ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state avoided a government shutdown Monday when reluctant lawmakers passed an emergency two-month spending measure proposed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo after he and the Legislature failed to strike a deal on a spending plan.
The stopgap measure will fund state operations through May 31, though lawmakers say it shouldn't take them that long to come to an agreement on a one-year budget. Lawmakers won't be paid until that happens, giving them one more reason to reach a consensus.
Few lawmakers expressed enthusiasm for the short-term bill, known as a budget 'extender,' which Cuomo introduced after he and lawmakers blew through a Saturday budget deadline.
"Passing this extender isn't a punt of our duties," Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, told reporters. "I'm just trying to make sure that government isn't shut down."
One key sticking point in the budget remains a proposal known as "raise the age," which would end the state's practice of prosecuting and incarcerating 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults. The change is a priority for Heastie and other Democrats, but it has raised concerns among Senate Republicans.
Negotiations in Albany were also bogged down over how to divide increased education funding, the details of an affordable housing and development tax credit in New York City and whether to increase the number of authorized charter schools.
"I believe we can get there," Senate Leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island, said of the work to craft the more than $150 billion spending plan.
Cuomo noted that the $40 billion short-term budget includes some $16 billion in new projects that will continue long after the two months run out. They include work to overhaul Penn Station, $2.5 billion to upgrade the state's aging water infrastructure and transportation and economic development initiatives around the state.
"But make no mistake: we are far from done," Cuomo said in a statement. "We must finish the job.?"
Others who voted against the measure held firm to declarations made by Democratic leadership that members would not sign off on any budget item without the juvenile justice reforms. Some also criticized Cuomo for continuing Albany's long tradition of backroom negotiations, or of not including legislative pay in the extender.
The governor, who is mentioned as a possible contender for the White House in 2020, has cited the likelihood of federal spending cuts as one reason to delay the budget, saying waiting until late May would give the state time to understand how they might impact state finances. Lawmakers from both parties dismissed that as an excuse.
"This guy (Cuomo) should look in the mirror as to why this budget is late," said Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, R-Troy. "He ran his mouth for months about the dysfunction in Washington and this guy cannot get a budget done in time."
Cuomo introduced his $152 billion budget proposal in January. The proposal would keep the status quo when it comes to taxes, add $1 billion in new public education spending and include expanded child care tax credits and a new initiative making state college tuition free for students from families earning $125,000 or less annually.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that New York and North Carolina are the only states that prosecute 16- and 17-year-olds as adults.
While they are the only states that regularly route 16-year-olds into adult courts and prisons, a total of seven states still try 17-year-olds as adults and in some cases imprison them with adult inmates.
Other states try teenagers as adults only in cases involving extreme violence or other aggravating circumstances.
New York will gradually shift 16- and 17-year-olds into family court and juvenile detention centers over the next two years.
