primarily to fund Medicaid cycle payments and continue to pay the state’s workforce. Lawmakers do not receive their salary when the budget runs past its deadline.

State Senate Republicans are not pleased with how negotiations are proceeding. State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said that New Yorkers were seeing was a failure in leadership from Democrats in state government. 

“I’d rather have a good budget than an on time budget, that’s Rob Ortt,” he told reporters Tuesday. “But we’re going to have neither, we’re going to have a bad budget and it’s going to be late.” 

Last week, Stewart-Cousins and Heastie indicated that negotiations had made significant progress, but discovery reform was proving to be a sticking point – in particular because the governor’s team has not yet sent the specific language for its most recent proposal. Heastie said that Assembly members have made clear in conference that they have significant reservations about any rollbacks to legislation that would speed up trials.

It’s not clear yet what stage budget negotiations are currently at, but lawmakers are prepared to go into next week. If a budget agreement isn’t reached by Thursday, another extender would be passed to fund the government through Monday, and the cycle would repeat itself until lawmakers and Hochul finally find common ground.  

This will be the governor’s fourth straight late budget; last year’s budget didn’t pass until April 20.