The day after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the framework for one $ 254 billion budget For the state of New York she tried to deliver a party report in two parts.
She visited a kindergarten and then passed the office of the public prosecutor of Albany County, with a clear goal on Tuesday. For prosecutors, she emphasized how she fluid for changes in so -called discovery laws, reducing the opportunities that criminal cases can be thrown away due to ‘only technical’.
At kindergarten she repeated how the budget, whose Passage is now a month late, had become her fight for families. “I said in January that this budget will not be completed until I can offer exemption for wrestling families,” she said.
State budgets have always provided a tax route map for the priorities of the legislative leaders of the Governor and the State. But in New York, the budget can also be a blueprint for a range of political imperatives, of changes in criminal law in the prohibition of mobile phones in public schools.
And for Mrs. Hochul, who is expected to be confronted next year, the messages behind the budget is “your family is my fight”-is perhaps a preview of her campaign strategy and perhaps one that Democrats in the midterms of next year could follow. Here is a further consideration of the budget agreement, which is still waiting for Bill Language and Formal Passage.
Steps to make New Yorkers feel safer
Few things chase Mrs Hochul and her re -election opportunities more than the attention for any violent In the metro or streets of the city.
Each copy comes again in a decades of old argument about whether the authorities should do more to remove dangerous people from public spaces, even if they are against their will. Left-leaning proponents and many democratic officials in New York have argued against the use of the police as aid social workers, especially for people who are already in fragile mental health.
But while the Republicans Democrats insist on crime, the pendulum has been somewhat waved in recent years, so that Mrs. Hochul can give a priority to changes in the State guidelines for how people in psychotic needs can be taken for evaluation.
The changes that legally codify guidance previously released by the stateExpand the category of medical professionals who can determine that a person “has a significant risk of physical injury” because of the inability to meet the basic needs. Some critics said that the governor overtaken the impact of the changes and should have concentrated on adding more services.
The deal also includes around $ 180 million in financing for psychiatric services, staff and beds in New York City. Another $ 122 million provides for the preservation of an increased presence of the police officers and the National Guard in the metro. Separately, Mrs. Hochul said the budget would include About $ 50 million for creating a new rental tool for needy New Yorkers – fewer than lawyers had wanted.
The other most important criminal necessity of the Governor in the budget was to Change how public prosecutors exchange evidence With lawyers for defense lawyers for a trial. District lawyers in the entire state sought the change and argued that the current requirements were so heavy that they led to an eruption of dismissal.
Proponents of criminal justice and public defenders oppose the push and claimed that it would recover an unfair benefit for prosecutors.
Tax help for working people
Mrs Hochul started the year with a promise to help New Yorkers from the middle class with a series of tax credits and other stimuli. Her plan to send the checks of the taxpayers “inflation -return” received the most attention, partly because it was expected to cost the state $ 3 billion.
The proposal immediately criticized budget watchdogs, which said the money would be used better to compensate the step -by -step cuts from Washington. Nevertheless, Mrs. Hochul was able to persuade the legislative power to approve $ 2 billion in discounts to $ 200 for individuals, $ 400 for Family for New Yorkers from the middle class.
Mrs. Hochul told the voters that the money made possible by a turnover tax boost due to inflation belonged to them. “Some people say they are beating it away,” she said during a appearance on Wednesday in New York City. “Don’t worry, I’ve stored a lot.”
The final budget will also include modest but meaningful shifts in the tax burden for most New Yorkers. Taxpayers who jointly earn less than $ 323,000 will lower their taxes to their lowest rate in decades, while an extra tax on those who earned more than $ 1.1 million was extended to 2032.
Similar changes were made in the payroll tax of the payroll. Companies with a payroll of more than $ 10 million will see a tax increase to help pay for the public transport of the city. Small companies receive a tax reduction and the wage tax on self -employed people who earn less than $ 150,000 is completely eliminated.
The lonely middle
During her four years as a governor, Mrs. Hochul, a centrist, had to ward off attacks from left and right.
She didn’t have a huge margin of error. In 2022, Mrs. Hochul was chosen as the first female governor of the state by the smallest margin in decades. Potential rivals – Most recently representative Elise StefanikA Republican who represents the Northland and is a strong ally of President Trump – starts to turn off potential lanes for what is expected to be a bruises.
Republicans have gained ground in recent years by concentrating on an economic message, which recently quotes the rising price of gas and eggs. And although Mrs. Hochul is consistently in favor of affordability problems – offering discounts, pausing the gas loading and the congestion -prices toll reduced toll from a proposed $ 15 to $ 9 – she nevertheless has difficulty earning credit for her political victories.
A recent poll by Siena College showed that the governor can make contact with voters again, with 48 percent of voters who approve the work that she did, the highest level in more than a year.
Missing guardrails
In February, when Mayor Eric Adams of New York City was waiting for a message to be withdrawn of his federal criminal charge, Mrs. Hochul weighed in the mess.
Some had wanted the governor to exercise its authority to remove Mr Adams from his office because he apparently had introduced a quid pro quo with the Trump administration to maintain its immigration policy in exchange for Etching about his indictment. Trump officials and Mr Adams denied this indictment, but the indignation among chosen officials in New York Zwol.
Mrs. Hochul refused to remove the mayor, but she announced that she would do that try to impose Strict new guardrails about his administration. They would include creating a new deputy inspector general focused on the activities of New York City; setting up a fund for the city computer, public lawyer and municipal council speaker to hire external council to sue the federal government if the mayor was not willing to do this; and the granting of additional funds for the state of the State to investigate city finances.
The budget has not included that.
There is still a chance that the guardrails can be set, but some measures must be determined separately by city and state laws. Mrs. Hochul has Blamed for the inactivity For the failure of the budget to record the reforms she was looking for.
“I just handed out a hand to help, and it is up to the people in the city council to decide whether it would be sent to the legislative power,” she said.
Still negotiated
Every year the last days of budget negotiations invariably include the surprise of the late judicial issues. Two such issues this year are particularly divided.
The first is a proposal to change the State Public Financing Act that would benefit political candidates, usually established operators who receive large donations.
The current law allows Matching funds for donations from $ 250 or lower. Assembly speaker Carl E. Heastie said that the budget would include language that allows a state competition on the first $ 250 of each donation up to $ 1,000.
Is more controversial A push of Hasidic Jewish leaders To weaken an age -old law that requires private schools to offer training that is ‘considerably equivalent’ to public schools.
The withdrawal or thinning of the law has become an important goal of the Hasidic Community, whose schools a huge amount of state financing Do not always offer basic instructions In English and math.
The legislative leaders acknowledged that changes in the education standard were considered, but refused to provide additional details.
Eliza Shapiro contributed reporting.
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