OPINION: Modest Steps, Major Gaps in New York Legislative Session

As is often the case in New York state, a broken legislative process paired with misguided priorities yielded little of merit during this legislative session. It seems the 2025 session will likely be remembered more for an obvious lack of productivity and missed opportunities than anything else. New Yorkers deserve thoughtful action but were instead met with political theater and half-measures. The state legislature again failed to fix New York’s floundering economy and sky-high cost of living, and in many ways, the $254 billion budget passed earlier this year will add to, not mitigate, the substantial costs burdening taxpayers. While it was promising to see legislation enabling the state to improve our public-assistance programs (A.2497), a measure to allow individuals to register for the Donate Life Registry through personal income-tax electronic filings (A.7011-A) and the “Alexander John Smullen Traffic Safety Memorial Law,” which will establish a traffic safety sign program to memorialize the victims of fatal vehicle collisions, pass the legislature, not enough was done to truly make life better for our state’s residents. We needed aggressive, targeted cost-reducing policies paired with a real plan to retain and add jobs in New York. This year’s agenda felt more like strategic procrastination than an honest effort to address the many issues plaguing taxpayers and residents. New York has been on the wrong track for years. Residents continue to flee thanks to a toxic tax and business climate, we’ve committed to an unworkable and wildly expensive green-energy agenda that will make our grid less reliable, and our criminal-justice system remains broken and inadequate. What will it take for real progress? How much more expensive and dangerous is New York going to have to get before something is done? I was deeply disappointed to see things like doctor-assisted suicide and the blatant manipulation of judicial-district composition take priority over the state’s affordability crisis. The recently passed collection of correctional-services legislation omitted critical fixes like ending the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, and the voices of our front-line officers were practically ignored in the legislative process. And despite resounding opposition from those it will impact most, school districts were only given the option to apply for a waiver that would delay the zero-emission school-bus mandate for up to four years, but the policy itself ultimately remains in place. These are huge failures. The Assembly Minority Conference has proposed numerous fixes to the problems hitting New Yorkers the hardest, like creating a commission to identify wasteful spending and conducting a cost-benefit analysis of the state’s climate agenda — which were each ignored. We had bills to audit the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, require valid identification to ensure fair elections, and prohibit local governments from hindering immigration enforcement rebuked as well. The fact is Gov. Kathy Hochul and her legislative allies again passed up the chance to address our state’s prohibitive cost of living, regulatory burdens, rampant antisemitism and unrealistic climate agenda. There was simply not enough substantive policy passed in the first half of 2025. It is too expensive to live in New York, and until the legislature and governor confront that reality head-on, I suspect more of the same in the coming months and years.              

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William (Will) A. Barclay, 56, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.