LET’S MAKE A DEAL IN ALBANY

GOV. CUOMO ANNOUNCES STATE BUDGET ACCORD, A WEEK LATE

ALBANY — Seven days after blowing past the deadline, Gov. Cuomo and state leaders Friday night announced a deal on a new state $153.1 billion budget.

“This was a very robust and very challenging agenda because these are challenging times,” Cuomo said.

The new plan includes the release of $2.5 billion for affordable and supportive housing while also reviving for five years an expired tax credit for developers who create affordable housing.

With Cuomo calling it the most contentious issue of the negotiations, the budget agreement contains a provision to raise the age to 18, up from 16, that youths can be charged criminally.

Cuomo won his push for a free tuition for some public college students — even as CUNY and SUNY were granted permission to raise their tuitions by $200.

The budget also increases state tuition assistance funding for public and private college students, though not those who are the children of undocumented immigrants.

For the seventh straight year, state taxpayer-supported spending will be capped at 2% even while statewide education spending will grow by 4.4%, or $1.1 billion — including $386 million for New York City.

Charter schools will also see more money.

The budget deal extends a tax on millionaires and funds the first-year of a middle class tax cut approved last year. It also requires the videotaping of criminal interrogations for the first time and provides $2.5 billion for clean water projects. There’s also $10 million for immigrant legal services.

Settling a longstanding dispute between the city and its police union, newer cops will now receive the same higher disability benefits as older ones.

One big issue that dropped out of the budget agreement in the final hours was a one-year extension of the expiring law giving Mayor de Blasio control over the city schools. Instead, the Legislature, at the insistence of the Senate Republicans, who have been warring with de Blasio, will take the issue up later in the spring.

Meanwhile, bracing for potential federal cuts, the new deal specifies that if Congress cuts funding to New York by at least $850 million, the governor’s budget director will develop a plan to make spending cuts that will automatically go into effect unless the Legislature imposes its own reductions within 90 days.

Cuomo said the provision provides certainty for the state and that he would not have signed off on a budget deal without it.

The final budget deal came after several weeks of contentious talks.

The Legislature on Monday enacted legislation to extend the previous budget for two months.

The Assembly plans to complete passage of the budget sometime Saturday. The Senate hasn’t said when it will return to Albany to give final passage.