Beginning of the 2025 Legislative Session

Today was the first day of the 2025 legislative session. Normally, this day would be marked with the Governor’s State of the State address. However, like last year, Governor Hochul decided to deliver her address during the first full week of session, so the State of the State will occur next week, on Tuesday, January 14. While there was no State of the State address, both the Senate and Assembly were in town, and the Capitol was bustling with Legislators and visitors.

Both houses adopted their house rules and formally elected their respective leaders, with Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assemblymember Carl Heastie retaining their Majority Leader and Speaker positions, respectively.

While the Majority Leader and Speaker in each house did not change, we will see significant changes in other leadership positions within each house. Between the Senate and Assembly, there are 12 open committee chairs. With this many open committees, committees that have existing chairs are likely to change as members are elevated from the current committees they chair to other committees of interest. This is especially true in the Assembly. Of the 12 open committee chairs, 7 of them are in the Assembly. One of the open committees is the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, one of the most senior and powerful committees in the Assembly, as Assemblymember Helene Weinstein, the longtime chair of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, retired in 2024.

We are still waiting for the full list of Committee chairs in each house, but we do know that Assemblymember Weinstein will be replaced as Ways and Means chair by Assemblymember Gary Pretlow, one of the longest-serving Assemblymembers. He was the chair of the Racing and Wagering Committee so that Committee will now need a new chair. We anticipate that the full list of Committee chairs for both houses will be released at some point this week. As soon as we know the changes, we will share those of interest.

As the two houses are making leadership and chair decisions and starting to outline their legislative priorities for the upcoming session, the Governor will unveil her legislative priorities for this session during her State of the State address next Tuesday. While the formal address isn’t until next week, she has begun rolling out some of the proposals that will be included. One of the major themes of her address this year will be the “Affordability Agenda.” In late December, the Governor announced that her budget will include an “Inflation Refund,” which would provide direct payments to New York taxpayers by using excess sales tax revenue. The payment would be a $500 payment for families making less than $300,000 and a $300 payment for individual taxpayers making less than $150,000. This week, the Governor announced a proposal to expand the Child Tax Credit. The expansion would provide families with a tax credit of up to $1,000 per child under age four and up to $500 per child aged between four and sixteen. The current Child Tax Credit provides up to $330 per child.

Right after her State of the State address, during the week of January 20, the Governor will release her 2025 – 2026 proposed budget. This will officially kick off the start of the budget process. Once her address has been delivered, the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee will announce their joint budget hearing schedules, which will last until the end of February. In early March, both houses will release their proposed one-house budget bills. At this point, negotiations between the Governor, Senate and Assembly will commence with the hope of having a final budget deal in place by April 1, the deadline mandated by the State Constitution.

While there are always a variety of challenges each year related to budget, there are some new challenges this year. One of the biggest open questions for the Legislature is the potential impact of a Republican-controlled Washington D.C. on the federal aid that New York receives in key areas including healthcare, education, transportation, etc. President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he has a goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget, and such a cut will likely impact every state’s budgets. However, the federal government’s fiscal plans and actions may not be solidified by April 1, meaning this year’s New York budget may not be as impacted by federal action for the current fiscal year. Once the budget is done, we will pivot to the non- budget issues with the goal of completing session by Thursday, June 12.

As always, we will be sending updates as the session advances. Please let us know if you have any questions.

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