Gov. Kathy Hochul's first budget was a late one, but in the end, she said on Monday, it's one that puts money back into the pockets of New Yorkers.
"They don't pay attention to whether it's a couple of days late or not," Hochul said. "At the end of the day, we got it done."
The $220 billion state budget sharply increases in spending for New York, but there will be some benefits for taxpayers.
And some taxpayers will benefit: For property owners earning less than $250,000, they're in line for a tax credit of $970. For those earning less than $75,000, the tax credit reaches more than $1,000 on average.
And then there's an accelerated tax cut for middle-class New Yorkers. It's a $1.2 billion package that could send hundreds of dollars back to a New Yorker who earns $65,000. Patrick Orecki of the Citizens Budget Commission expects it will have an impact.
"A lot of New Yorkers will get some benefit from it," Orecki said. "It's a pretty broad group of people who will benefit from it. It is temporary, it's relatively defuse across the whole state, but it is the most meaningful tax impact in this budget."
But Orecki warned the size and scale of the spending in the budget relies on a small number of very wealthy New Yorkers — money that could dry up if the economy goes into recession. The budget approved this year is roughly $4 billion more than what Hochul initially proposed.
"Which is one of the big questions: If there's some wrinkle in the story that changes tax receipts that have been so strong in the last couple of years, how do you accommodate that?" Orecki said.
But for some progressives, the budget fell short. Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness said the agreement should have included steeper pay raises for child care and home care workers.
"The raises that they're getting right now are just not enough to keep pace with the face they've not been really getting paid what they're worth over the last decade," Deutsch said.
And he said the budget shouldn't have included taxpayer funding for the owners of the Buffalo Bills to construct a new stadium in Western New York.
"Both of these folks are multi-billionaires," Deutsch said. "So we really have to question the wisdom of giving billions to billionaires in this state."