Wednesday Headlines: Most Magical Night In Albany Edition
Against all odds and the state Capitol’s resting disposition of cynicism, the end is in sight.
State lawmakers will begin voting on budget bills (albeit the boring ones) today, with an aim of being done with the process early next week. The budget bills concerning public safety and education, labor and family assistance are the first on the docket, but the legislation focused on transportation and economic development (our holy grail) won’t appear for a couple of days. Still, that’s progress considering the emotional rollercoaster of this year’s spending plan.
On the way to delivering the latest budget of her tenure, Gov. Hochul slashed crash victims’ legal rights, targeted traffic scofflaws in New York City and pushed for a suburban robotaxi pilot program, before ultimately backing off.
Once lawmakers wrap up the sisyphean task of voting on the budget, they’ll have less than two weeks to shift their focus to remaining legislation. Well, there’s also letting their colleagues performatively back or oppose certain bills, in what will likely appear in vertical campaign footage.
But that was to be expected.
More news:
- As we were learning that we had movement on budget bills, the Legislative Correspondents Association held its 124th annual LCA show. Streetsblog’s very own Albany bureau chief, Austin C. Jefferson, graced the stage as a spoofed version of Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado in the annual lampooning of state government. (City & State)
- State Sen. Pat Fahy wants to bring Waymos to the Capitol Region. (The Times Union)
- The race to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) is becoming a proxy battle over the future of artificial intelligence. (Politico New York)
- Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s AI video of the governor may have violated election law. (City & State)
- LIRR workers who went on strike were making BANK. (Newsday)
- President Trump is touching down in Rockland on Friday to lend his presence to Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Rockland County). (The Journal News)
- If Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-North Country) wanted, she could tilt the odds toward her favored successor. (The Times Union)
- Nice job, bozo. A man drove drunk while picking up his friend from a driving while intoxicated arrest. (The New York Post)
- State DOT will begin repaving parts of the Northway, which will also include making sidewalk repairs and improvements. (The Times Union)
- A pedestrian hit by a car earlier this month in Newfield has died. (Finger Lakes Daily News)
- Expect $70 million in improvements to Buffalo’s Main Street corridor. (BTPM)
- A subway scuffle saw a man fall onto the subway tracks and eventually get hit by a train. (The Daily News)
Read More:
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