{"id":97,"date":"2026-05-28T19:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2026-05-28T19:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T19:14:41","slug":"for-kathy-hochul-a-late-budget-isnt-a-problem-its-a-successful-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"For Kathy Hochul, a late budget isn\u2019t a problem \u2013 it\u2019s a successful tactic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At the start of the year, when Gov. Kathy Hochul presented her State of the State and executive budget, many in Albany believed that 2026 could have been a return to timely budgets after four years of progressively later spending plans. Based on what the governor presented, nothing stood out to lawmakers or other political observers as something that could cause weekslong delays like the past several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Hopes were uncharacteristically high \u2013 but Hochul wound up leaning on her now-signature tactic: maximizing her budget policy wins at the expense of the spending plan being her most delayed one yet, launching a prolonged victory tour to tout how her actions will benefit New Yorkers in an election year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That sluggish process left lawmakers frustrated, and they finished voting on the latest budget in 16 years Wednesday night, nearly a full two months after the April 1 deadline. That\u2019s 19 days later than last year, and nearly three weeks after Hochul declared victory on the spending plan with a \u201cgeneral agreement\u201d announcement. And much to lawmakers\u2019 chagrin, only six scheduled legislative session days remained to get through most other priorities, as well as other typical end-of-session necessities like home rule measures and confirmation votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon taking office, Hochul promised a new era of collaboration with the Legislature on the heels of a particularly poor relationship between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers. But that didn\u2019t stop her from figuring out how best to use the executive-led state budget process to her advantage, abandoning her predecessor\u2019s focus on timeliness in favor of delay to get what she wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s absolutely utilizing this tactic to increase her victories and her success,\u201d Jeff Lewis, a longtime former Cuomo adviser, told City & State. \u201cAnd when has she not gotten what she wanted thus far with that tactic?\u201d He argued the delays this year were a testament to Hochul\u2019s willingness to make hard decisions, and the entrenched interests that make something seemingly simple like auto insurance reform far stickier than anticipated.<\/p>\n

Blair Horner of at the New York Public Interest Research Group had a slightly less charitable view of Hochul\u2019s strategy from the past several years. \u201cShe\u2019s getting nonbudget victories, and that\u2019s the problem,\u201d he said. \u201cShe holds the budget hostage and says, \u2018We\u2019re not going to deal with the budget until you deal with my nonbudget priorities.\u2019\u201d He said he\u2019s not sure why things ultimately devolved the way they did despite early optimism, but added that in an election year, the tactic has allowed Hochul to keep the spotlight on her for longer, and highlight her own narrative on how she\u2019s fighting for New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

According to Democratic consultant Jake Dilemani, a governor never would never explicitly aim for a late budget, especially in an election year when it would provide Republicans fodder to attack Hochul over dysfunction. The governor has repeatedly said \u2013 including to reporters on Thursday \u2013 that she always aims to have an on-time budget. But Dilemani said that, given a choice between avoiding potential attacks on the process and having the strongest series of policy victories to bring to the campaign trail, the answer is clear: \u201cAt the end of the day, the legislative achievements (and) the policy coming out of Albany is way more salient and more electorally useful than a late budget is harmful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The delays left legislators particularly exasperated. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it’s on purpose or not, but of course I’m frustrated,\u201d state Sen. Gustavo Rivera told City & State shortly after the budget finished passing in his chamber. \u201cThis is not the way this process should work \u2026 I mean, there\u2019s just no time to do anything, and this was not the way this should work. This is way too difficult, way too complicated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rivera called himself \u201cnaive\u201d for commenting a few weeks before the budget deadline that he felt confident the budget would get done in a relatively timely manner, adding to his annoyance with how things ended up this year. \u201cI sincerely and strongly believe that we need to change the constitution, because the constitution \u2013 Silver v. Pataki \u2013 gives the governor way too much power during this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris gave Hochul the benefit of the doubt on whether she was purposefully messing with the Legislature. \u201cIf this was Andrew Cuomo\u2019s governorship, I would say it was intentional for some Machiavellian purpose, but that\u2019s not my experience with Kathy Hochul,\u201d he told City & State Tuesday. \u201cBut \u2026 if someone is interested in the Legislature not doing its job, this would be an effective strategy. I hope that\u2019s not what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianaris won\u2019t be in the chamber next year, but many of his members will be, like state Sen. Michelle Hinchey. \u201cI think everybody feels \u2013 and I would hope the governor feels it too \u2013 that this is an unsustainable process that we\u2019ve kind of gone through,\u201d Hinchey told City & State. She added that there is an appetite in the Democratic conference to spend time doing a \u201cpostmortem\u201d and discussing potential process changes for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie has not been shy about his aggravation with the process, though not the governor herself, whom he said was just leveraging the tools at her disposal. On the day Hochul announced a budget deal, he declared he was \u201cnever doing this again\u201d with regards to policy before finances. And his members have faith he\u2019ll stick with making changes next year. \u201cAs far as I\u2019ve been here, Carl Heastie has never broken one promise to me as the speaker,\u201d Assembly Member Brian Cunningham told City & State. \u201cI think he was frustrated with the way it went down (and) he was very adamant about this not being a return to normalcy \u2026 I think there\u2019s an opportunity for us to take a step back and actually do something next year that can be very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assembly Member Michaelle Solages criticized a process that limits how much time legislators have to actually legislate. \u201cWe\u2019re closest to the people, we\u2019re individually elected for a district and we actually represent what the people need,\u201d she said. \u201cSo this should be a process where it\u2019s co-equal branches all working together to produce a document we can be proud of \u2026 The process does need to change, I agree with the speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether those changes happen are a big if, especially as Hochul continues to defend her budget strategy. Speaking to reporters in Albany after signing the final two budget bills Thursday, Hochul touted her success and brushed off the legislators\u2019 concerns about how little time they have to do other work. \u201cWhat has stopped the legislators since January from passing bills?\u201d she questioned. \u201cA lot of time there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will still pass an enormous number of bills.\u201d Hochul added. \u201cI will have the opportunity to spend my next six months reviewing them, as I always do.\u201d And the governor\u00a0 pointed to an op-ed from state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins published Thursday morning laying out various wins for her members in the enacted budget that benefits more than just herself electorally. \u201c(Stewart-Cousins) laid out what all her members and other members can run on as well,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Hochul said the process in place allows her to best deliver on issues New Yorkers care about. \u201cThese are priorities that are not just Kathy Hochul priorities,\u201d she said. \u201cThey’re my priorities because they’re important to New Yorkers, and I’m the vehicle to get that done.\u201d And she stood firm that she still aims for a timely budget every year \u2013 including next year. \u201cI\u2019m shooting for April 1,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Remember how 2026 was supposed to be the year the budget was (more) on time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,27,3],"tags":[16,15,29,7],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albany-agenda","category-budget","category-kathy-hochul","category-new-york-state","tag-albany-agenda","tag-budget","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-new-york-state"],"yoast_head":"\nFor Kathy Hochul, a late budget isn\u2019t a problem \u2013 it\u2019s a successful tactic - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=97\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For Kathy Hochul, a late budget isn\u2019t a problem \u2013 it\u2019s a successful tactic - 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