Kathy Hochul’s money pit, $229B NY budget failed to deliver on charter schools, housing, criminal justice

After a month of political wrangling past its due date, the state finally has a budget for fiscal 2024.

But why the wait?

For all of Gov. Hochul’s proposed big-ticket policy changes on criminal justice, housing and charter schools — not to mention approving hefty pay raises for lawmakers — she signed a deal without much to show for it.

Hochul spent most of her political capital on amending the state’s bail law, although the effects will be hazy at best.

Sure, eliminating the requirement that judges use the “least restrictive means” to reasonably assure a suspect’s return to court might mean that some judges set bail or remand more readily.

But we have no way of telling just how much this prevented judges from doing so in the past.

Other revisions merely make more explicit capabilities that judges already had.

They still cannot consider a defendant’s prospective danger to the community if released, something that every other state allows and that Mayor Adams has called for repeatedly.

Court & charter stopgap

And the deal did nothing to change the state’s discovery law, which has led to compliance burdens, dropped cases and staff attrition so great that even Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called for revisions.

Instead, it allocates $170 million more to help prosecutors comply with absurd inefficiencies.

On charter schools, the governor swung for the fences but barely hit a single.

Her plan to lift the cap on the number of charters permitted in New York City and reissue defunct charters would’ve created around 100 new city schools.

Instead, she settled for 14 reissuances.

Meantime, the law she signed last year will continue to force the city, and only the city, to reduce public-school class sizes — and keep teachers employed — all while Department of Education schools continue to hemorrhage students.

The big winner?

The teachers union.

Hochul suffered a total defeat on housing.

Those to her left demanded that her supply-boosting proposals be paired with near-universal rent stabilization, something she (fortunately) resisted.

Suburban lawmakers from both parties were only too happy to join the opposition.

Fueling NY migration

Despite their vaunted progressive credentials, New York’s Democratic supermajorities’ priorities will further enrich homeowners and drive upward strivers who want to make their lives in the Big Apple to more humdrum places with less dysfunctional housing politics.

With nothing much expected in the remaining weeks of the legislative session, expect another year of a critical housing-supply shortfall and higher city rents.

Hochul and legislative Democrats did, however, agree on something: spending more taxpayer money.

The budget swelled by 3.9%, to $229 billion, led by $2.6 billion more for public schools.

Turns out it’s easier to spend other people’s money than to fix their problems.

But throwing more money after bad can’t fix New York’s policy woes.

John Ketcham is a fellow and director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute.