07 May
The passage of New York’s big, complicated state budget — every penny of the $237 billion the government plans to spend on your behalf over the next 12 months — is a portrait of power: who’s got the juice, who’s on the rise, and who got caught bluffing with a weak hand.
Governor Hochul clearly came out a winner, announcing victory and leaving town several days before the Legislature finished the budget. “This is a big deal — a very big deal. Everything that got done — the policy that we announced that I wanted to get done — my priorities in January are all in this budget,” she told me, holding up a big framed checklist of policies that resembled the menu in a 24-hour diner…
