NEW YORK — The final New York state budget did not include an expected delay to the smaller class sizes mandate that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is banking on to shave a half-billion dollars off the city’s budget gap.

State Sen. John Liu, D-Queens, chair of the NYC education committee, on Wednesday said Mamdani’s requested extension was left out of the state’s financial plan, despite months of negotiating its inclusion. The senator, an ally of the mayor, still believes a delay is coming after the state budget process.

“An extended timeframe for compliance with class-size limitations enacted in 2022 is being finalized and will be legislated apart from the state budget,” Liu, the sponsor of the original bill, said in a statement.

According to the city’s financial plans, the Mamdani administration expects to save $508 million next school year, and $733 million the following year, if the class size caps are delayed.

The state budget was nearly two months late, leaving little time for other matters. After Wednesday, there are just six scheduled days remaining of this year’s legislative session.

The senator’s spokeswoman confirmed Liu plans to introduce a stand-alone bill after negotiations are done. She did not answer questions about how many years of an extension the senator is considering, and whether the bill would include more funding or other, not time-related tweaks to the law.

Liu has said any extension is dependent on the Mamdani administration coming up with a realistic, annual plan to lower class sizes, which has yet to be released publicly for next school year.

City Hall and New York City Public Schools did not return requests for comment.

The 2022 state law mandated capping the city’s class sizes between 20 and 25 students, depending on grade level. Under the law as it’s currently written, the city is required to bring an additional 20% of classrooms into compliance, until the caps are fully phased in by the 2027-28 school year.

Mamdani on the campaign trail enthusiastically supported the law, criticizing former Mayor Eric Adams for his concerns about the $1.7-billion cost of hiring new teachers to comply.

But over the last several months, his administration has been looking to push back the timeline.

The more than $500 million in savings from delaying the mandate was first announced in a joint press release from Mamdani and Gov. Hochul more than two weeks ago. The mayor also announced a $122-million investment in hiring new teachers to make progress toward compliance.

“We are fully committed to fulfilling the state mandate in a meaningful way on a realistic timeline,” Mamdani said during a news conference on May 12.

State budget negotiations narrowed in on a plan to give the city two more years to fully phase in the caps, with a target of 70% compliance this fall. However, it became apparent negotiations hit a snag when the measure was left out of the budget bill tackling education issues mid-last week.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said he wants to see a detailed plan for new classrooms before Albany moves forward with a delay.

“For an extension to be considered, the DOE needs to produce a clear capital construction plan to build seats where they are needed for class size reduction,” Mulgrew said.

The uncertainty around a final class size deal comes one day after lawmakers in Albany passed a slate of pensions reforms as part of the state budget with major implications for the city’s budget.

The governor and legislature agreed to let Mamdani defer some pension payments, saving the city $2.3 billion. But the state also forced the city to come up with $123.3 million as part of what are known as “Tier 6” reforms, which will lower the retirement age for teachers and reduce the employee contribution rate toward pensions.

The state budget was due April 1. Mamdani and the City Council must agree to a balanced city budget by July 1.

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.