Elections Preserve Status Quo in New York State
The elections are over and while all of the attention is on the results of the national elections, the state election results have the greatest impact on our work. The vast majority of policy impacting your business come from the Governor, state agencies, and the State Legislature. That’s not to diminish the significance of national policy, it certainly has a large effect on the state of the economy as an example, but the rules for running your business are matters of state and local jurisdiction.
The outcome of the state elections result in little change in the make-up of the Assembly and Senate. Both houses remain firmly under the leadership of overwhelming Democratic majorities. The Assembly Democrats gained one seat while the Senate Democrats lost one seat effectively maintaining the existing balance of power and relative strength. The Senate Democrats lost their veto-proof majority, meaning they don’t have the votes without help from Republicans to override a veto by the Governor, but this has not been a practical threat over the past few years so it should not impact the legislative process.
Governor Hochul was not up for election this month – that’s two years away. The
Governor’s tough election in 2022 has been blamed by some for the loss of seats in the House two years ago that helped shift control to the Republicans so her political report card this year was riding on those contests. The Democrats won three of these seats back reflecting well on the Governor. Unfortunately for Governor Hochul, her popularity remains low with an approval rating under 40 percent.
As a result, we’re facing the same political dynamic when the legislature returns for the 2025 Legislative Session and the Governor presents her State of the State message and Executive Budget proposal in January. We’ll have to see what “lessons learned” the Democrats take from this year’s elections and how that translates into policy initiatives. And with the election of the Mayor of the City of New York likely being determined in the June Democratic primary, we’ll need to be prepared for that fight to spill over into the state legislative process. Stay tuned!