NEW YORK — In her proposed state budget, Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul addressed a harmful political problem by proposing to allocate $2.4 billion to assist with the enormous inflow of migrants that had swamped homeless shelters in the city.
Legislative leaders and the governor will begin months of discussions over the $233 billion budget, which includes the migrant spending plan.
There was much speculation leading up to the start of the legislative session about the governor's plans for the roughly 70,000 migrants housed in New York City
She failed to address the matter in last week's State of the State speech and failed to use the term "migrant" in her comprehensive 181-page policy plan book.
Tuesday, she reaffirmed her demands for increased federal aid to the state and presented a proposal to offer housing services, legal aid, and more to asylum-seekers.
Hochul asserted in the state Capitol that the action was being taken for reasons other than simply being the proper thing to do for the migrants and the city of New York.
"We are also aware that when thousands of people are sleeping on the streets or when the city is forced to cut essential services, businesses will not do business in New York."
Key suburban elections in New York are anticipated to have a significant impact on the party control of the U.S. House of Representatives in fall, and the issue might hurt Democratic candidates for those seats. The topic of federal immigration policy has already reached New York contests, and Republicans have been continuously criticizing President Joe Biden and other Democrats on the matter.