New York State Senate Pushes Budget Deadline to Monday

The New York State Senate has bought itself a little more time to get its financial ducks in a row — provided the state Assembly and Gov. Kathy Hochul follow suit. 

The Senate approved a stopgap extension Thursday evening, its fourth such extension over the past several weeks, pushing the budget deadline from its original due date of April 1 to Monday. This year marks the third year in a row that state lawmakers have missed the budget deadline. 

Its extension would need to be approved by Hochul and the Assembly. Both are expected to give the thumbs up on Friday.

The delays have been caused by division among the two Democratic-controlled chambers over issues such as education, health care spending and reforms. Yet housing has been the true quagmire issue this time, as lawmakers debate a broad proposal to incentivize more affordable housing construction with a replacement for the expired 421a tax abatement. 

Specifics remain unclear as backroom negotiations continue, though the hope for Hochul’s housing agenda would be to provide tax breaks for developers to prompt more construction, laborer wage agreements and tenant protections, among other items. 

“Mayor Adams has been clear that Albany must pass comprehensive legislation as part of budget negotiations to help build our way out of the city’s housing crisis,” a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams told the Commercial Observer via email. “Yesterday, we celebrated New York City’s largest all-affordable housing project in 40 years passing though the City Council. We are confident that the state Legislature and Governor Hochul will come to a monumental agreement on housing soon as well.”

Gov. Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Delayed spending plans are hardly new in New York. In 2010, lawmakers took until August to approve a budget along party lines, one of the latest in state history. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.