{"id":781097,"date":"2026-05-08T03:35:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/781097\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:35:31","slug":"still-incomplete-key-questions-unanswered-on-new-york-state-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/781097\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Still incomplete\u2019: Key questions unanswered on New York state budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a budget announcement in Albany on Thursday, May 7, 2026. Photo: Mike Groll \/ Office of the Governor<\/p>\n

May 07, 2026 \u2014 <\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul says she\u2019s reached a \u201cgeneral agreement\u201d on a New York state budget \u2014 but major policy proposals still aren\u2019t settled, including Democrats\u2019\u00a0plan to tax pieds-\u00e0-terre in New York City.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Democratic governor said Thursday that she has had productive talks with leaders in New York City, but it\u2019s proven tricky to determine a method for assessing the high-value second residences that\u00a0she and Mayor Zohran Mamdani seek to tax.<\/a><\/p>\n

As a result, basic details like the rate of taxation or exactly how many housing units will be affected still aren\u2019t settled, the governor and her aides said.<\/p>\n

What was supposed to be a victory lap<\/a>\u00a0instead laid bare the difficulty of taxing wealthy individuals who employ accountants and lawyers to minimize their bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have certainly managed the tax system at all levels to their benefit,\u201d said James Parrott, a left-leaning economist and senior adviser at the New School\u2019s Center for New York City Affairs.<\/p>\n

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said he had \u201cno details\u201d about the tax. He criticized Hochul for prematurely announcing a budget agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven on the policies that she put out there today, some of these things are still incomplete,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins had both supported a tax on pieds-\u00e0-terre before Hochul said she wanted to tax residences worth more than $5 million whose owners live outside the city. The plan would capture Russian oligarchs\u00a0who own property in the five boroughs, as well as\u00a0President Donald Trump, who has a gold-plated triplex on Fifth Avenue,<\/a>\u00a0Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Parrott, who sat on a commission convened by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to examine the city\u2019s property tax system, said these kinds of properties are generally assessed at a lower value than they sell for.<\/p>\n

Hochul described the city\u2019s current property tax system as \u201cbizarre\u201d and said she was trying to find a new way of determining the values at which to apply the new tax. The goal remains to raise $500 million for New York City, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProperties that are worth $200 million, for example, could be assessed at $7 million,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the difference between what is currently assessed but also market value.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said the difficulty should give state lawmakers pause. \u201cPoorly designed or hastily implemented taxes risks reducing, rather than increasing, overall revenue for the city, state and the MTA by discouraging investment and transactions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he will propose an executive budget on Tuesday. He\u2019s relying on the state to help fill a $5.4 billion deficit, and said that he was satisfied things are moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of those conversations are ongoing, and we’ve said time and again that we’re confident in that [pied-\u00e0-terre] tax’s ability to raise half a billion dollars a year, which will be critical in putting the city back on that firm financial footing,\u201d the Democratic mayor said.<\/p>\n

Progressive groups cheered Heastie and said the still-unfinalized budget provided an opportunity to push for income tax hikes and more spending.<\/p>\n

Hochul acknowledged that there is no agreement on whether New York taxpayers will pick up the tab for\u00a0nearly 500,000 people set to lose state-backed health insurance<\/a>\u00a0because of a federal law passed last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have yet to see details on how New York will close the budget gaps of cities across the state, raise progressive revenue, or stop New Yorkers from losing their healthcare coverage,\u201d Working Families Party co-Director Jasmine Gripper said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Fiscal watchdogs said Hochul\u2019s announced $268 billion price tag was too high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor provided a smattering of details on state finances \u2014 but to be clear, we have yet to see a budget,\u201d Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein said. \u201cWhat we do know is that the budget is bigger, but not likely better for fiscal stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the question of extending healthcare coverage, another major unsettled variable has to do with\u00a0sweetening pension benefits<\/a>\u00a0for public employees hired after the Tier VI retirement law passed in 2012.<\/p>\n

Unions are seeking changes that would let people retire with a full pension at 55 instead of 63 and reduce their required contribution rates. Their plan has a $1.5 billion price tag, much of which would be borne by local governments to which the state is sending bailouts.<\/p>\n

Hochul proposed moving the retirement age to 60 and reducing contribution rates by half a percentage point, according to three people familiar with her negotiations with legislators. That idea was rejected, two other people familiar with the talks said, and lawmakers are now trying to reach an agreement on pension sweeteners that will cost around $500 million.<\/p>\n

The governor said she is trying to balance the ability to recruit public employees against additional costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are willing to look at this and make changes, but a much more scaled-back, monetarily, proposal,\u201d she said. \u201cWe’ll release those numbers as soon as it’s absolutely done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a budget announcement in Albany on Thursday, May 7, 2026. Photo: Mike Groll…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":781098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[20184,5229,3232,79,407,8771,7065,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,618,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-781097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-albany","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-education","13":"tag-hochul","14":"tag-housing","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-taxes","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116536864196180358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}