With New York’s state budget more than a month and a half overdue, Jack O’Donnell, managing partner of O’Donnell & Associates, joins host Joanna Pasceri to put the standoff in historical context, weigh Speaker Carl Heastie’s vow to stop negotiating policy inside the budget, and assess Governor Kathy Hochul’s argument that voters care more about policy than spending totals. The conversation also digs into a fast-moving consumer protection fight over personalized pricing in stores, Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s newly announced New York City budget deal, and a state court ruling that clears Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman to receive public matching funds — a decision O’Donnell says could finally make next year’s race for governor competitive.
Joanna Pasceri
Well, right off the bat, of all the budget seasons you have experienced — and there’s been a lot — does this one stand out, or is it just more of the same?
Jack O’Donnell
What a good question. I mean, you know, this is the latest budget we’ve had in a long time. I will tell you that if you go back to the 90s — I mean, gosh, I’ve been doing this a long time — but especially when you had Speaker Shelley Silver, Republicans had a majority in the state Senate under Joe Bruno, and especially at the end you had a governor in George Pataki who was a little bit checked out in the late 90s. Some of these really went on forever. And those were even harder because they weren’t talking most of the time. They were fighting about fundamental things about how much money the state was going to have. Those were really tough, especially in a day and age before Zooms and cell phones and some of the things that make it able to do different things from different places. But this is certainly the longest one in a while. It’s an election year for a lot of these folks, so I think the frustration is really starting to well up. It just seems like a couple ticks worse than last year. It’s been going this direction.
Joanna Pasceri
Getting back to last week’s blow up, during the heat of the moment the assembly speaker said, quote, “I’m never doing this again,” talking about negotiating policy issues during budget season. He wants the budget focused on spending and policy handled later in session. Could he actually force a change in this process?
Jack O’Donnell
I hope he’s right. And look, I have an enormous amount of respect for Speaker Heastie for how he runs his conference, but also his institutional knowledge of the Senate and of Albany. But I don’t think so. I think the governor really likes it this way. We talked about how she, a couple weeks ago, sort of announced everything that she’s gotten done in April over her tenure. So, barring an agreement or something, I don’t see it really changing, certainly not in the short term.
Joanna Pasceri
Governor Hochul defended the process, saying it’s been around longer than her, and she says most New Yorkers care more about policies than the number crunching. Do you think that’s true?
Jack O’Donnell
I think it’s half true. Look — and we’ve talked about this a couple times on the podcast and in the memo — as long as services are continuing and people don’t really feel the shutdown in their everyday life, that kind of minimizes the impact of it. And I do think, in a macro way, voters care about the overall policies. But I also think — and this is the sort of thing that doesn’t show up in a poll, it doesn’t show up every single day — voters, especially prime voters, regular voters, internalize these things, and that’s how they judge the effectiveness and the quality of what’s happening in Albany. I think you see some of that when you hear folks say in those polls that New York’s not on the right track. So I do think it has a cost. I do think it matters. But I also think the governor is right to an extent, that the policies that are passed do matter.
Joanna Pasceri
You wrote about this one policy issue in Monday’s memo, and honestly, I think a lot of people are surprised by it. Consumer protection bills aimed at stopping websites from tracking your data and using it to adjust prices. The concern is that two people could be shown two different prices for the exact same thing. Can this really be happening, and how important is this legislation?
Jack O’Donnell
Well, it’s absolutely happening. Now, just a little distinction. The legislature does have a bill that would stop it on websites. That’s a bill that Senator May carries in the Senate. The bill that did advance this week and passed the state Senate was Senator Gianaris’s bill that just prohibits it on bricks-and-mortar stores. So this is a step towards that, and it is happening. Kroger’s, which is a big grocery store around the country, have said that they’re doing it. Walmart has talked about in board meetings how they either are doing it or intend to do it. They have actually applied for certain patents around using the technology.
And this is how it works: these electronic shelf labels, where instead of seeing a printed price, it’s a video display. What those are capable of doing now are reading your phone as you walk by, depending on your settings, and because of what they know about you, that your phone is telling everyone — well, gee, she’s got two kids, and so we’re gonna charge a little more for formula. And another person could go by and you could see they’re a college student and maybe the beer prices go up. This is the thing that is beginning to happen around the country that New York State is helping lead the way to stamp out. So it did pass the state Senate this week, and then there is a bill that’s moved out of committee from Member Michelle Solages in the assembly, and it’ll be a big push on trying to pass this this year. I don’t think the websites one is quite ready — that gets more complicated with what’s in the state, what’s out of state — but 100%, these things are happening and they’re happening for real. There was a thing about someone going to a funeral and a JetBlue price that kind of went viral last week. This is exactly what companies are doing. They’re using all the information available to set prices.
Joanna Pasceri
Let’s turn to New York City now. Mayor Zohran Mamdani now touting a budget deal that closes his massive deficit. No property tax increase, some spending cuts, and billions in additional support from the state. Is this a political win for the mayor and the governor?
Jack O’Donnell
Absolutely. The mayor is taking a victory lap and says he’s delivering. Now, a lot of folks didn’t quite buy his accounting on the deficit, and frankly there are a lot of folks, serious budget folks, who are a little concerned about the fixes. But on the political side of this, it’s a win for him. He’s also able to say that he is taxing the rich with the pied-à-terre tax that is coming, though I will note again, no one has specific language on that, so it’s unclear exactly what it will raise. And it’s a win for the governor. She gets to appear with the mayor, who’s very popular in some especially left-leaning Democratic circles. So I think it’s a win for both of them.
The repercussions of that, or what comes next, are harder. You saw the governor the next day in Long Island trying to say, “I’m taking care of you too,” and saying there is going to be an increase for cities across the state too — that this is not just New York City centric. But the other thing where we’ve heard alarm bells is big portions of this are New York State basically allowing New York City to pay less, whether that is around some education rules and class sizes and what the city of New York has to do, or specifically what they have to do in terms of investing in pensions for the future for public employees. That’s something that we’ve seen in other parts of the country, notably Chicago, that were short-term fixes and real long-term problems. Both the city comptroller and really well-respected watchdogs like the Citizens Budget Commission have said, look, these are one-time fixes. You still need to make those structural changes and be looking forward. So we’ll see where Mayor Mamdani goes with that.
Joanna Pasceri
Our last question — you predicted this could happen. A state judge overturns a decision blocking Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman from receiving public matching funds. That’s a major boost for a campaign that needs money and visibility. How much does this change the race?
Jack O’Donnell
I think it means there will be a race. Number one, the campaign finance folks are already appealing this, so that’ll tie the Blakeman camp up for a little while and delay when they get the resources. But you have to have resources to be in the game. So I don’t want to say this means that it’s going to be a close race, but this means there can be a race, and we can at least have, or listen to, a conversation. And I think that’s good for democracy.
Joanna Pasceri
Stay tuned, right? Well, Jack, thanks so much for another great podcast from the lobby. The budget still isn’t done. The politics around it definitely not done. And Albany keeps reminding everyone nothing is final until the final vote. We’ll keep watching where the negotiations go from here. And for more insight each week, check out Jack’s Monday Morning Memo, a complete wrap-up of the hot stories from politics and government and what they really mean. Get it sent right to your inbox. You can sign up on our website at odonnellsolutions.com. Thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll see you next time from the lobby with Jack O’Donnell.
