Grace Ashford & Benjamin Oreskes, New York’s $268 Billion Budget Deal Includes New Second-Home Tax (New York Times, May 7, 2026)

New York State leaders have reached a handshake agreement on a $268 billion budget that will include funding to expand child care and a new tax on multimillion-dollar second homes in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday.

The spending plan, which comes more than five weeks after the April 1 deadline, will also include a raft of measures intended to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, including banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks.

Other major policy initiatives shoehorned into the budget include a weakening of the state’s climate goals and a cap on auto insurance payouts.

But the most significant change to fiscal policy will be the new tax surcharge on multimillion-dollar second homes in New York City — a move that the governor supported despite her frequently stated aversion to raising taxes.

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