It’s budget season in New York State, the third-largest and third-richest state in the country, and there is much at stake. The fiscal year 2024 budget is estimated to be one of the more generous per-capita budgets in the United States (falling behind the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Wyoming). This budget year is pivotal in New York and beyond because states cannot rely on continued influxes of federal money to plug the gap between needs and revenues and must deal with problems of inflation, post-COVID recovery, and high economic uncertainty in the face of failing financial institutions and resulting instability.

Advocates, organizers, and activists have pushed for years for a just budget that reflects the unmet needs of working New Yorkers, seeking greater spending on climate, childcare, education, and protections for workers and social services, while seeking to raise taxes on the very wealthy and curb corporate giveaways.

Kathy Hochul, in her first budget negotiations as the first elected female governor of New York (a race that was far closer than it should have been), now finds herself in a difficult position. Her electoral coattails were weak and unable to secure electoral victories in areas previously won by Joe Biden, effectively handing over control of the US Congress to the Republicans as a result of four tight House races. Her attempt to railroad the nomination of an unpopular judge as the New York State Court of Appeals chief judge — over the protests of unions, abortion advocates, and criminal justice reformers — was a humiliating defeat. And now, she is pushing an austerity budget that clings to a neoliberal commitment to “not raise income taxes” while simultaneously increasing costs on students, families, commuters, and other working New Yorkers through increased fares, fees, tuition, and cuts, while prioritizing subsidies for corporations.