Medicaid, minimum wage unresolved as budget deal remains elusive

Despite optimistic predictions earlier in the day that state leaders would reach a deal on the state budget, both houses ended their sessions on Tuesday evening without any announcements of a breakthrough.

Legislative leaders met with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for second time late afternoon in the state Capitol on Tuesday to try to negotiate a final agreement on such issues as the minimum wage and paid family leave, two of a number of major unresolved items in the budget.

However, the only indication of tangible progress was that state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said after the meeting with Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie that the state operations budget bill will be printed Tuesday night.

“It’s a question of what seems most likely. In terms of production, state operations is more cut and dry than some of the other issues,” Flanagan said after leaving the meeting. “When you’re talking education funding, that’s usually one of the last things to close, so it’s not unusual to do something like debt service or state ops.”

Heastie was first to leave the meeting, but only told reporters nothing new had developed.

Assembly Democrats have been pushing back against Cuomo’s proposed $180 million cut to New York City’s Medicaid funding.

“I think we’re moving in the direction of making sure we can get some money for the city of New York, additional money, but in return the city has to come up with some savings, as well as every other locality in the state,” said state Sen. Jeff Klein, the leader of the Senate Independent Democratic Conference who also was included in the leaders meetings.

Earlier on Tuesday, Heastie said he hoped that budget bills could be printed by the end of the day. Klein echoed Heastie in saying “we’re probably going to print tonight.” In order to be completed on time, a priority for the governor, the budget will have to be finalized by Thursday at midnight.

Cuomo also announced in a briefing with reporters on Tuesday that there was a “conceptual agreement” with legislative leaders on raising the minimum wage in the state and enacting paid family leave, but that the details were still being negotiated. Cuomo also said he is still pushing for a $250 million cut in Medicaid funding statewide.