May 12, 2026: Assemblymember Emily Gallagher on New York's Broken State Budget Process and How to Fix It

May 12, 2026: Assemblymember Emily Gallagher on New York's Broken State Budget Process and How to Fix It

From Indy Audio by The Indypendent

May 16, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

Assemblymember Emily Gallagher discusses New York's budget process and the challenges posed by the governor's actions.

What is or is not in New York State's roughly $265 billion annual budget affects every facet of life—education, health care, public transit, parks, public safety, the budgets of cities and towns large and small and so much more. By law, the budget was supposed to be completed by April 1. Six weeks later, negotiations between Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and State Senate President Andrea Stewart-Cousins continues to drag on. We spoke with Assembly member Emily Gallagher, a democratic socialist from Brooklyn first elected to the State Assembly in 2020, about how Gov. Hochul has used her disproportionate power to break the budget process to push regressive legislation that has nothing to do with the budget and how this mess can be fixed if the legislature can find the courage to take on the governor.

People in this episode

Guest: Emily Gallagher

Topics covered

  • New York State budget
  • political negotiations
  • government accountability
  • public policy
  • legislative process

Keywords

  • New York budget
  • Emily Gallagher
  • Kathy Hochul
  • legislative process
  • public policy
  • government negotiations
  • democratic socialism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York State

Places: Brooklyn

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