Now well over a month late, it appears that Governor Hochul and state lawmakers are on a path to finish off the budget, which was due on April 1st. Since the final budget agreement will be the latest since 2010, the tardiness will squeeze the time available to tackle non-budget topics.
State lawmakers typically finish the official legislative session in the first half of June. This year, they are scheduled to head for the exits on June 4th. Normally, they do a lot of work after the budget is completed. After last year’s late state budget, 537 bills were approved, or nearly two-thirds of the total number of bills that passed both houses in 2025 (856 bills).
So far this year, 152 bills have passed the State Senate and Assembly. To keep on pace with last year’s bill passage productivity, the Legislature has its work cut out. And this year, lawmakers will have less time to act than last year.
With so little time to do so much work, it will be hard for the Legislature to tackle the big controversial issues – the issues that most impact New Yorkers. However, there is one big issue that they are most surely going to take on – redistricting.
You heard that right, the once-in-a-decade, right after the census, redrawing of political boundaries. The Democrat majorities in both houses will accelerate the timetable for the redrawing of Congressional lines. It is widely expected that both houses will advance first passage of a state Constitutional amendment allowing a mid-decade change. They will then move second passage during the 2027 legislative session and could have it ready for voter consideration in a November 2027 referendum.
Why the urgency? New York is a “blue state,” meaning controlled by Democrats. Democrats across the country are scrambling to redraw Congressional boundaries in reaction to President Trump and Republicans in “red states” rush to redraw Congressional lines in those states. This mid-decade effort was triggered by President Trump’s maneuvers to enhance the political prospects for Republicans to hold the majority in the House of Representatives.
Those efforts will help boost the electoral prospects of a Republican razor-thin majority, a majority surely in trouble given the widespread public unpopularity of the President and the historical trend that the party in power loses House seats in the mid-term election.
Thus, in New York, the Democrats’ legislative majorities are trying to do what they can to bolster Democrat ballot box success, but given the state’s Constitution, their moves can only impact the 2028 election. A state Constitutional amendment has been advanced to allow for a mid-decade redistricting process to be triggered if another state makes such a move. Which has happened.
There is a case to be made to change New York’s redistricting process. The current system is a mess and some reformers opposed the creation of the current system when then-Governor Cuomo advocated for it in 2014. The key problem is that the current system relies on the two major political parties to agree on the new boundaries, which is – and has been – a recipe for gridlock.
If changes are to be made, they should fix redistricting in this state by removing the political parties from mapmaking and set boundaries that focus on the best interests of the public, not partisan schemes. If that move also allows New York’s process to begin mid-decade, so be it. At least New York would have a fair system.
New York will hear a lot of cries of foul by the state’s Republican lawmakers, both Congressional and legislative. Remember, however, that none did anything meaningful to stop the actions of President Trump in the first place. The New York Republican Congressional delegation had a lot of leverage given their razor-thin majority but did not use it to stop the President.
A nationwide solution is needed. The Congress should immediately take up legislation to stop gerrymandering. Let’s have elections in districts that are about communities and who they want to represent them, not rigged elections in which the dominant political party picks the winner by having decided who will be voting in each district.
Blair Horner is senior policy advisor with the New York Public Interest Research Group. Horner is also trustee of WAMC.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
