Gov. Kathy Hochul facing uphill budget battle after fellow Democrats nixed judge pick
ALBANY — All eyes will be on Gov. Kathy Hochul next week to see if she can bounce back in state budget negotiations after losing to the same left-leaning legislative leaders in a bruising fight over her pick to lead New York’s highest court.
“This is the key fight,” former Gov. George Pataki told The Post about how Hochul might reassert her power over fellow Democratic lawmakers after a state Senate committee rejected her nomination of Hector LaSalle for chief judge.
“She needs meaningful bail reform,” Pataki said.
Hochul talked tough about combating crime during her Jan. 10 State of the State address without detailing many specifics on how she wants to handle controversial limits on cash bail and burdensome discovery requirements as well as other testy topics like housing, climate change and state finances.
“During her campaign, Gov. Hochul dismissed crime concerns as a ‘conspiracy.’ Now she suddenly seems to be interested in improving public safety,” said Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Fulton).
“It’s funny what public polling and a close election will do. The budget and the ensuing negotiations between ‘three Dems in a room’ will be a good indicator of how much of her public safety push is real and how much is just lip-service,” he added in reference to THE negotiations between Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) ahead of the April 1 budget deadline.
Her crime proposals included eliminating a much-criticized legal standard that requires judges to release criminal defendants with the “least restrictive conditions” ahead of their trials for “serious” crimes without specifying what that meant in practice.
“Devil is always in the details,” Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Nassau), the ranking GOP member on the Ways and Means Committee that deals with fiscal issues. “On bail, [the] least restrictive change really only helps if the crime is bail eligible. Any crimes being added back in?”
People on both sides of the aisle are wondering how such vagueness might translateꦦ into actual legislative language that might placate critics who say judges need more discretion to jail people ahead of their trials if they threaten public safety or have been accused of multiple crimes.
“We have to trust judges. We have to trust the players in the system,” District Attorney Association of the State of New York President J. Anthony Jordan, who is also the DA in upstate Washington County, told The Post. “The real challenge for judges is the loss of discretion.”
“We need to fund the police, get more cops on the street, provide better flexibility to courts to hold potentially dangerous defendants pre-trial, and generally create an environment where New Yorkers feel safe in their neighborhoods and on mass transit,” state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Newburgh) said.
A joint legislative hearing scheduled for Monday will offer a preview on how lawmakers and act🅺ivists allies might challenge Hochul over her public safety proposals.
We will do things based on data,” Stewart-Cousins told reporters earlier this week. “We also did what we did because … People were being charged – not convicted – and accused of minor misdemeanors, nonviolent felonies and winding up incarcerated because they cannot pay the bail and so we never, never, never wanted to criminalize poverty.”
Repre⛎sentatives of Stewart-Cousins and Heastie did not🐈 provide comment Thursday.
Hochul could lean on law enforcement, prosecutors, the GOP and some fellow Democrats to overcome resistance against changing criminal𒊎 justice reforms championed by Albany De♊mocrats in recent years.
“I look forward to working with the governor and lawmakers to make the right decisions so that we can ensure defendants are provided with a speedy trial that our Constitution guarantees a defense and provided justice in a timely manner,” Mayor Eric Adams said in his Thursday State of the City speech while lavishing Hochul with praise.
But public safety is just one of many issues that will ꧋test her in budget negotiations.
“I know for us here on Long Island, and I’ve been speaking with local officials, they are concerned about the removal of the local authority,” state Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Suffolk) said of the controversial housing proposal Hochul revealed earlier this month.
Suburban officials have accused Hochul of underminin𝄹g them by pushing the idea of overriding local zoning rules within a h𝓀alf-mile of transit station while also requiring that municipalities meet housing construction rules or the state would step in to make it easier or developers to build.
Assemblyman Jarrett Gandolfo (R-Nassau) said such ideas are “Long Island’s devil” while claiming that the $250 million Hochul has floated to help localities boost housing would not even be enough for his South Shore-based district.
“Many small communities have train stations in the heart of town. It would drastically upend the character of these communities,” he added.
The governor has also enraged Republicans by pushing for new laws banning gas hook-ups in new “smaller” buildings in 2025 and new, bigger structures three years later, which would effecti⛄vely eliminate gas stoves for many New Yo🐲rkers in the future.
“When the budget comes out that that may change a little bit. But why right now everywhere I go, you’re talking about how in the world is this going to work?” Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush.
Democratic legislators, meanwhile, are keeping an eye on the extent to which Hochul sticks to her housing and climate change proposals alongside other priorities like funding for the MTA and child care – as well as details on how she wants to create a new subsidy to spur housing development in New York City after a controversial law expired last year.
“More psych beds, more funding for diversion courts, more supportive housing,” state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens), who was among the progressives who voted against LaSalle last week, said.
And, of course, the budget is ultimately a financial document that will show just how much the Empire State plans to spend in the upcoming fiscal year following the approval of a record-smashing $220 billion budget last year.
“With the threat of a recession and out-year budget gaps, we can’t continue down a runaway spending road that ends with another record-breaking budget number. This will be an important litmus test that tells us how much she’s willing to concede to the liberal wing who blocked her judicial nomination,” Barclay said.
Hoc🥂hul has said that she will propose a budget that strikes a balance between progressive pragmatic politics ahead of looming budget fights over housing, climate change and bail while holding off until her Feb. 1 speech to provi💫de specifics.
“We are looking at the factors, factors that judges can consider with respect to serious crimes. I think that’s the proper balance,” she reiterated earlier this week at an Albany press conference.
A spokeswoman did not pꦑrovide co🌼mment Friday as the suspense continued on what the governor will propose next week.
Political insiders on both sides ꧂of the aisle say upcoming budget bills will go a long way towards demonstrating just how eager Hochul reall😼y is to take on progressive lawmakers emboldened by the committee vote rejecting LaSalle.
Th🌳e budget process, and the byzantine edges it gives governors an edge of legislators, could be the ally she needs following a bruising January to kick off her newly-won four-year term in office, according to state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk).
“The budget is the best leverage point for the governor to address the failures of bail and discovery reform that have caused the public safety crisis we are currently facing. I hope she has the political will to stand up to the progressive wing and make a real statement on behalf of New Yorkers,” he said.
“We should see her willingness to fight next week!” he added.
