Deadline Passes without State Budget

Governor Andrew Cuomo likes to talk about having delivered six straight more-or-less on-time budgets. But streaks come to an end, and fiscal year 2018 gets underway today without a new budget.

Later today, the Senate and Assembly are expected to vote on an "operations budget," which keeps the basic machinery of government going, buying some time and giving the governor some cover. But that's only about one-fifth of the overall budget. Holding up the rest are a series of controversial items that Democrats and Republicans have been arguing over for weeks: education funding, and how much to set aside for privately run charter schools, tax breaks for New York City developers, massive investments in clean water infrastructure, and "Raise the Age" — the movement to make 18 the age at which youth offenders are automatically tried as adults, rather than 16 or 17, under current law.

Cuomo has been in discussion with legislative leaders for the past several days, but he has remained behind closed doors, out of sight, while it's fallen to Assembly Leader Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan to emerge from talks and update the public — mostly with statements about narrowing the gaps between Republicans and Democrats.

Shortly before midnight, Flanagan said some things were settled, but the main sticking points remained, including the educational budget and "Raise the Age."

"These are really complicated issues, and we are still having discussion," he said.

Shortly after midnight, Cuomo's office released a statement, saying he was giving the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratically-controlled Assembly until Monday to pass the budget. If not, Cuomo said, he would request they simply extend the outgoing year's budget, depriving both sides of spending increases and policy changes they've been promising their constituents.