The state's fiscal year begins today with a $156 billion spending plan in place and plans to raise the minimum wage.

The state's new budget includes a yearly hike in the minimum wage until it hits $15 an hour - Gov. Andrew Cuomo's No. 1 priority. The measure faced Republican opposition in the Senate. Critics say small businesses will suffer trying to meet added payroll costs. State Sen. Phil Boyle, chair of the Senate's Committee on Small Business, believes a so-called safety valve attached to the bill might prevent the wage from ever reaching $15.

"After three years, the director of the budget will reassess, look at the New York economy -- at that time, it'll be about $12 -- and see if it's working and if we can go to 15," he says. "I personally do not believe it's going to be working."

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, of East Northport, says supporting Cuomo's minimum wage bill meant senators were able to pass items they were pushing, including measures that he says will help business owners and all New Yorkers.

"There's a record aid to education," says Flanagan. "There's now a billion-dollar middle-class income tax cut. I'm not sure anyone expected that."