It has become an article of faith in the New York State Capitol that when Gov. Kathy Hochul enters the Red Room on the building\u2019s second floor to announce a budget agreement, the deal is actually far from sealed.<\/p>\n
This year was no different.<\/p>\n
Despite declaring that \u201ctoday is the day\u201d to announce an agreement on a $268 billion state budget<\/a>, Ms. Hochul on Thursday acknowledged that several key initiatives \u2014 including a new tax surcharge on multimillion-dollar second home<\/a>s in New York City \u2014 had been agreed on in principle, but that the details still needed work.<\/p>\n Even the top-line figure had not been finalized.<\/p>\n Lawmakers are fond of saying that the devil is in the details. But in the absence of the lengthy budget bills that include those details, which have yet to be printed and voted on, a host of unanswered questions remain.<\/p>\n Here are five of them:<\/p>\n Why did Hochul announce a deal when one hadn\u2019t really been made yet?<\/p>\n New York\u2019s opaque budget process, which starts in January with the State of the State address<\/a> and is supposed to be completed by April 1, has become far more than a negotiation over a fiscal document.<\/p>\n Governors have tended to use the budget to wedge in legislative priorities, wielding their leverage over billions of dollars to get their way.<\/p>\n Ms. Hochul has embraced this practice. And, in a re-election year, she wanted to convey to voters that she intended to stand up to President Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/a>, help out New York City and lower costs for everyday New Yorkers.<\/p>\n She made that case on Thursday at a news conference flanked by several of her top aides. Notably missing were the leaders of the State Assembly and Senate.<\/p>\n When will the budget actually be passed?<\/p>\n Not this week. The Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, said on Thursday that it was \u201cvery premature\u201d of the governor to say a deal had been reached. He would not even say that the Legislature had agreed to the $268 billion figure.<\/p>\n He complained about Ms. Hochul\u2019s penchant for jamming nonfiscal policies into the budget and said he would not discuss such matters with his members until he had a better sense of the total amount the state would be spending.<\/p>\n As he spoke, members of the Senate and Assembly, who are currently not being paid<\/a>, were wrapping up their legislative business for the week in a rush to return to their districts. They will be back in Albany on Monday; it is unclear what bill language, if any, will have been printed and distributed by then.<\/p>\n Did Zohran Mamdani get what he wanted?<\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, campaigned on wresting more than $10 billion in tax increases from the state to pay for his ambitious agenda. That will not happen this year.<\/p>\n Ms. Hochul did accede to a new tax on second homes that targets the city\u2019s richest property owners whose primary residences are outside New York City. The goal is to raise $500 million each year, which will go toward closing the city\u2019s estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit.<\/p>\n But she spurned the mayor\u2019s request to make changes to a tax credit called the Pass Through Entity Tax<\/a> that is used by some business owners. Mr. Mamdani had said that the measure, which was also backed by the City Council speaker, Julie Menin, could raise up to $1 billion a year in tax revenue.<\/p>\n Aside from tax increases, Mr. Mamdani\u2019s overarching priority has been expanding child care in the city. Ms. Hochul\u2019s budget does just that, with $4.5 billion allotted for child care and prekindergarten programs across the state.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the whole loaf, or even half. But Mr. Mamdani can point to that funding and say that he is advancing toward his goal of providing free child care for every New York City child under 5. And while the governor rejected his efforts to fund a program to make buses free, she directed more than $1 billion in additional aid to the city that, combined with revenue from the second-home tax and other proposed measures like delays in pension payments<\/a>, could help Mr. Mamdani work to close its budget gap.<\/p>\n How will the tax on pieds-\u00e0-terre work?<\/p>\n State lawmakers \u2014 and just about everyone else \u2014 are scratching their heads about the details of this tax surcharge, which Ms. Hochul proposed with great fanfare last month. The New York Times previously reported that one proposal being discussed would apply one tax rate<\/a> to pieds-\u00e0-terre with values between $5 million and $15 million; a higher rate for ones valued between $15 million and $25 million; and an even higher rate for properties valued at $25 million or more, according to three people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n How much the property owners would pay is still up in the air. Ms. Hochul said on Thursday that more details would be coming in the near future and that the tax would apply to units worth $5 million or more.<\/p>\n Also being sorted out is how, exactly, the value of each co-op or apartment would be determined.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to take some time to get to the right number to assess that,\u201d the governor said, noting the city\u2019s complex system for calculating a property\u2019s assessed value<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at the difference between what is currently assessed but what is market value,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re working it out with the city. We have had some really good conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n How will pensions change for state workers?<\/p>\n Facing pressure from the state\u2019s largest public unions, Ms. Hochul has been trying to determine how to restore certain pension benefits that had been cut for public employees hired after 2012.<\/p>\n Any changes could end up costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars, while also saddling local municipalities and school districts with increased spending burdens. Several of the labor groups have prioritized lowering the minimum retirement age to 55 from 63.<\/a><\/p>\n