Budget nears passage as deadline gets extended

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — This week on Empire State Weekly: lawmakers moved back the deadline for this year's final state budget, from April 1 to April 4. Governor Hochul explained the delay allowed for lawmakers to spend time with their families over Easter weekend.

Assemblyman John McDonald a Democrat representing the 108 District, and Patrick Orecki the Director of State Studies at Citizens Budget Commission weighed in on the progress the budget made in the legislature.

Speaking on school funding in the budget McDonald said, "I think we're close in regards to getting back to where we need to be and addressing the concerns, that was bipartisan thorough the whole state. The truth of the matter though is that we need to have a solution going forward for the years to follow."

Orecki spoke on his organization's biggest concerns in the budget, "The state is still using a lot of nonrecurring revenue in the budget right now from temporary tax increases, still have some federal aid from COVID, and that goes away over time. So the structural problem we think is even bigger."

Also this week, Murad Awawdeh the Executive Director for the New York Immigration Coalition spoke on the state of New York's response to the ongoing influx of asylum seekers. He explained the push to see more funding in the state budget for legal assistance for incoming migrants.

"We didn't have enough immigration lawyers before and we don't have enough immigration lawyers right now so we want to be able to be building out a better system by investing more resources into that system, being able to train more attorneys to become immigration attorneys but also ensure organizations are prepared and ready to take on additional clients," Said Awawdeh.

To see these interviews and more, here is a list of how you can watch Empire State Weekly in your area of New York: