“The question is, fundamentally, what will be delivered, what we can afford and how impactful will those programs be,” said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog.
This year, the state’s coffers are overflowing, partly after an influx of federal funding, with state officials now projecting balanced budgets through 2025, a starting negotiating position for Ms. Hochul that Mr. Rein described as “virtually unprecedented.”