Alliance Update: State Budget Delayed as Negotiations Continue
New York State has officially passed the April 1st budget deadline without a finalized spending plan. As expected, yesterday the Governor and Legislature approved the first budget extender to keep state operations running and ensure workers are paid, with additional short-term extenders anticipated in the weeks as negotiations continue.
Budget talks remain ongoing, with major policy disagreements still unresolved, including debates over climate policy, affordability measures, and healthcare coverage, issues that continue to delay final agreement on a roughly $260 billion spending plan.
As negotiations move forward, the Alliance continues to strongly advocate for our key priorities.
First, we are urging the inclusion of a 4% Targeted Inflationary Increase for community-based human services providers. This investment is critical to stabilizing a workforce that has faced years of underfunding, rising costs, and increasing demand. Without it, providers will continue to struggle with staff shortages, service reductions, and the loss of experienced workers, ultimately limiting access to support for New Yorkers.
We are also calling for $15 million in funding for Daniel’s Law Initiatives, which is essential to building out non-police, health-led crisis response systems that connect people to compassionate services rather than criminalization. This funding is intended for both pilot programs as well as the behavioral health crisis technical assistance center, which are critical to moving our state towards the right crisis response system.
Additionally, we are pushing for the restoration of funding for Adult Home programs, the Coalition for Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD), and EQUAL, all of which play a vital role in supporting residents and ensuring oversight, advocacy, and quality of life.
Finally, we continue to advocate for the inclusion of two critical policy reforms that were not included in the Governor’s proposal or either one house budget: passage of the Treatment Court Expansion Act and carving behavioral health services out of Medicaid managed care, a necessary step to ensure timely access to services and fair reimbursement for providers.
The Alliance will continue to push for these priorities as budget negotiations extend, and we will keep our community informed of opportunities to take action.
For those interested in a deeper understanding of the state budget, potential final outcomes later this month, and the broader national policy landscape shaping our services and rights, we encourage you to attend our upcoming Alliance Executive Seminar.
Register Today:
2026 Alliance for Rights and Recovery Executive Seminar Tickets, Thursday, Apr 16 from 9 am to 4 pm | Eventbrite
Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for your continued advocacy!
State Budget Deal Far Off As First Extender Passes
By Dan Clark, Brendan Lyons, and Timonthy Fanning | Capitol Confidential | March 31, 2026
It’s the final day of the state fiscal year in New York. That means the state budget is due.
But without an agreement with Gov. Kathy Hochul, Democrats in the state Legislature approved the first state budget extender of the year Tuesday. It will keep state workers paid through next Tuesday, April 7.
While lawmakers will return to the Capitol for a few hours Wednesday, they won’t return again until next Tuesday, when a new spending plan or budget extender will be due.
“There will be conversations in the intervening days,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters Tuesday. But a state budget deal isn’t expected by the time they’re back in Albany next week.
None of the big-ticket items are close to being resolved, Democrats said Tuesday.
“It is my observation after 25 years here that governors choose to not discuss the smaller and perhaps more likely actions until they finish negotiations on the larger, more controversial,” said state Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger.
Some progress has been made on some of the less significant items in state budget talks, according to Stewart-Cousins. She didn’t say what those were when I asked Tuesday.
“You know how the process is. There’s something the governor proposes that both houses accept or that we would accept but for some explanation, that kind of thing,” Stewart-Cousins said.
Here are five things to know about state budget talks as they continue at the Capitol.
1. At least one more budget extender is expected
Lawmakers expect to approve another budget extender when they return to the state Capitol next week.
While legislative leaders and senior staff will continue negotiations with Hochul and her team, rank and file lawmakers will return to their districts. Passover begins Wednesday and Easter is on Sunday.
A state budget deal would require approval from members of both chambers, many of which will be largely unavailable due to the holidays. That makes a state budget deal before lawmakers return on Tuesday next to impossible.
Even if there was a state budget deal announced Tuesday, it would take several hours, if not days, for bills to be finalized and printed.
The length of the extender expected to be approved when lawmakers return will be up to Hochul, who prefers short-term funding bills when the state budget is late. There’s a reason for that.
Having lawmakers approve an extender every few days keeps pressure on them to work toward a deal. If a two-week extender were to be approved, for example, lawmakers would know they have another two weeks to reach an agreement.
2. Lawmakers say they still don’t have Climate Act language
One of the top sticking points in state budget talks remains Hochul’s proposed amendments to New York’s mandates to reduce carbon emissions. She unveiled that proposal in an op-ed but it wasn’t specific.
She wants to move the deadline to 2030 for the state to promulgate regulations to rapidly reduce emissions, set a new emissions reduction mandate for 2040 and change how the state measures its progress toward those mandates.
“We still don’t think we have full language from the governor of what she’s actually proposing,” Krueger said Tuesday. “I wish I could tell you there was a specific proposal in writing to share with everyone. But we don’t have one.”
Without that language, there’s been no progress in discussions over potential amendments to those mandates.
3. Democrats aren’t convinced Hochul’s auto insurance proposals will lower costs
One of the other top sticking points in budget talks is Hochul’s package of proposals intended to lower the cost of car insurance.
Supporters of Hochul’s proposals held a small rally at the state Capitol Tuesday. Such an event this late into budget negotiations suggests Hochul continues to face strong resistance from lawmakers on that front.
Hochul is proposing a handful of changes intended to lower costs for car insurance companies, who she’s said would pass those savings on to consumers. If you’re not familiar with those proposals, you can read about them here.
The advocates who rallied in support of them said part of their challenge with lawmakers is misinformation over what Hochul’s proposals would actually do.
One claim that’s been spread, according to those advocates, is that Hochul’s proposals would prohibit people from filing lawsuits to recoup economic damages after a car crash.
“That’s just not true,” said Ashley Ranslow, state director at the National Federal of Independent Business. “We’re just saying you can not go for these nuclear jackpot verdicts in situations where you really shouldn’t and I think that’s common sense.”
Several Democrats in the state Legislature aren’t convinced that costs would decrease for drivers if they approve Hochul’s proposals as they’re written, or at all.
“We are still just trying to gather data because we are asking those same questions,” Stewart-Cousins said Tuesday, when asked if the governor has clarified how her proposals would save drivers money.
She acknowledged that the trial lawyers who’ve organized to advocate against Hochul’s proposal have a close relationship with some members of the state Legislature.
Hochul has targeted trial lawyers in recent weeks for their pull with lawmakers. Stewart-Cousins said lawmakers are also resistant to Hochul’s proposals because they want insurance companies to also have skin in the game.
“I want to make sure that the insurance companies also have some role to play in this as well,” Stewart-Cousins said. “So I also in addition to getting the data want to make sure that if there’s things insurance companies can do to help lower prices that they are doing that as well.”
4. The immigrant protections package is still moving forward
A package of bills intended to protect immigrants from being detained by federal officers without a judicial warrant is also still on the table, Stewart-Cousins said.
Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature have repeatedly said they wanted to approve that package outside of the state budget. But those talks recently reached an impasse over when, if at all, the state would assist with federal immigration enforcement.
“It’s all going on a parallel track,” Stewart-Cousins said.
Immigrant advocates have grown increasingly frustrated with Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature for taking so long to reach an agreement on that package.
Those advocates have sought to have lawmakers approve New York For All, a bill that would prohibit state and local agencies writ large from cooperating with federal immigration officials unless they have a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge.
The state of negotiations suggest Hochul and lawmakers intend to approve a version of that legislation that would include exceptions, according to lawmakers.
“Despite rhetoric from our state leaders about taking on the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, New York lawmakers have taken no action to limit colluding with this rogue and lawless administration. Immigrant New Yorkers are being abducted daily,” the New York For All Coalition, a collection of advocates and groups, said in a statement.
5. Republicans are using the budget delay to their advantage
Republicans in the state Legislature don’t have much power in the state budget process.
Their power comes, instead, from the bully pulpit. Assembly Republican Leader Edward P. Ra was critical of Democrats Tuesday for failing to reach an on-time budget deal.
“There doesn’t seem to be any urgency,” Ra said.
There are more consequences for a late state budget than just uncertainty over when an agreement will be reached. Local governments and school districts rely on knowing how much funding to expect from the state to compile their own spending plans.
School district budgets will be presented to voters in May. The longer lawmakers take to come up with a final spending plan, the less time those districts have to finalize their own budgets ahead of that vote.
Ra said he wants voters to view Republicans as the party of budget competence.
“We want the public to understand what they’re getting this fall if they cast their ballot for an Assembly Republican,” Ra said.