With the deadline to pass New York’s state budget legislation less than a month away, governing bodies aren’t battling over the criminal justice system as they have in the past. Yet they also aren’t proposing major reforms, even as the state’s prisons are enduring one of their most tumultuous periods in half a century.

Two killings by guards and a three-week corrections officer strike left the prison system in crisis last year. After the first killing, Governor Kathy Hochul called for reform, promising that she would “not be satisfied until there has been significant culture change” within the system. She expedited the rollout of body-worn cameras, hired consultancies to review prison operations, and signed into law a limited omnibus package that expanded outside oversight bodies’ powers and responsibilities.

New York state lawmakers want to keep their foot on the gas — er, accelerator pedal.

Senate and Assembly Democrats are so far rejecting Governor Kathy Hochul’s push for a budget-season rollback of the state’s climate mandates, and are instead seeking renewed funding to keep inching the state toward its emissions targets.

As expected, neither chamber included language in their responses to Hochul’s budget proposal — known as “one-house budgets” — that would amend New York’s flagship climate law. They are both seeking to add $1 billion in funding for the clean energy transition, renewing a major commitment from last year’s budget that Hochul left out this year.

State lawmakers gave their stamp of approval to many of the tax increases pushed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, adding fuel to his campaign to pressure Governor Kathy Hochul into approving the revenue-raisers.

In their budget proposals released Monday night, the state Senate and Assembly both included tax increases for high earners and corporations. The income tax hikes are smaller than what Mamdani is seeking, while the business tax increases match the mayor’s recent scaled-down demands. They’re both similar in scope to the legislature’s proposals last year.

Both houses also voiced support for pilot programs to make some buses fare-free, although they stopped short of meeting Mamdani’s goal of ending fares entirely.

Governor Kathy Hochul says the time has come to “sound the alarm.”

New Yorkers’ energy bills are spiking, and moving ahead with the state’s climate law is only going to make things worse, she says. Her evidence: A memo released by the state energy authority NYSERDA in late February, which claims that some New York households could face $4,000 or more in increased upfront energy costs by 2031 if the state were to follow the law as written.

“For us to meet the goals on the time frame that was set by the legislature, there’s going to be enormous costs to families. Enormous,” she told reporters last week. “I just need a reality check.”

Two New York lawmakers called on the state prison agency to investigate apparent suicides and allegations of deteriorating conditions at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, following New York Focus reporting last week that three people died over four weeks at the women’s prison.

“This recent and alarming spate of suicides is tragic, and what is most tragic is that they may have been preventable,” wrote New York State Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Chris Burdick in the letter, sent to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) on Friday. “There is an urgent need for an independent, dispassionate investigation that delves into the quality of care for those suffering from mental illness, and whether there are conditions at BHCF that aggravate such illnesses,” he added.

The deaths at the prison mirror a statewide trend in 2026, according to the Correctional Association of New York, which monitors the state’s prisons. Last year, 130 people died in DOCCS custody, but if this year’s deaths continue at their current pace, roughly 180 incarcerated people could die.