ESFPA E-News

State Budget Update

As we reported a couple of times last week, Governor Hochul had announced a "Budget Deal", but Speaker Heastie and Leader Stewart Cousins and other legislators quickly indicated that no such deal was imminent. Late last week it became more apparent that leadership was coming together on budget agreements, but there remains some wide discrepancy on exactly just what and how much detail there is in what may be agreed upon.

Everyone is frustrated that a budget is not done and there are school districts that are going to public votes on budgets without exact funding decisions. Legislators are very frustrated that policy issues are holding up decisions on funding that should be made in a timelier manner. This is Speaker Heastie's biggest beef in the budget process.

Nevertheless, it does appear that budget deals are emerging, however exact language remains a mystery. Here is some of what the latest intel is reporting:

According to Governor Hochul, the final budget will clock in at $268 billion and will not include any income or corporate tax increases. Every school district in the state will see at least a 2% increase in state aid, while funding for universal childcare programs will increase by $1.7 billion.

Auto insurance will be included in the final budget, including a narrower definition of “serious injury” and caps on payouts to drivers found to have been engaging in criminal activity at the time of a crash.

To spur housing development across the state, the final budget will include changes to modernize the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). This will not include any other regulatory reform on development.

On climate, the Governor appears to have succeeded in scaling back the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which calls for a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030—a goal that the state was well on its way to missing. Under the compromise plan, the state will delay regulations for a cap-and-invest program to reduce carbon emissions until 2028 and will have until 2040 to achieve a 60% reduction in emissions. The deal will also include a change to the formula used to calculate carbon emissions from a 20-year to a 100-year timeframe. These changes should have significant benefits for biobased emissions for clean fuels and sources other than power generation in support of the grid, which has not changed under Public Service Law.

As noted above, we have not seen legislative language to confirm these proposals but will monitor and report on them as soon as we do.

ESFPA Opposes Amended Version of EPR Legislation

ESFPA has not taken a firm position on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation in New York over the past several years, largely because we have been successful in having our member facilities exempted from the legislation. Under the leading bill known as the "Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act" or PRRIA (S. 1464-A Harckham/A. 1749-A Glick), all non-packaging paper was exempt from the bill, and we had not taken a formal position since our member facilities who produced uncoated copy paper were not covered. While we agreed that this EPR legislation had a lot of problems and if all paper were included, we would have objected strongly to the bill, we did not overtly oppose the legislation.

However, amendments introduced two weeks ago added to the bill "commercial" and "tertiary packaging" which had never been included in this legislation and now covered business to business packaging including pallets and packaging associated with shipping product between businesses including things like protective covers on bundled lumber. These amendments brought in businesses that we represent that had never been included in this legislation and had never had the opportunity to raise concerns on the proposal. We quickly joined in on the opposition to the legislation and alerted likeminded interest.

ESFPA has signed onto the business coalition Opposition Memo, and we have helped others including WoodPack (who represents the national wood packaging and pallet industry) in opposing this legislation. Strategically, these amendments were not the best move on the part of the sponsors, but that is good for us. Please keep an eye on future Alerts from us as we prepare for the final push in opposing this legislation.

Trade & Tariffs

Late last week, a federal trade court nullified tariffs imposed by the Administration to replace the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) import duties that the Supreme Court struck down earlier this year. Our friends at the Forest Resources Association reported the following as a result of this decision:

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) imposed a permanent injunction on the 10 percent tariff the President imposed on nearly all U.S. imports in February, immediately following the IEEPA ruling.

The replacement tariff was imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act 1974, a provision that gives the president power to impose import taxes meant to address balance of payment deficits with trading partners. Section 122 allows imposition of the tariff for a period of up to 150 days without Congressional action. The CIT majority ruled that the Trump administration failed to identify an actual balance of payments deficit when imposing the tariff.

The move was seen as largely buying time to conduct more extensive Section 301 (also of the Trade Act of 1974) investigations, setting the stage for imposing higher duties on our trading partners. On May 5, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative held a Hearing on structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors targeting China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India. We will keep you apprised of developments in this space.

Blount Lumber: From Tug Hill to Town

The Sandy Creek History Center and the Tug Hill Commission are pleased to invite you to attend a new hybrid history webinar opportunity. We hope you’ll join us!

“Blount Lumber: From Tug Hill to Town” will take place on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 6:30 pm. This is a hybrid event, with an in-person presentation at the Sandy Creek History Center (1992 Hardwood Drive, Sandy Creek, NY 13145) and a virtual attendance option via Zoom. In-person attendance is highly encouraged, as the History Center will have Blount history books, curated artifact displays, and other ephemera. This presentation will discuss the history of the Blount Lumber company from its inception to its heyday, as told by those who once lived and worked for the company, and how innovative and community-minded business practices led to the establishment of a village that continues to thrive well over a hundred years later. This event is free to attend, but pre-registration is required for planning purposes. 

New to the commission’s history presentations and don’t know how to catch up? Click here for the Tug Hill Commission’s YouTube channel.

To stay up to date on future Tug Hill Commission webinars, workshops, training, events, and more, check out our spotlight webpage on the Tug Hill Commission website here.

Click the link below to register for the event: