Heastie: No deal yet on minimum wage, major budget items
Facing a preliminary deadline Monday night to stay on track for an on-time state budget by April 1, the Democratic majority in the state Assembly has yet to come to an agreement with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Republican-controlled state Senate.
“I think we’re in some regards able to move forward with this, but there’s still some outstanding issues, particularly how the city of New York comes out of this and other details like that,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said on Monday afternoon. “So there’s still items that are very important to the conference that are still open.”
Heastie, who spoke with reporters after meeting with his fellow Assembly Democrats, said that the minimum wage remained a sticking point in the three-way negotiations, including how to “factor in the cost,” but that the conference is “OK proceeding where we have to go.”
In addition to the push for a $15 minimum wage, a top priority for the governor and the Assembly, paid family leave is “absolutely” part of the budget talks, he added. Education funding, including closing the Gap Elimination Adjustment, is also being discussed, he said, although he added that there were no dollar amounts agreed to on school aid.
State Senate Republicans have raised concerns about a higher minimum wage, although they have joined Democrats in calling for more education funding than the governor proposed in January. Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan did not come out and speak to reporters after a conference meeting Monday afternoon.
State Sen. Rich Funke, a Republican from the Rochester area, offered a pessimistic take on the status of budget negotiations in a brief exchange with reporters. "That's the problem," he said. "We don't have agreements on any of it."
Cuomo was not available to reporters during the day on Monday. But on Sunday, Cuomo said during an Easter egg hunt at the governor's mansion that he remains optimistic that the state budget would be approved on time.
"There are significant issues that we're discussing," the governor said. "Minimum wage increase in upstate New York, downstate New York, at what rate, we want to make sure it's calibrated correctly. We want to see working families get paid a livable wage so they can make ends meet."
State higher education and Medicaid funding, which Cuomo initially proposed cutting in New York City, also remain under discussion, Heastie said Monday.
The speaker said some smaller, unspecified items in the budget have been resolved. He declined to say whether he expected a budget agreement to be reached before midnight Monday. Budget bills have to be printed three days in advance, but the governor can choose to issue a “message of necessity” to waive the aging period.
“I don’t know,” Heastie said. “I’m not sure. We’re hoping to still get an on-time budget with no messages. I’d like to let the bills age the normal process, but as the governor said, if need be, he will send messages.”
Later on Monday afternoon, the Assembly began passing budget legislation, starting with the debt service bills. The Senate already passed the equivalent legislation.
Earlier, when a reporter asked about reaction in his conference to reports of a proposal for a lower minimum wage upstate or a longer phase-in, Heastie struck an optimistic tone.
“Albany is the art of the compromise and we’ll see what happens at the end of the day on the minimum wage and on paid family leave,” Heastie said. “But the members are fully aware that, you know, sometimes you have to compromise up here in Albany.”