Month-Late, Secret Budget Is Cynical Albany at Its Worst

April 29, 2025
In healthy democracies, the ruling party does not delay the budget by a month to make all decisions in a back room, then rush a vote using “emergency powers.”
 

New York’s budget is a month late, but that’s nothing – it’s also chock full of policy items decided on in complete secrecy by the ruling Democratic party majority. Compounding this furtive farce, New York Democrats will likely print thousands of pages of budget bills on Wednesday night and pass them on Thursday – circumventing the constitutional three-day aging period via Governor Hochul’s abuse of her Message of Necessity emergency powers. It doesn’t have to be this way – the Governor has said that she’s not concerned about a late budget. So why not take three days for the bills to see the light of day before they are voted on? 

Adding to the general lack of accountability and transparency, Governor Hochul has gotten the press to help her hype her informal budget “agreement” with legislative leaders as the done budget deal – before anyone has seen any of the crucial specifics contained in the nine budget bills.

New York State Democrats have (rightly) been doing a lot of complaining about the Trump administration flaunting the rule of law, and violating basic democratic norms. Unfortunately, rather than leading by example, Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Heastie have decided to further fuel rampant mistrust in government by repeatedly keeping New Yorkers in the dark. No wonder New York voters are discouraged and only 18% turned out in the most recent off year elections. 

Minimum expectations for a transparent New York budget process

  1. Honor the state constitution’s minimum three-day transparency period between the time bills are printed and voted on. Stop abusing the Governor’s “message of necessity” emergency powers to stymie transparency and sneak past opposition and political embarrassment. 
  2. Maximize budget transparency instead of secrecy – have robust, public debate of policy, spending, and tax proposals. 
  3. Publish simple financial tables showing spending by function, anticipated budget gaps, and basic expenses and revenue assumptions.
  4. Count billions of dollars of reimbursable tax credits as expenditures. This is not free money.

Reinvent Albany will comment on specific spending, revenue, and policy items when budget bills are published.