Some NYC issues unresolved as state budget talks approach end

A day after a triumphant Gov. Hochul unveiled a $237 billion spending deal negotiated with the Legislature, top lawmakers said Tuesday that key elements of the agreement had not been finalized.

Among the unresolved issues were funding for Medicaid; the form of a possible extension of Mayor Adams’ control of city schools; and finer points in a housing deal intended to spur development and toughen tenant protections.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said lawmakers in the left-leaning Legislature had reached the same “Zip code” as the centrist Democrat on the budget plan.

“I wouldn’t say every issue on housing is closed at this point, but it’s getting closer,” Heastie told reporters, adding that he expected the agreement would secure tenant protections for about 90% of renters citywide.

Tenants covered by those protections are expected to be spared annual rent hikes higher than 10%. The package would also extend a lapsed tax break for developers.

The housing plan has been the thorniest issue in budget negotiations, with the Legislature pushing the governor to embrace strong tenant protections.

But housing has not been the only stumbling block: lawmakers have also pushed back against a health care blueprint that could cut more than $1 billion from Medicaid programs in New York.

Sen. Gustavo Rivera, the Bronx Democrat who chairs the Health Committee, said in an interview Tuesday that he expected “at least a chunk” of the funding would be restored. But he suggested talks were ongoing.

“Perhaps it was an early victory lap yesterday,” Rivera said of Hochul’s presentation. “We’re not done.”

Hochul’s office offered a uniform reply when pressed for more information about budget outcomes on education and health care: “More details will be included in the printed budget bills.”

The mayoral school control question only emerged as a sticking point in recent days. Legislative leadership had previously indicated an extension was off the table.

Heastie told reporters Tuesday that he had not briefed lawmakers on the possible extension.

To win an expected two-year insertion of mayoral control into the budget for Adams, Hochul agreed to expand the number of New Yorkers who could fall under new tenant protections, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations.

Heastie declined to give reporters a window into those negotiations.

“The Assembly doesn’t put policy in the budget,” he offered. “But if the governor and the Senate raise it, we will discuss it. So clearly something like that had to have happened.”

Without an extension, mayoral control is due to expire at the end of June.

The chair of the Assembly’s Education Committee, Michael Benedetto of the Bronx, emphasized in a phone call Tuesday that the issue was still up in the air.

“My position is we shouldn’t put it in the budget, plain and simple,” said Benedetto, a Democrat who supports mayoral control but has opposed using the budget as a vehicle for the extension.

The Adams administration has made the extension one of its top asks from Albany, along with explicit legislative language empowering city agencies to crack down on illicit cannabis shops. The pot request is expected to be fulfilled in the budget.

On housing, cannabis and perhaps even schools, the mayor appeared to be on the cusp of state budget victories, a possible reflection of the public embrace that Hochul and Adams have mostly maintained over the last two years.

But Adams did not get everything he wanted from Albany. He has pushed for the state to offer the city more funding for the migrant crisis, after Hochul proposed putting $2.4 billion in the budget toward the challenge.

The mayor’s office said in February that it wanted at least $2.8 billion set aside for migrant support. Hochul and legislators have left the $2.4 billion plan untouched during negotiations.

On Tuesday, Adams brushed off the migrant funding gap.

“We got what we wanted,” he said at a news conference, reveling in the potential wins on housing, cannabis and school control. “Governor, if you’re watching, you have a real fan in the mayor.”

With Chris Sommerfeldt and Cayla Bamberger