Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders said they hoped to have final agreements on the state budget by Tuesday evening, but no agreement has been reached as of Wednesday morning.
Cuomo says he and the leaders have decided what issues will be included in the budget, like minimum wage and paid family leave, but he says important points remain unresolved.
"The overall parameters are all worked,” said Cuomo, who said legislative leaders are working out the details with their majority party conferences."
“In this case, the details are important,” the governor said.
Those details include exactly how to phase in an increased minimum wage in various parts of the state. Cuomo has proposed that the wage reach $15 an hour by 2018 in New York City, and 2021 in the rest of the state, but the governor indicates that timetable could be even longer, in order to “calibrate” the wage to the local economy.
The governor would not say whether upstate New York might not reach a $15 minimum wage, and whether the amount could be lower, closer to $13.
California Gov. Jerry Brown announced a deal Monday with that state’s legislature to enact a $15 minimum wage stateside in California by 2022. Brown’s plan includes an option to reset the phase-in if that state’s economy tanks. Cuomo says New York’s minimum wage increase may have a similar “safety valve.”
Cuomo does say that there won’t be any exemptions for small businesses in either the minimum wage increase or a paid family leave plan. He says that would put smaller employers at a competitive disadvantage in attracting workers.
The governor says he also expects no tuition increase at state universities and colleges, but says lawmakers will not agree to give SUNY an extension of its powers to raise their own tuition if they need to.
“SUNY has told us, and I think they’ve said publicly, that, economically, they don’t need a tuition increase this year,” Cuomo said.
But a spokeswoman for SUNY, says in a statement that SUNY still needs $73 million in order to “stave off a tuition increase this fall,” as SUNY Board Chair Carl McCall said a few days ago.
Legislative leaders, emerging from an earlier closed door meeting with Cuomo, concur that they still have no final resolution on key issues including the minimum wage and the exact amount of school aid in the state budget. But Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, says there will be a satisfactory increase.
“We are comfortable that we are going to have a record increase in education,” Flanagan said.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Tuesday afternoon said he was hopeful that bills could be printed before midnight.
“I’d say we’re progressing, we want to look to print today,” Heastie said. “There’s just some final details that we have to nail down amongst ourselves and the governor.”
But, following a second meeting late in the day, Heastie, abruptly left the gathering, saying only that there was “nothing new.”
