Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday he won’t approve a state budget at the end of March that doesn’t also include changes to New York’s new laws on cash bail, which have been the subject of criticism in recent months from moderate Democrats, Republicans, and others.
Cuomo, during a radio interview, said he’ll hold up the state’s roughly $170 billion spending plan if Democrats in the Legislature don’t come around to amending the new laws.
“We have to improve the bail reform bill,” Cuomo said. “I won’t sign a budget without it.”
That puts a four-week deadline for members of the Legislature to come to an agreement on changes to the new laws, which eliminated cash bail for low-level and nonviolent charges. The state’s laws on cash bail haven’t changed for higher-level charges.
Cuomo said in a different radio interview earlier Friday that he wants to have a public meeting with different stakeholders on the issue, including advocates and members of law enforcement.
“I'm going to have a meeting. I'm bringing them all up to Albany, the DAs, the police, the advocates from all across the state,” Cuomo said. “We'll have a public discussion.”
Democrats in the state Senate have already met with members of law enforcement, and others, albeit behind closed doors. They put forward a proposal recently to tweak the new laws by eliminating cash bail altogether and allowing more discretion for judges.
That plan would provide a limited set of tools for judges to use when deciding whether a defendant charged with a higher-level crime should be held before trial. Most low-level and nonviolent charges would not be eligible for remand.
The Senate proposal would also allow judges to hold an individual before trial on a case-by-case basis, like if that person is a repeat offender or is accused of domestic violence.
Other top Democrats in New York have also called for changes to the new laws. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, this week, even said the Legislature should grant more power for judges to detain certain defendants ahead of trial.
“I believe that without compromising the purity of its purpose, the new legislation can be amended — and strengthened — to recognize a narrow exception allowing judges, after a full and fair adversarial hearing, to detain a defendant in those few and extraordinary cases where such a credible threat exists,” DiFiore said.
But not all Democrats agree that the new laws need to be changed.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, has said repeatedly over the past two months that he hasn’t been presented with credible data that would suggest any changes are needed. He said this week that he’s in a “listening” stage, but hasn’t budged on the issue.
Advocates who supported the new laws have said they’re worried about opening the conversation around bail reform to the state budget, which is often used as a vehicle to get majority support on a host of controversial issues.
Heastie said this week that he’s not worried about being pressured on bail reform over the next four weeks when he meets behind closed doors to negotiate the state budget.
“I never worry about things being used as instruments of trade,” Heastie said. “The governor feels that’s the best vehicle but we haven’t had any discussions about changes to bail.”
The state budget is due at the end of March.
