The line formed mere moments after the New York State Senate put the finishing touches on a $268.5 billion budget late Wednesday, snaking from an ornate antechamber into the lobby nearby.
It was just about midnight, and dozens of state senators — Democrats and Republicans, newcomers and veterans, back benchers and leaders — inched their way forward to collect what was owed to them: eight weeks of back pay.
This is a familiar scene at the Capitol, where late budgets force lawmakers to temporarily forego their pay. Well-dressed legislators, some giddy with anticipation, wait their turn to grab their taxpayer-funded paychecks and plug a hole in their bank accounts while a handful of reporters look on, snapping the occasional photo.
“We got paid!” state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat, declared after her turn in line.
“ I can actually pay my mortgage now,” said Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx Democrat. “I was going to have a problem in a couple days.”
This was the longest assemblymembers and state senators had gone without a paycheck in 16 years. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature were nearly two months late in delivering the $268.5 billion state budget.
That meant New York’s 63 state senators and 150 assemblymembers didn’t receive their regular paychecks for a full 57 days, due to a 28-year-old state law that’s supposed to encourage — but rarely delivers — an on-time spending plan.
The creation of the state budget is notoriously secretive. It is largely negotiated in private by the governor and two legislative leaders while rank-and-file lawmakers, lobbyists and the press scramble to learn any details they can.
Since taking office in 2021, Hochul has overseen five budgets. All of them blew past the state’s April 1 budget deadline, with lawmakers expressing frustration that Hochul demands agreement on her legislative priorities in the budget before even turning to government spending.
The negotiating process can amount to a monthslong game of telephone. Hochul meets with legislative leaders, who take the latest concessions back to their respective conferences. Rank-and-file lawmakers weigh in their concerns, which the leaders take back to the governor. The process repeats itself on any number of issues until they finally reach consensus.
Late budgets have been the norm in Albany for generations, save for a decade when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo prioritized meeting the deadline as a symbol of government functionality.
In 1998, Gov. George Pataki signed a law suspending legislators’ pay if the annual budget isn’t approved by April 1, the start of the state’s fiscal year. (Lawmakers approved it as part of a deal that saw them get a pay increase, too.)
While the law creates an incentive structure to get the budget done on time, it was woefully ineffective yet again this year.
According to the state Comptroller’s Office, 19 of 28 budgets since the pay-suspension law was passed have been late. Before the law took effect, 14 straight budgets were late.
Unsurprisingly, some lawmakers said the pay suspension was unfair and unnecessary as they waited in line after midnight.
“Any other worker in the state who's not going to get paid for showing up to work for months at a time, we'd all be out there joining them on protest marches and holding up signs and demanding they be treated fairly,” said Brooklyn Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Democrat.
Other lawmakers expressed mild support, perhaps unwilling to anger their constituents while receiving a $142,000 salary that makes them the highest-paid state lawmakers in the country. They also receive a $203 per diem for each night spent in Albany.
Others said they’re fine with the principle behind their suspended pay, since passing a budget is one of the Legislature's biggest responsibilities.
“If you're going to withhold my check, that's fine,” said Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Republican from the Buffalo area. “I get it. The budget's not done.”
But Ortt said there’s one thing he doesn’t understand: Why isn’t Hochul’s pay withheld, too?
New York’s state budget process is executive-led, meaning the governor proposes the initial spending plan and retains significant power over the Legislature as a final budget is put together. But under the 1998 state law, the governor continues receiving pay if the spending plan is late.
“Why does she get paid and the rest of us [don’t]?” Ortt said. “She gets a free house. She gets a helicopter. So I don't think missing the paycheck's going to hurt her too much.”
On Thursday, Hochul said she’s not opposed to having her pay withheld when budget talks go into overtime. Hochul’s tax returns show she and her lawyer husband earned $1.86 million in 2025. Her annual salary as governor is $250,000.
“I don't mind if it applies to me,” she said.
There are at least two bills pending in the Legislature that would make that happen. But they’ve gained little traction thus far, and lawmakers are set to end their annual legislative session on Thursday. Gothamist reported earlier this week that a key lawmaker opted not to weigh regulations of e-bikes this year because the state budget took up too much time on the legislative calendar.
Hochul, meanwhile, noted that the pay-suspension law was on the books well before she became governor. She touted her ability to deliver on her policy priorities in the budget when talks go into overtime. This year, that included a rollback of the state’s climate goals and reforms to its auto-insurance laws.
“On-time budgets are my preferred way to go, absolutely,” Hochul said. “But you cannot ignore the list of accomplishments in the last five years that have happened after that date.”
