ESEA
The Senate and Assembly have released their one-house budget proposals, which are their responses to the Governor’s proposed 2026–2027 Executive Budget that was released in January. In these proposals, each house has accepted, rejected, or modified the Governor’s proposals, as well as added their own budget priorities.
The Senate and Assembly will formally adopt their one-house budget resolutions tomorrow. From there, the balance of March will be spent negotiating the budget proposals between the Senate, Assembly, and Governor in an attempt to arrive at a final agreed-upon budget by the April 1 deadline.
The Governor continues to publicly discuss amending the CLCPA as part of the budget process. Thus far, leadership in both legislative houses has expressed skepticism about any such changes. Accordingly, this could delay the budget discussions beyond April 1.
Here are selected provisions from each chamber’s budget proposal:
- Both houses have included the Governor’s provision to extend the residential energy storage sales tax exemption for two years (Part Q S9009B/S10009B).
- Both have accepted the Executive proposal to extend the alternative fuels tax exemptions for five years (Part S S9009B/S10009B).
- Both houses have proposed an Excelsior Power Program to promote the use of smart thermostats by electric utilities and the Long Island Power Authority to reduce peak demand in exchange for a bill credit (Part NNN S9008B / Part QQ A10008B).
- Both houses have included the Governor’s provision to impose a 75% excise tax on alternative nicotine products (Zyns and the like), although the Assembly and Senate versions differ in some parts (Part K S9009B/A10009B).
- The Senate agreed to include utility ratemaking provisions in the budget, while the Assembly omitted all provisions from its budget proposal (Originally Parts L to Q in S9008A/A10008A).
- The Assembly included a sales tax exemption for the retail sale of electricity by means of a commercial electric vehicle charging station, while the Senate omitted this part (Original Part O S9009A/A10009A).
- The Assembly also omitted SEQRA reforms and Municipal Zero Emission Vehicle Grants (Originally Parts M and N S9008A/A10008A).
The Senate has included the following items in its budget proposal:
- Increases in the amount of residential solar tax credits (Part AA S9009B).
- The Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act. This provision repeals tax exemptions for fossil fuels, including liquid petroleum fuels, from sales/use taxes and the petroleum business tax to discourage the use of fossil fuels (Part BB S9009B).
- The Climate Resilient New York Act of 2026. This provision establishes the Office of Resilience and a resilience task force to assess and identify climate-related threats and develop a statewide resilience plan (Part QQ S9008B).
- Establishes the used zero-emission vehicles rebate program to provide an incentive for individuals who purchase used or previously owned ZEVs (Part RR S9008B).
- Directs the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to establish a heat pump rebate program (Part GGG S9008B).
- Creates the “Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power (ASAP) Act” to increase distributed solar energy capacity and lower interconnection costs (Part III S9008B).
The Assembly has included the following items in its budget proposal:
- The “Protecting Our Wallets Energy Rebate Program,” which requires the issuance of power rebate checks to residential utility customers under certain circumstances (Part BB A10009B).
- A sales tax exemption for commercial energy storage systems (Part LL A10009B).
- Establishment of the Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate to represent the interests of utility consumers (Part RR A10008B).
- The creation of a Commission on Residential Affordability Through Energy Savings (RATES Commission) to study the causes and origins of rising utility rates and recommend actions to reduce rates (Subpart A); and requires the Public Service Commission to develop a methodology to identify any excess profits resulting from the participation of electric generating facilities in the federally designated bulk system operator's short-term electric commodity markets (Subpart B) (Part TT of A10008B).
