ALBANY — There were few signs of a budget deal coming together on Wednesday despite Gov. Hochul’s optimistic tone a day earlier and pressure mounting from all sides to reach a wrap up a host of outstanding issues.
A day after the governor expressed hope that a spending plan could be finalized by the end of the week as she and legislative leaders focus on charter schools and cracking down on illegal cannabis sales, some of her fellow Dems panned a plan to raise New York’s minimum wage to $17 an hour downstate by 2026, and upstate by 2028.
“We are here to denounce a $17 minimum wage proposal. It is outrageous that Gov. Hochul would settle on a wage that is inadequate to meet the basic expenses of life,” Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens) said Wednesday.
Ramos and others are hoping to see the minimum wage increased to at least $21.25 before being tied to inflation. Hochul’s initial $227 billion budget proposal called for linking future increases to inflation but did not include plans to raise the wage first.
Hochul said she’s on board with a compromise plan being discussed at the moment that would raise the current $15 minimum wage in the city, Long Island and Westchester County to $16 next year. The downstate wage would hit $17 in 2026.
Upstate, where the minimum wage is currently $14.20, would see base wages go up to $15 in 2024 and then jump 50 cents a year until hitting $17, according to a plan shown to Senate Democrats earlier in the week.
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