Under Hochul or Blakeman, New York's rocky budget process is unlikely to get any smoother – Spectrum News

Under Hochul or Blakeman, New York’s rocky budget process is unlikely to get any smoother  Spectrum News

Both candidates indicate the budget will remain a key driver of state policy. With Election Day less than a week away, New Yorkers are preparing to choose between Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, thereby deciding who will wield the tremendous amount of leverage and negotiating power that comes with New York’s executive-driven budget process. In recent years, good-government watchdogs have shouted from the sidelines as Hochul has honed the craft of using the state budget process to grind down opposition within the state Legislature to all manner of policy initiatives and changes to state law stuffed into the annual executive budget proposal. While her predecessor Andrew Cuomo also used the budget process extensively to shape his agenda, unlike Cuomo, Hochul has shown little concern over missing the April 1 deadline to get her way, and with budget extenders keeping the state’s cash flowing while the Democratic trifecta dukes it out, there has so far been only limited public outcry.

Experts say that while Hochul has been able to use the process to her benefit — racking up a considerable list of unlikely policy wins, from rollbacks to bail reform to changes to the state’s landmark climate law — the 20 years the state budget has spent under Democratic control have also set the stage for Blakeman