New York budget negotiators cite $2.6 billion utility rebate, major childcare and education investments as talks open

Senate majority leader opened the joint budget conference committee and framed the talks as a bid to protect essential services and advance affordability, saying the budget “protects essential services, supports local communities, invests in long term economic opportunity,” and asks wealthier New Yorkers and large corporations to contribute more. The leader introduced the Senate team that will take part in negotiations.

Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty, speaking for the Assembly delegation, outlined the bulk of the majority’s package and called for direct relief to ratepayers. "It would also provide a 1 time $2,600,000,000 rebate to credit family struggling with high utility bills by supplying rate payers making less than 150,000 a year with a $500 energy rebate check," Hasty said, and proposed a two-year moratorium on implementing rate increases alongside a blue-ribbon commission to study causes and recommend solutions to lower rates.

Hasty also detailed major investments in education and child care: extending TAP eligibility and reinstating graduate TAP for higher education; $3,600,000,000 for child care; a reported $18,700,000 to remove minimum-wage-eligibility barriers for child-care assistance; additional funds to expand full-day pre-K and 3-K reimbursements outside New York City; $100,000,000 proposed for a new summer youth program; and $100,000,000 to create 40,000 additional after-school slots statewide. He described tax-relief measures that include a 1% middle-class tax cut for certain taxpayers and targeted increases for direct-care workers.

Senate minority leader Robert Orr, speaking for Republican members, pushed back on the majority’s approach and framed a competing fiscal philosophy that emphasizes spending restraint and tax cuts. Orr said the one-house resolution increases spending by "16,000,000,000 year over year" and warned the plan "doubles down on the CLCPA," arguing, based on the NYSERDA data he cited, that those policies could raise utility and gas prices and undermine affordability. He also said the one-house resolution would increase taxes by roughly $5,600,000,000 and raise the state share of Medicaid to about $49.1 billion — a figure he said is roughly $629.7 million higher than the governor's proposal.

Orr raised a separate concern about public-safety policy, saying the one-house resolution weakens the governor’s proposed protections for houses of worship by reducing a proposed felony-level penalty to a misdemeanor. He and other Republican members urged tighter spending controls, rooting out waste, and returning funds to ratepayers.

Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra echoed concerns about affordability and urged statutory constraints on spending, arguing a cap is necessary to restrain future growth in taxes and deficits. Ra called for an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy to improve competitiveness while pursuing other affordability measures.

The conference committee appointed Shelley Andrews as the Senate recording secretary and Morgan Weber as the Assembly recording secretary, distributed subcommittee assignments and schedules, and adjourned subject to the call of the co-chairs. Lawmakers said they expect further, spirited negotiations over the coming weeks as each side seeks to reconcile one-house resolutions and the governor’s proposal.

The committee did not take formal votes during this opening session; members emphasized debate and negotiation steps as the next procedural milestones.