Blair Horner

It is often said that budgets are about priorities: There are unlimited demands but only limited available resources. What you fund is what you think is most important.

After weeks of debate, Governor Hochul and state lawmakers hammered out a budget deal – a full 38 days late, the latest agreement in 15 years. Despite the lateness, the governor has been barnstorming across the state touting her policy victories.

April showers bring May flowers, but so far New York State’s budget – due by April 1st – is still not done. Despite an announcement last week by Governor Hochul that there was a budget agreement, things are not wrapped up and the hope is that a final budget will be put to bed this week.

Governor Hochul and state lawmakers are reportedly finally moving towards finalizing a state budget. Once that work is complete, the Legislature’s attention will be debating “non-budget” bills between now and the scheduled end of the session on June 12th.

The President continues his unprecedented blizzard of executive orders (now numbering at least 129). One of interest last week was an executive order designed to reduce the cost of care for seniors.

Governor Hochul and state lawmakers continued to haggle over a state budget, now two weeks overdue, and ended up approving a fourth budget extender last week. Albany’s sleepwalking approach to budget-making stood in stark contrast to the flurry of action from the Trump Administration.

With spring and lawn care season right around the corner, New Yorkers aren’t only preparing for warmer weather and enjoying the great outdoors: They’re steeling themselves for the irritating ramp up of loud, dirty gas-powered lawn equipment.

April 1st is the first day of New York’s fiscal year, meaning that it is the day when a new state budget should be in place. Yet April 1, 2025 will come and go, without a new state budget on the books.

While the Capitol continued to buzz about progress on budget deliberations, a state court decision garnered a lot of attention from lawmakers. The decision from a state Supreme Court judge in Suffolk County found a state law limiting the outside income of lawmakers constitutional. The law limits the amount of money that a lawmaker can make outside of his or her legislative salary to no more than $35,000 annually.

The nation’s annual “Sunshine Week” started this past weekend. “Sunshine Week” is the annual recognition of the need for government openness. The idea of drawing attention to public interest in transparency in government was first celebrated nationally in 2005.