Plugged In @ Hinman Straub

March 14, 2025

What’s Inside

One-House Budgets Released
Legislative Session Recap
Governor Provides Update on the Future of the State’s Correctional System
New York State Private Sector Employment Report
In the News
Coming Up

One-House Budgets Released

As part of the budget process, the Senate and Assembly recently released their respective one-house budget bills for the State Fiscal Year (“SFY”) 2025-26. These one-house budget bills are composed of each house’s budget priorities and positions with respect to the Governor’s SFY 2026 Executive Budget proposal. With the joint legislative budget conference committee process complete, the Governor and the two houses will work to resolve differences between their respective plans before the April 1 deadline for a timely Enacted Budget.

The Assembly’s one-house budget proposal projects a budget totaling $256.5 billion, compared to the Senate’s budget proposal of $259 billion. Governor Hochul’s initial Executive Budget amounted to $252 billion, up from $233 billion in the previous year.

Table targets should be announced within the next week.

Linked below are one-house budget items for review:

Lastly, the Assembly issued several subject area press releases surrounding their one-house budget proposals, including the following:

Legislative Session Recap

The Legislature convened Monday-Thursday this week and passed their respective one-house budget resolutions. They will reconvene on Monday for a four-day session.

This week, Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay announced Minority Budget Conference Committee appointments. These appointments include the following:

General Conference:

Honorable William A. Barclay

Alternate: Honorable Edward Ra

Education:

Honorable Douglas Smith

Alternate: Honorable Patrick Chludzinski

Health:

Honorable Joshua Jensen

Alternate: Honorable Jacob Blumencranz

Higher Education:

Honorable Robert Smullen

Alternate: Honorable Michael Reilly

Human Services:

Honorable Brian Maher

Alternate: Honorable Andrew Molitor

General Government/Local Assistance:

Honorable Brian Manktelow

Alternate: Honorable Ari Brown

Mental Hygiene:

Honorable Jodi Giglio

Alternate: Honorable Joseph Sempolinski

Public Protection/Criminal Justice/Judiciary:

Honorable Philip Palmesano

Alternate: Honorable Andrea Bailey

Economic Development:

Honorable Christopher Friend

Alternate: Honorable Daniel Norber

Transportation:

Honorable Brian Miller

Alternate: Honorable Joseph DeStefano

Ag/Environmental/Housing:

Honorable Christopher Tague

Alternate: Honorable Michael Novakhov

Governor Provides Update on the Future of the State’s Correctional System

This week, Governor Kathy Hochul provided an update to New Yorkers on the future of New York State’s correctional system following the end of the 22-day work stoppage, creating a path to recover, recruit, and rebuild the system moving forward.

More than 10,000 security personnel are currently working at correctional facilities at this time. Over 6,000 National Guard servicemembers continue to be deployed to maintain safety and security alongside the security and civilian staff. The Governor also signed an executive order barring the hiring into State service of individuals who are participating in the wildcat strike.

On Saturday, DOCCS and NYSCOPBA reached the fourth and final agreement to end the strike. Components of the agreements that the State will honor include:

Allowing the Commissioner of DOCCS to exercise his existing discretion under the HALT Act and continue the temporary suspension of the programming elements of the HALT Act for 90 days from the date of the MOA.
Minimizing and working towards eliminating 24-hour mandatory overtime.
Establishing a committee to analyze each facility’s staffing and operational inefficiencies with the goal of providing more relief to existing staff.
DOCCS shall not issue notices of discipline under the collective bargaining agreement for an employee who engaged in the strike so long as the employee returned to work by the deadline.
Reiterating rescission of the 70/30 memo.
Immediately reinstating the health insurance of any returning employee.
Continue to pay the 2.5 times overtime rate originally established by mutual agreement on February 20, 2025, for 30 days from the date of the MOA.
Allowing employees to purchase health insurance covering the full State share and employee share to the first day of AWOL/terminated health insurance.
Establishing a committee comprised of representatives of NYSCOPВА and DOCCS and other parties to present recommendations to the New York State Legislature regarding changes to the HALT Act.

More information on the state’s efforts to increase recruitment and hiring of new corrections officers can be found here.

New York State Private Sector Employment Report

According to preliminary seasonally adjusted figures released today by the New York State Department of Labor, the number of private sector jobs in New York State increased over the month by 14,500, or 0.2%, to 8,466,400 in January 2025. The number of private sector jobs in the U.S. increased by 0.1% in January 2025.

New York State’s private sector jobs (not seasonally adjusted) increased by 155,400, or 1.9%, over the year in January 2025, exceeding the 1.3% increase in the number of private sector jobs in the U.S.

New York State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held constant at 4.4% in January 2025. At the same time, New York State’s labor force (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 900. The statewide labor force participation rate decreased to 60.8% in January 2025.

More information can be found in the Department of Labor’s press release here.