Bail reform looms large as budget deadline nears

From: POLITICO New York Playbook PM - Wednesday Mar 23,2022 08:17 pm

Mar 23, 2022

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Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie are in lockstep about one thing as the budget deadline nears. “We need a budget,” Stewart-Cousins said this afternoon in the Capitol.

It’s increasingly clear that everything else remains in flux as the March 31 due date approaches, as both Heastie and Stewart-Cousins reiterated that all 10 points of Hochul’s newly floated public safety proposal have little shot of making it into the final spending plan.

“I think all 10 points would be hard,” Stewart-Cousins said.

A couple of items that have fiscal impact, such as more money for mental health services, might earn legislative OKs. But Heastie said that even if there were interest in the more-controversial components, such as one that would allow judges more discretion in setting bail, they shouldn’t be forced through the process now.

“Members just want to do their jobs and think about this and understand why there are differing opinions, different interpretations of law, and I just don’t know if that can be figured out in two days,” Heastie said.

Stewart-Cousins noted that her colleagues spent years reviewing the issue before passing bail reform in 2019 and then making some changes a year later.

“There were a lot of discussions before we did the original reforms. And again, we're always happy to look again, but we're not going back to a place that we weren’t at before we even began the discussion on bail,” she said.

At about the same time she was speaking, the Daily News published an op-ed from Hochul and Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin laying out the governor’s clearest positions on bail reform to date. Hochul said she doesn’t believe that any data supports the idea that the bail reform laws are responsible for increased crime rates.

She and Benjamin do, however, believe that small changes are needed, and that includes giving judges ability to set bail in more specific circumstances such as for repeat offenders and in all felony cases involving illegal guns. “We are committed to protecting the progress we’ve made toward a fairer criminal justice system,” the op-ed reads. “But that is not at odds with making thoughtful, measured changes to our laws that would strengthen public safety.”

There are five session days scheduled before the deadline, and even one public disagreement has the potential to disrupt what would otherwise be easy wins. Albany is back, baby!

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IT’S WEDNESDAY. Welcome to New York Playbook PM. We’ll get you caught up on today’s action in the state Capitol and in New York City Hall as the budget countdown continues.

From the Capitol

MAYORAL CONTROL AN AFTER-BUDGET ISSUE? Things could certainly change during budget negotiations, and they often do, but legislative leaders seem pretty resigned to dealing with mayoral control of New York City schools in the second half of the legislative session — as in after the budget.

“We have till June 30 to figure that out,” Heastie said today when asked about a key issue for new Mayor Eric Adams, who wants mayoral control extended for four years before it expires at the end of June. Asked if his comment means mayoral control won’t be in the budget, Heastie reiterated: “That means we have till June 30 to figure it out.”

While Hochul included a four-year extension in her budget proposal in January, legislative leaders have been saying that it likely won’t be a budget issue. Neither the Senate nor the Assembly included it in their one-house resolutions earlier this month.

“Again, that was something that we've talked about being done outside of the budget,” Stewart-Cousins told reporters today.

ENVIRONMENTAL BUDGET CHATTER: It’s still too early to declare anything dead or done yet — there’s a whole week left! State Sen.Todd Kaminsky (D-Nassau County) has made it clear that his major priority is an extended producer responsibility measure to require producers of products and packaging materials to pay for the costs of disposal. Asked about the chances of making changes to freshwater wetlands policy changes in the budget, Kaminsky said: “I’m hoping so, I think that and EPR are two substantive issues that we have an opportunity to solve longstanding problems and we should take advantage of it.”

Kaminsky chairs the Environmental Conservation Committee in the Senate. His counterpart in the Assembly, Steve Englebright (D-Suffolk), told advocates Tuesday night that he’d rather see extended producer responsibility dealt with outside the budget. Judith Enck, a former EPA Region 2 Administrator and current head of Beyond Plastics, is a strong backer of that position. She’s skeptical of both Hochul’s and Kaminsky’s version of EPR. “I do know that if it’s even close to the Hochul bill or the Kaminsky bill, it would be a very bad precedent that other states would follow,” Enck said.

Englebright is eager to see the Department of Environmental Conservation get funding in the forthcoming bond act to preserve wetlands. Both the Assembly and Senate proposed boosting Hochul’s $4 billion proposal even higher in their one-house budgets. — Marie J. French

From City Hall

MILLER TIME: The future of the NYPD’s counterterrorism chief remains uncertain as Adams refused to indicate whether he’d oust Deputy Commissioner John Miller for saying the department never surveilled Muslims after 9/11. Adams was noncommittal at a City Hall meeting with Muslim leaders Tuesday when Council Member Shahana Hanif asked for Miller’s removal, according to three sources who attended the confab. Instead, the mayor assured the group there’d be no similar abuse during his tenure and recounted his own experience of being surveilled by the NYPD when he was an outspoken member of the force.

He added that advocates often ask him to ax members of his administration. So far those entreaties have been unsuccessful: Adams withstood pressure from LGBTQ and cultural circles to force out several recent controversial appointees. The difference with Miller is that he’s a holdover from the de Blasio administration who was put in the position by former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton after leaving CBS News. As a journalist, Miller was best known for interviewing Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998 when he was at ABC News. — Joe Anuta and Julia Marsh

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FROM THE DELEGATION

DELGADO HANGS OUT WITH SHERIFFS: Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY) was in Albany today with the New York State Sheriffs Association discussing the Invest in Law Enforcement Act, which creates a new federal grant program for local law enforcement. Delgado promised to “keep working to support local law enforcement and provide essential resources as they work to protect our communities.”

His Republican opponent, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, didn’t buy it. “I trust the voters won’t be fooled by his election year conversion,” Molinaro said in a statement, casting Delgado as a proponent of the state’s controversial bail reform laws and of cutting police budgets. (Delgado was an early supporter of police reform legislation in 2020, but has kept a distance from “defund” rhetoric, saying at the time “there is nothing in the [bail reform bill] that zeroes out police budgets.”) — Anna

ON THE BEATS

TRANSIT: More than two years after Andy Byford quit as New York’s “Train Daddy,” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has found a new person to fill his big shoes. Richard Davey, the former Massachusetts secretary of transportation, will become the next president of New York City Transit Authority. He’s the first person to hold the position permanently since Byford; Sarah Feinberg and Craig Cipriano previously held the roles in an interim capacity.

Davey — who also had stints at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company — will oversee a 54,000-person workforce and the operations of the buses, subways, paratransit services and Staten Island Railway. He most recently served as a partner and director at Boston Consulting Group, where he advises on the future of mobility. Davey’s first day on the job will be May 2.

He will have his hands full when he starts work. Ridership is rebounding across the transit system as more New Yorkers venture outside, but it’s still down roughly 50 percent overall and transit leaders acknowledge it will never fully rebound. MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber has spoken about the need for new revenue streams to offset the lack of revenue. Davey will likely lead that fight in next year’s budget process, as the MTA is projecting a deficit in 2025.

Davey will also oversee major capital projects, including realizing Hochul’s vision for a new Interborough Express rail line connecting Brooklyn and Queens. He must oversee the extension of the Second Avenue subway, launch a new congestion pricing system and execute on long-promised signal improvements and accessibility upgrades. Davey, for his part, says he is up for the challenge: “I hope that whenever my tenure ends, New Yorkers can look back and say that guy from Boston made a difference,” Davey said in a statement. — Danielle Muoio Dunn.

HEALTH CARE: About 500 New York City families will have access to doulas in the next three months, in addition to other services aimed at improving maternal health, Adams said in Brooklyn today. The citywide doulas program will train 50 professionals to do prenatal and postpartum home visits and support families during labor and delivery. It also includes screening and referrals for things like food insecurity. The Midwifery Initiative will expand to all 38 public and private birthing facilities citywide and will allow the city health department to gather data on births and care with midwives for the first time, according to City Hall officials. — Amanda Eisenberg

AROUND NEW YORK

— Over a dozen organizations are demanding changes on how New York spends its $5 billion in economic development subsidies.

— Lawmakers are calling for a bill to mark March 25 as a day of remembrance for thousands of New York nursing home residents who died from Covid-19.

— Did you know that 15 stone pillars used to test material for Grand Central Terminal are in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park? Gothamist has the details.

— Albany officials launched a tip line for residents to report illegal dirt bikes and ATVs roaming the city.

— Apple lobbyists met with New York officials last year to push for digital driver’s licenses.

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