Albany, NY – Assembly Members held a press conference today to discuss why they plan to address executive overreach in the budget process.

Despite the legislature being a co-equal branch of government, governors have outsized power in the budget process and are able to hold up budgets for their own policy priorities, leaving little time for non-budget legislation. This year, Governor Hochul is exerting her power to gut the climate law and double down on fossil fuels, even as the war in Iran is making fossil fuel prices skyrocket and costing New Yorkers hundreds of millions.

The governor’s outsized power in the budget process comes from the 1927 state constitution and recent court decisions, most notably Silver v. Pataki (2004). Under these, the governor can dictate the content of the budget, both in terms of appropriations and in terms of non-budget policy. Addressing executive overreach in the state budget will require a constitutional amendment, meaning two consecutive legislatures must pass a bill, and then voters must weigh in via a ballot initiative.

“Ultimately, our constituents are the ones who get a raw deal out of a broken budget process,” says Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, “The people we represent are worried about basic things like whether they’ll lose their health insurance, afford their utility bills, or have a viable environment to raise families in. But instead of proactively and thoughtfully coming up with policy solutions to actually address problems, New York state’s budget process is one of the most dysfunctional ways of making decisions, where half-baked policies motivated by New York Post headlines are rammed through without appropriate discussions, and the programs and the infrastructure that need proactive and smart funding get left to the wayside. If people are to regain faith in government and our democracy, we need to have a system in place that is mature, effective, and accountable.”

Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said, “It is unconscionable that the Governor is pushing to roll back the CLCPA in the midst of a once-in-a-generation budget crisis, but that is just the latest fallout from a system that has been broken for decades. New Yorkers elect us to represent them, but the system is rigged to ensure that we have almost no ability to pass the changes they demand. We must fix the power imbalance in the budget process so that our constituents get the representation they deserve and we can finally address the urgent problems facing New Yorkers – including climate, healthcare cuts, growing wealth disparity, and immigrant defense, to name just a few.”

Assemblymember Dana Levenberg said, “Right now, we all need to work together against this country’s president and his enablers who are severely cutting social services, challenging our green energy economy, not to mention unravelling our democracy.Instead of holding up the budget, we need to work together to pass a budget that addresses affordability, at the same time as it builds out our green infrastructure to make sure New Yorkers can continue to afford to live, work, and raise a family here.We should not be rolling back the targets of our groundbreaking Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act but rather implementing it.A late budget is a waste of time and talent, not to mention taxpayer dollars.We must overhaul this broken system so that we can make sure we, as a legislature, can effectively serve the people of this great state.”

"Our budget process is broken and our constituents are paying the price," said Assemblymember Tony Simone. "The budget is now 15 days late and we are stuck in the mud negotiating policy topics that should be debated in the open. Climate law that was passed in the sun is now being rolled back in darkness. All while we have critical funding needs from education to housing services that have yet to be discussed. New Yorkers deserve a budget process that is transparent, accountable and focused on the actual budget."