ALBANY – In announcing her FY 2024 Executive Budget on Wednesday, Governor Kathy Hochul (D) kept her promises to not raise income taxes while pushing for changes to the state’s controversial bail reform laws. “I’m committed to doing everything in my power to make the Empire State, a more affordable, more livable, safer place for all New Yorkers,” said Hochul, a Democrat.
Assemblyman Karl Brabenec (R, Deerpark), who represents western Orange County, was not buying that Hochul’s budget will have a positive impact. “State spending has been egregious since my first year in office nearly eight years ago, but with a difficult inflationary period now impacting the bottom lines of New Yorkers, I’m even less inclined to ask them to pay more in taxes toward the multiple programs pushed by the state,” said the Republican Brabenec. “It’s just more evidence that Albany is continually disconnected from the needs of everyday New Yorkers.”
Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson (D, Newburgh), who represents the cities of Newburgh, Beacon and Poughkeepsie, supports Hochul’s additional funding to fight gun violence, education, expand workforce development, and fund clean water. But he does not support everything the governor proposes.
“I am opposed, however, to the payroll tax increase that’s being proposed for the MTA district of which Orange and Dutchess counties are part,” he said, noting this is the first step in the budget process as the legislature gets to review it.
Freshman Republican Senator Rob Rolison (R, Poughkeepsie), who represents parts of Dutchess, Putnam and Orange counties, called the governor’s spending plan “an ambitious conversation-starter,” but he said the governor must “take negotiations out of Albany’s backrooms, and expose them to the sunlight of public opinion for all to see.”
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus, a Republican, criticized the plan to withhold $9.8 million in federal funding to Orange County for Medicaid and increasing the MTA payroll mobility tax.
The objection to the MTA tax increase came from Dutchess County Legislature Chairman Gregg Pulver, a Republican, who said the state continues to use the Mid-Hudson Valley as “an ATM” machine to fund the state budget.
The budget contains all funds spending of $227 billion, which represents a 2.4 percent year-to-year increase. The roughly $5 billion in increased spending will go to address a number of the governor’s priorities, including a plan to construct 800,000 new homes throughout the state, invest in reducing gun violence, and additional funds to increase the accessibility of affordable childcare, among other priorities.
On the issue of bail reform, Hochul is proposing to expand ‘judicial discretion’ by eliminating a requirement that judges give criminal defendants the “least restrictive conditions” in advance of a trial.
A final spending plan in due by April 1st. Public hearings on the governor’s budget by the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee will be held in the coming weeks.
