Governor Announces Budget 'General Agreement,' Speaker Says 'No Deal' |
State Budget Update
This morning Governor Hochul announced she had reached a “general agreement” with legislative leaders on the 2026-27 state budget. During the announcement, the Governor provided a high-level overview of the agreement. No specific education details were included.
The Governor said the legislature will approve budget bills over the coming days. It is important to note, however, that no new budget bills have been printed as of this message. For context, Governor Hochul announced a budget agreement last year on April 28, and the final budget bill was passed on May 9. This suggests budget work – bill printing, debates and votes – will very likely extend into next week. To that point, shortly after the Governor’s statement, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that the budget is “close,” but that there is “no deal” and that it was “very premature for the Governor to make this announcement.”
Also today, the legislature passed a 10th state budget extender. This latest extender funds state government operations through Monday, May 11.
Legislative Update
As state budget negotiations continue, NYSSBA was also pleased to help advance multiple priority bills this week.
- S.9667, Ryan / A.10896, Solages (Approved by Senate Education Committee) – This bill would delay the state’s zero-emission school bus transition mandate by five years.
- S.44645-A, Mayer / A.838-A, Solages (Approved by Assembly Local Governments Committee, Previously Passed Senate) – This bill would require that all Industrial Development Agency (IDA) boards have at least one school superintendent or school board representative on the board.
- S.8174-A, Martinez / A.10065, Kassay (Approved by Senate Insurance Committee) – This bill would open up a window of accessibility for some districts to seek funds from the New York Liquidation Bureau for certain expenses related to the Child Victims Act.
- S.9271, Ryan / A.10360, Rozic (Approved by Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee) – This bill would help shrink the digital divide by authorizing the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) to oversee broadband and interconnected VoIP.
Virtual Lobby Day Recap
This week, NYSSBA co-hosted a virtual lobby day with our partners at ASBO-NY, in support of S.7524-A (Martinez) / A.8539-A (Lavine). This bill would allow school districts to temporarily borrow from some existing reserve funds in order to avoid the operational borrowing costs associated with tax anticipation notes (TANs) and revenue anticipation notes (RANs). Meetings were held with legislators’ offices and legislative staff from both the Senate and Assembly.
This advocacy opportunity was made available to NYSSBA Advocacy Liaisons. If you would like to learn more about the program, you can do so here. If you are not sure if your board has an Advocacy Liaison, you can reach out to Danielle Grasso at advocacy@nyssba.org to confirm.
2026 Resolutions and NYSSBA Position-Setting Process
In April, NYSSBA shared via email the 2026 Resolution Kit. The kit includes 2026 Resolution Survey results, key dates, a link to proposed resolution and bylaw amendment forms and other important information about NYSSBA's resolutions process. The resolutions process is an important one, by which NYSSBA members set the advocacy positions and beliefs of the Association. All proposed resolutions and bylaw amendments must be received no later than 5pm on Friday, July 17. The 2026 NYSSBA Annual Business Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 15 at 4pm.