AQE’s Co-Executive Director, Marina Marcou-O’Malley, correctly predicted the budget would be finished on the night of May 8, winning City & State’s 2025 budget poll. This was both a reflection of her years of experience in the field and the fact that the governor kept introducing new things as part of the negotiations. She praised the final budget’s inclusion of universal school meals and the expansion of the child tax credit, though she said it was “a total mixed bag” overall.