Hochul Reaches $229B Budget Deal For 2024: What It Means For NYC

NEW YORK CITY — A long-delayed $229 billion state budget deal struck by Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers late Thursday promises some major changes to New York City.

A new $17 minimum wage for the city, an MTA bailout with five free bus routes and the reanimation of so-called "zombie" charter schools are all in the tentative deal Hochul hashed out with Democratic lawmakers.

We've had a lot of intense conversations, but I believe that New Yorkers will be proud of this budget," Hochul said Thursday as she outlined the deal's broad strokes.

But the deal — which was reached four weeks late after several rounds of fruitless negotiations and extensions — didn't have much of what Hochul wanted, notably a housing plan to build 800,000 new homes in the next decade.

It also included changes to the state's bail reform laws giving judges more leeway that advocates have argued are a step backward.

Here are three big takeaways for New York City.

A $16 minimum wage, with more increases to come

New York City's minimum wage will raise to $16 starting in 2024, Hochul said.

It'll then go up by 50 cents each for the next two years, until it hits $17 in 2026, she said.

Starting in 2027, the minimum wage will increase annually according to the Consumer Price Index, the governor said.

"In other words, if costs go up, so will your wages," Hochul said.

The increase falls short of what many Democratic lawmakers, notably Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos, wanted to see. Ramos had pushed for a $21.25 minimum wage by 2026.

After the budget deal was announced, Ramos retweeted prominent New York economist James Parrott's assessment that the minimum wage agreement gives workers "less than half a loaf."

"If this anemic proposal is enacted, Gov. Hochul will have succeeded in making NYC a 2nd tier city for working ppl," Parrott tweeted. "By 2026, the min wage in Seattle will be nearly $21, over $20 in SF, $19.35 in Denver, and around $19 in D.C. and LA."

MTA bailout and free buses

The cash-strapped MTA will get $1.1 billion in the budget deal — a bailout that likely will forestall fare hikes.

The deal proposes to do this by raising the state's payroll mobility tax for New York City's largest businesses, Hochul said.

New York City itself also will have to pony up $165 million more a year to help the MTA, the governor said. Hochul originally wanted the city to pay $500 million, a proposal that Mayor Eric Adams had criticized.

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber praised the deal.

"We are incredibly grateful to the Legislature, along with the Governor, for this effort to assure the MTA’s long-term financial stability, and we look forward to working with them as we deliver essential mass transit service for New Yorkers," he said in a statement.

Hochul also announced that the deal includes a two-year pilot program in New York City that will offer free bus service on five different lines.

"One in each of the boroughs, and the MTA will decide where the lucky areas are," she said.

'Zombie' charter schools reanimated

A push to reanimate so-called "zombie" charter schools — which had been awarded charters but either never opened or have closed — in New York City made the cut in the tentative deal, despite intense opposition from many lawmakers and teachers unions, Hochul said.

The deal, first reported by Gothamist, will allow 14 new charter schools to open in the city.

"We want to make sure that children are poised for success when they graduate from high school and giving parents the options they've been asking for," Hochul said.

Hochul originally wanted to lift a cap on charter schools altogether, but lawmakers successfully blocked that in budget negotiations.

Still, the prospect of any new charter schools in New York City has received a dim reception by groups such as the United Federation of Teachers, who argued it would take resources away from public schools.

"Unfortunately, the governor listened to the demands of a handful of billionaires and revived 14 zombie charters for New York City — even though New York City has nearly 40,000 unused charter seats," the union's leaders said in a statement.