After a final all-night session, the New York State Legislature ended its yearly business on Saturday morning, capping a nearly six-month slog that, in the end, was defined by what failed to happen.
The chief culprit was Gov. Kathy Hochul’s last-minute decision to pull the plug on a congestion pricing program for Manhattan, a move that put the onus on state lawmakers to come up with some way to create a stable funding source to replace the $1 billion in toll revenue that would have gone to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had the program proceeded as planned.
But the Legislature chose not to bail out the transportation agency — and, by extension, Ms. Hochul — refusing to approve proposals to increase the payroll mobility tax or to siphon money from the state’s general fund.
The fallout over congestion pricing became the elephant in the room that everyone talked about, leaving little oxygen for other weighty initiatives that awaited in the traditional 11th-hour rush to pass legislation before the end of session.
Two high-profile bills — one that would have ended subsidies for gas companies, and another that would have reduced the prevalence of plastic packaging — passed in the Senate but died in the Assembly.
On Friday, the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, acknowledged that congestion pricing had eaten up time that could have been spent on other priorities, saying: “It’s something big that they have to deal with at the end of session. But you know, we’re all mature, and things happen.”
One significant initiative that did pass was the landmark Climate Change Superfund Act, which, if signed by Ms. Hochul, will require polluters to pay for the damage they have done to the environment.
The governor also notched a win with the passage of the SAFE for Kids Act, a bill she personally campaigned for throughout the session. The measure requires parental consent for children to access algorithm-driven social media feeds. While similar measures have been passed in other states, notably California, New York’s bill is the first to target the algorithms behind the platforms.
And many of Ms. Hochul’s legislative priorities were already included in the state’s $237 billion budget deal: more resources to tackle retail crime, a statewide artificial intelligence consortium and a hard-won housing deal aimed at increasing residential construction.
In a news conference late Friday evening, Ms. Hochul sought to highlight the housing deal as a capstone legislative achievement.
“Sometimes we find that issues are not immediately popular, but it’s still up to the leaders to push through the noise and have significant accomplishments,” she said.
But Ms. Hochul chose a different path with congestion pricing, also a plan that was not immediately popular.
The transportation authority needed the $1 billion in toll revenue to raise bonds for its capital program. And in a rare display of defiance, the agency’s chief financial officer and general counsel released a statement on Friday night saying that the governor’s decision would force the authority “to reorganize the program to prioritize the most basic and urgent needs.”
Plans to update signals, make stations accessible to people with disabilities and transition to electric buses would most likely be “deprioritized to protect and preserve the basic operation and functionality of this 100-plus-year-old system,” the officials said.
Ms. Hochul said that the state was exploring a number of options to ensure that the capital projects could continue without interruption. She appeared nonplused by the Legislature’s refusal to vote on an alternative funding stream, reasoning that the state had time to find the money.
“We have a commitment to continue moving forward between now and the beginning of session, even coming back,” Ms. Hochul told reporters. “We’re going to be talking about this.”
Some Albany observers said that the fallout from Ms. Hochul’s decision to halt the program — and the $1 billion budget gap it caused — might have led lawmakers in the Assembly to re-examine the Superfund proposal, which had passed the State Senate in May.
The bill would force companies that are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a “cost recovery program” for the infrastructure needed to address issues related to climate change — including adaptations to the city’s transit system.
Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, and a proponent of the measure, said that the state would need to find new revenue streams to replace the money lost due to the postponement of congestion pricing.
“If you’re not going to do a payroll tax, how do you raise revenue?” he said. “This one got pulled off the shelf.”
The Superfund measure, which is similar to one passed in Vermont earlier this year, was the only significant climate action taken by the Legislature this session. Five years ago, lawmakers passed the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which committed the state to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent by 2050. As of now, New York does not appear to be on track to meet that goal.
Among other legislative highlights was the passage of a bill that would dramatically increase the number of red light cameras in New York City.
New York also became the first state in the country to pass comprehensive legislation holding gun manufacturers like Glock accountable for the fact that their pistols can be easily converted into machine guns. The bill prohibits the sale of such convertible weapons and requires manufacturers to insure their pistols cannot be made into machine guns.
And for the third time, the Legislature passed the Grieving Families Act, which would enable families of wrongful death victims to receive damages. The bill now heads to Ms. Hochul, who has vetoed it twice, citing its economic effects.
Ms. Hochul has until Dec. 31 to sign or veto the 805 bills passed by the Legislature this session.
One bill that failed to pass the Legislature was one that would allow for doctor-assisted deaths for terminally ill people, despite growing momentum behind the measure and the near-constant presence of lobbyists in the Capitol throughout the end of the session.
“This year we got closer than ever,” Amy Paulin, an assemblywoman and the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement, adding that while she believed the measure had the necessary votes in the Assembly, it fell short in the Senate.