The 2025 New York Budget Investments Explained

On Monday, April 22, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul finally announced the 2025 fiscal year state budget. Released after three weeks of extensions, Hochul described the budget as following a “common-sense agenda that makes New York safer and more affordable.”
 The budget includes a number of investments into anti-crime measures, including 347 million dollars to reduce gun violence. According to the state government, in the time since a similar investment last year, shooting incidents in New York City have declined by thirty-eight percent. Several other changes to criminal law were passed alongside the bill, including one that reclassified any assault on a retail worker as a felony rather than a misdemeanor. In addition, Hochul committed to expanding the list of offenses considered hate crimes in New York.
 Another notable aspect of the budget is major spending on hospitals and healthcare reform. Over three billion dollars were pledged to supporting financially distressed hospitals and hundreds of millions will be used to subsidize healthcare for low to middle income families. The state also eliminated co-payments on insulin for anyone with state regulated health insurance and built upon its multi-year billion-dollar mental health plan.
 The budget also included 35.9 billion dollars in funding to the General Support for Public Schools, which is nearly 1 billion more than what was provided in the 2024 fiscal year. An additional 1.29 billion dollars were allocated for State University of New York and City University of New York capital projects.
 The 33 billion dollar five-year Department of Transportation capital plan to improve various transportation infrastructure continues this year, along with 8.7 billion dollars being put forth to support mass transit operation. The budget also passed with a law allowing New York City to lower its speed limits to twenty miles per hour. Somewhat controversially, the budget did not include QueensLink, a proposed extension to the subway to connect people who currently live in so-called “transit deserts.”
 The state pledged six hundred million dollars to supporting housing state-wide and created a plan to build new affordable housing in New York City. A number of groups pushed for Good Cause eviction to be included in the budget, a policy that would require landlords to provide reasons when raising rent prices more than a certain threshold. The budget included only a highly-diluted version of Good Cause, leaving many unsatisfied. According to an analysis by Housing Justice For All, a coalition of many groups representing those stressed for homes in New York, over seventy percent of tenants that Good Cause was meant to protect are excluded from the housing deal.
 While the budget does address climate change in some capacity, it has been criticized for taking a relatively weak stance. In particular, it did not pass with the New York Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) Act, which would have eliminated the requirement for gas utilities to attach new customers to the gas pipeline for free, provided their properties are within one hundred feet of the existing network, as well as introduced other gas-related policies. The HEAT Act passed the New York Senate in March, but has not yet been voted on in the Assembly.
 Although the new budget has attracted criticism for its alleged failure to adequately address the climate crisis, as well as for its compromises on Good Cause, it does provide historic investments into public health and safety as well as education and public transportation infrastructure.