ALBANY – The state budget is days away from being a month late, and a number of issues remain to be hammered out.

They include, among others, modifications to the environmental quality review law and auto insurance premiums.

Mayors of three Mid-Hudson cities – Beacon, Poughkeepsie, and Middletown, met with Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday for a briefing on her proposal to bring down the cost of auto insurance.

Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou said on Thursday that insurance rates are outdated.

“The way to get to affordability, and the governor trying to do real things to affect affordability, is you have to tackle a bunch of different pieces because all costs have gone up – insurance is one of those – so this would tackle a piece of it and if you could get $200 a year off your insurance and the governor is successful in some of the other areas that she’s trying to reduce our costs, that does tackle our affordability pretty well,” he said.

Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano said the high costs of auto insurance are “squeezing our bottom line.”

Poughkeepsie Mayor Yvonne Flowers said everyone is “feeling the strain of rising auto insurance costs,” and she said the governor’s proposal “is a practical and thoughtful step toward easing the financial burden on New Yorkers.”

Also attending the meeting with the governor were Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino and Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiaz.