Budget season is heating up, baby! And Hell Gate is here to break it down for you. How did New York's state budget process become such a shitshow, and why should you care about what Albany's been cooking up?

First, Hell Gate co-owners Esther Wang and Max Rivlin-Nadler explore our state's labyrinthine and insanity-inducing budget process, and why we can't just "be normal" as a state. Will a newly empowered legislature mean even more chaos?

Then, we chat with Kim Phillips-Fein, professor of history at Columbia University and author of "Fear City," about Eric Adams' proposed austerity budget, his beloved "high-income earners," and the lingering impacts of the 1970s fiscal crisis.

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