Full Episode: Another State Budget Extender. What's the Latest? Plus: NY& Media Literacy

Note: We tape New York NOW on Friday mornings. If any major news happens over the weekend, we'll post it on our homepage, and link to it on this page.

Full transcript of Another State Budget Extender. What's the Latest? Plus: NY& Media Literacy

Dan Clark: We are now two weeks past the deadline for the New York state budget, and as of Friday morning, we still don't have one, and we still don't know when that will change. A budget extender passed by the legislature last week expired on Monday, so lawmakers and Governor Kathy Hochul agreed to another extender for another week. That's just money the state needs to keep the government funded and pay the bills.

That means the new deadline for a budget deal between Hochul and the legislature is this coming Monday, April 17. That will make this year's state budget the latest since 2010, when it didn't pass until August. And Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday that budget talks will continue through the weekend.

Kathy Hochul: The right budget is more important than an on-time budget, and we've been working around the clock. My team has not left town. We've had many, many meetings ourselves internally, just came from one. Our teams are doing a lot of Zoom calls with others who are not here, and we're going to work hard through the weekend.

DC: And aside from that, we still don't really know where things stand. At the start of the week, budget talks were at a standstill with a focus still on changes to bail reform two weeks later. 

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said this on Monday.

Carl Heastie: There's discussions going on with housing, but like I said, most of the oxygen is still on discussing bail.

DC: In the meantime, the capitol has been empty. Even lobbyists and advocates have gone home. 

There are two ways this could play out, if lawmakers and Governor Hochul strike a deal on changes to bail, the rest of the budget could come together relatively quickly. Sometimes it really is just one thing that's holding up the budget. But in a different scenario, there could be a longer road ahead.

CH: Do I think is this the bigger domino? I'd say, you know, housing is one B, bail is one A and housing is one B, then I think it's a easier path on the other things in the budget.

DC: But there was some talk this week about at least a general agreement on bail. Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris said they were more or less on the same page, but that some final details were still up in the air.

Reporter: It does seem like the sides are pretty well in agreement about the parameters of this right?

Mike Gianaris: Now it's just the details and that issue will unlock hopefully the rest of the issues, which also still have to be worked out.

DC: So progress, but no deal just yet.

In the middle of all of this, we got another major bit of news this week out of Albany. Governor Hochul has nominated Rowan Wilson to be the next Chief Judge of New York State. It's her second nomination for that job this year after the state Senate rejected her first nominee Hector LaSalle.

It is a big job. The chief judge of New York runs the entire judicial branch of state government and leads the state's top court, the Court of Appeals. Wilson, Hochul’s new nominee, is already a judge on the Court of Appeals and of the court's current roster he's considered one of the more liberal members He's often sided with defendants over prosecutors, and he's known for his blunt questions during arguments and the way he writes his opinions, like in this case from 2019, when police found counterfeit money on someone under arrest for drinking in public.

Rowan Wilson: If he were trying not to pass counterfeit money, but you possessed it, how would you keep it? Would you mix it with your regular money?

Prosecutor: No. No, you wouldn't, your Honor, but…

RW: So why is there any probity value to the fact that he separated it, if what we're trying to determine is, does he have an intent to spend it? 

Prosecutor: Correct.

RW: And whether he intends to spend it or he doesn't intend to spend it, he's going to keep it separately. Why can we draw any inference from the fact he kept it separately?

DC: In that case, the court upheld the conviction, siding with prosecutors. Judge Wilson was the only one to dissent, writing at the time that, “The sad consequence of that mistake is a regression from the legislative and prosecutorial progress eschewing policing based on stereotypes, returning us to the world of broken windows – where police pursue quality of life violations that disproportionately affect the poor.”

It's legal opinions like those and Wilson's experience that have Democrats feeling optimistic. Senate Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal.

Brad Hoylman-Sigal: Well, we've confirmed Judge Wilson once already. I think he's obviously a strong candidate, based on that alone, we're going to review his record closely. But he's got a long record both on the court and in the private sector as a partner at one of New York's largest law firms. So, I think it is obviously a decision my colleagues and I are going to have to review closely, but out of the gate, I'm impressed by the selection.

DC: We're expecting a hearing on Wilson's nomination next week, but that news came with more news.

This week after the nomination was announced on Tuesday, Democrats said they want to overhaul the entire judicial selection process for the state's highest court. Right now, a special commission puts out a call for applications whenever a seat opens up. Then they narrow that down to seven finalists and the governor has to pick someone from that shortlist, but Democrats say they want to end that process and instead let the governor pick whoever they want. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said this.

Dan Clark: Just to clarify, you're saying that the Senate's position is that you would like to eliminate the committee for judicial nomination? 

Andrea Stewart-Cousins: Yes, absolutely. 

DC: And would you like to replace that with anything or do you want to see that just…

ASC: No, I’d like the executive to be able to name whomever their nominees are, and again, we put them through our process.

Dan Clark: Let's start there with this week's panel, Zach Williams is from The New York Post and Josh Solomon is from the Time Union.

So this commission, the people that I've spoken to within the Court of Appeals and in the legal community have said that ending this commission would not be a great thing for ethical reasons, that the commission is designed in a way to kind of separate the governor from this process.

What are you hearing about that?

Josh Solomon: Well, the state Bar Association hasn't come out officially, but Bar Association groups or good government groups, the same folks who pushed this commission 50 years ago are really upset. I mean, this is to them, this is completely flipping the entire constitutional amendment on its head, and Majority Leader Andre Stewart-Cousins would say, yeah, it doesn't work, so let's remove it.

But the point was to insulate the process, at least from some, what lawmakers at the time called “bad politics” and seeing what they could do to at least strip some of the partisanship and some of not only actual politics, but the perception of politics and that was important to the framers of this amendment.

DC: It's interesting because I feel in the past decade and probably before that, too, Albany has had a trend of creating these panels and commissions to basically push off the legislatures, not duty, but to delegate what they want to do. There's one that decides how much the executive gets paid, how much the judiciary gets paid, that kind of thing. So I'm interested to see that they want to kind of reverse that, because I could see a situation down the line where they would regret that decision. You know, if in the next gubernatorial election, what if a Lee Zeldin wins and then he can pick whoever he wants with that change?

I don't want to dwell on that too much. I'd like to talk about the judges in particular, not them in their records but, I failed to mention before that Caitlin Halligan has been nominated to replace Rowan Wilson on the Court of Appeal since he will or would presumably be the Chief Judge in the confirmation that may or may not take place next week.

Zach, with these two nominees, but particularly with Rowan Wilson, do you see this being a smoother process than with LaSalle? Seems like he has some general support from Democrats.

Zach Williams: I would certainly say thus far it's been way smoother than the nomination of Hector LaSalle, the Brooklyn appellate judge that just went down in flames a few weeks ago.

Dan Clark: Low bar for smooth.

ZW: You know, the important thing to remember is the court of appeals, the state's highest court has for years been dominated by so-called conservative majority. Now, Hector Lasalle's nomination was seen as a sign that that majority was going to hold for years, you know, 12 year term after all. But now with Rowan Wilson, who's been described as a liberal judge, very competent, very smart, but definitely more to the left than Hector LaSalle, that will not only put a liberal as the Chief Judge, the head of the seven-member court, but then have Caitlin Halligan gets approved, also someone described as a liberal, then that would create a 4-3 liberal majority on the court, and that could have big implications, not least the congressional lines in 2024.

State Attorney General Letitia James, with the support of the governor, has launched a lawsuit to try to undo those lines that that helped Republicans flip several House seats in New York and take control of the U.S. House.

Now, if the Court of Appeals rules on this case, which seems pretty likely and voted to strike down those lines, we could see congressional districts that are much more friendlier to Democrats next year than they were in 2022, especially when you consider that it's going to be a presidential year, President Biden or wherever the Democratic nominee is, will be at the top of the ticket, turnout will be higher, and if the lines are better for Democrats, it's even more likely that the Democrats will take the House back.

JS:  I should say that it wasn't just Attorney General Letitia James who launched the lawsuit, she's coming on trying to say, I'd like to join this lawsuit, which is really being run by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who are basically saying we would like better lines and the Republicans have said we want these lines instead and they've touted their lines that they got instead as an attribute to why they have the majority.

ZW: And this gets back to commissions. You were just saying that the legislature for years has been kind of delegating its authority to outside panels, kind of ostensibly in the name of good government. Well, that didn't work out so well for them in redistricting. There was a redistricting commission for the first time, blah, blah, blah, it deadlocked, it didn't come up with any single set of maps, the Democratic legislature jumped in, drew lines that many saw, especially in the congressional map, were clearly gerrymandered at least to some degree, and the Republicans sued, overturn them and took the House.

DC: You know, any state case can get up to the court of appeals. So, it's interesting to like look at where things are right now. For example, former President Donald Trump has been indicted on felonies, that case could eventually make it to the court of appeals, where Rowan Wilson may be the Chief Judge. So all these seeds are planted right now in litigation, and you have to think because a lawsuit doesn't get filed on a Monday and go to the state's highest court on a Friday, there's like two years for the first trial court, maybe a year for the next court, so it's a very long process, and it's something that will have to watch over a number of years.

You're right, his record is pretty liberal, but I'm interested to see how he does on commercial stuff.

JS: I just say quickly, it's smooth right now, this process with the two nominees, well, one is a nominee, the other is a presumptive nominee, that presumptive nominee, Caitlin Halligan, there could be a lawsuit that may be filed on Monday that could challenge the process in which she's being nominated through this program bill, that the governor has put forward, that the legislature adopted, that she signed into law.

This process could all kind of blow up on Monday, and right now it is smooth, but there may be a cliff that we're not realizing we're approaching.

DC: I would be surprised if someone does not sue over that. I mean, I'm not a lawyer, I didn't go to law school, I don't have any legal training, but I did work for the New York Law Journal, which is kind of like law school a little bit…

ZW: Same thing.

DC: … and the Commission on Judicial Nomination is in the state constitution. So to me, as I'm thinking about a way that an attorney would file this lawsuit, not to give anybody any ideas, it's changing a process that is in the Constitution through a state law, not amending the state constitution. So I could see that as an argument, I don't know, we'll have to see. Maybe I'm totally wrong. 

Not lot that we need to talk about on the budget, honestly, but Zach, I'll go to you first. Bail has kind of dominated the conversation, discovery reform is now kind of part of it, but now housing is becoming a big budget blocker as well. Is that right?

ZW: That's what I heard from a well-placed source just yesterday. What is so interesting about housing is, you know, a lot of the discussion in the budget is the governor wants this, will the legislature go along with it. With housing, it gets a little bit more complicated because obviously the legislature wants to do something on housing and is not so eager to do something on bail necessarily. 

The governor, she has her housing compact, very controversial in the suburbs, supposedly would undermine local zoning control in order to promote construction, but the Democrats in legislature got their own asks as Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie made clear a few days ago when I asked him. You know, there's been a lot of talk about the good to cause eviction bill, and he kind of alluded to that and I asked him to elaborate what does the legislature want, he mentioned rental assistance for public housing residents.

New York City is one, you know, a new Mitchell-Llama affordable housing program for middle class people maybe would be in the cards. So, I think with housing, whatever happens with the controversial enforcement mechanism in the governor's housing plan there'll be negotiations on that, but the governor's going to have to also play ball and give the lawmakers something that they want, especially lawmakers from New York City, who clearly want to really channel a lot of this housing energy into New York City, where I think everybody knows affordable housing crisis is at its worst.

DC: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I don't know if good cause makes it in in its in its current form. I'd be surprised if they kind of just took the bill and put it in. I could see a situation where there is kind of a compromise there and they take some parts of good cause and leave other parts out.

ZW: Good cause kind of skews to, you know, the assembly had some vague language in their one-house budget resolution that sort of said, yeah, we want to protect tenants, and the state Senate had something stronger, but it's very unclear the extent to which the legislative leaders will go to bat for good cause, a darling of the political left, but they're certainly going to at least try a little bit, not least to kind of assuage some of their members who really want this. 

That said, rental assistance and a whole bunch of other items besides the governor's housing compact seem to be part of this whole mishmash of housing that seems to be holding up the budget as much as bail, certainly at this point.

DC: Josh, give us a quick update on bail.

JS: Some say it's done, some say it's not done and some say if it is done, that is a problem, because that means that there would be, “roll backs” of it. There's a lot of consternation over the criminal justice issue still, which means even a crunchy issue on housing would make the budget delay even longer, and who knows when we'll finish. Maybe next week, we'll say the budget is still in negotiation.

DC: You know, with the confirmation hearings on Monday and maybe Tuesday, I don't know if they do vote on a budget next week, but we will see. 

Josh Salmon from the Times Union, Zach Williams from The New York Post, thank you both so much.

Dan Clark: New York &, is a new series produced by the WMHT team focused on civics. With each installment, we'll take a big, complicated topic and lay out in depth so you can learn more. The goal here is to really just cut through the noise and give you straight, direct information that you can use.

This week, we're going to kick things off with a look at media literacy, and this is for everyone, but especially if you don't know what that is. 

Alexis Young: Welcome to New York &… media literacy. I'm your host, Alexis Young. 

Imagine a nice family get-together. Everyone sitting around at the dinner table enjoying a home-cooked meal. Then your Uncle Ricky turns to you and says, there’s children who identify as lizards, and they're burning to a crisp because the schools give them human-sized heat lamps. Uncle Ricky sounds like someone who needs to improve their media literacy. But what is media literacy?

The National Association for Media Literacy Education defines it as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and act using all forms of communication. Media literacy empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers. Effective communicators and active citizens. 

All media has a message, and it's important to be able to identify what that message is. Being media literate means being able to understand the world around you and being able to analyze things we see every day, like advertisements and how they want you to receive their message.

For example, if you see an ad for a politician eating at a small-town diner, they likely want you to think, Wow, he truly is a man of the people. But for this episode, we're going to focus primarily on sources of information. There's all kinds of informational media out there. Newspaper articles, cable news, and social media posts are just a few examples. The array of different media sources created by folks of all different backgrounds is what makes a media plurality. 

This is important because it gives people access to different viewpoints, voices, and cultures. However, the easier it is to share information, the easier it is to share misinformation, disinformation… malinformation is a word to apparently. 

So how can one exercise caution in today's digital landscape?

There are many ways and tools to help you evaluate the sources of information that you encounter. Some think your level of media literacy is tied to your ability to crap. That is your ability to use the C.R.A. A. P. test. But we wanted to find a research expert to help give us tips on evaluating sources. So, we spoke with Kerrie Burch of WSWHE BOCES (Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES), and here's what she had to say.

Kerrie Burch: I think one of the things that's important to remember is that anybody can post anything anywhere. If you don't know how to navigate that information, you could very easily be perpetuating information that is incorrect or is inflammatory and wrong. 

These stories are created to get clicks, and that's what it's all about on those platforms. They want people to feel certain emotions such as anger or outrage, and people really need to kind of think critically. 

Ask yourself, is it relevant? Are they just trying to get me to click on this because we know they're going to get paid for that? 

You have to kind of think that way. 

Is the source reputable? What's the intent of the author in this article or in this post? What are they trying to see happen? Is that information accurate? Are you finding the same information in more than one place?

AY: As you can see, a lot of evaluation involves asking questions. What is the motive behind the source? Is it current or outdated info? Is this news or an opinion piece?

Let's say you see people sharing a screenshot of a statement reading, breaking, governor Hochul is floating away in an out-of-control hot air balloon.

Is the author identifiable? Can you find out more information about them? Has the claim been verified by credible journalists? 

It can be exhausting to think of all of these things in order to prevent yourself from being duped online, but once you get the hang of it, you'll find that it quickly becomes second nature, a sort of sixth sense. A B.S. detector. 

You can also do things like curate who you follow on social media and assemble a group of quality info sources. Just try to avoid forming your own echo chamber. 

Though these evaluation techniques are individual self-led exercises. They have a large-scale impact, and we'll tell you why.

So we want to be properly informed because it's useful to know things that are correct and because it's embarrassing to be duped online like Uncle Ricky. But there's more to it than that. We asked Kerrie Burch about the importance and impact of having a media-literate society.

KB: When we think about the reporting of the events that occurred on January 6, 2021, and the fact that we continue to read and see the effects of those events in the news, to me, that's a prime example of why media literacy is so important, especially to our democracy. 

We have a responsibility to make sure that we aren't perpetuating lies or false news or things that are just blatantly not true.

It's not about politics, but it's about being good citizens, and it's about having and using those skills to make sure that where we're squashing that that bad information instead of sending it out and making it bigger.

AY: It is not an exaggeration to say that an informed, knowledgeable society is the backbone of our democracy. How can we make informed decisions on how to govern ourselves if we cannot separate fact from fiction?

This is why we wanted to open this series with the focus on media literacy. We want folks to become more knowledgeable about the systems that impact our daily lives, and media literacy helps folks achieve that. 

We want our viewers to learn and become active participants in trying to improve our society. In this sense, the importance of media literacy runs through every episode of this show.

Thanks for tapping in. I'm Alexis Young. And until next time. Well, be good and stay informed.

DC: And next up in that series is an explainer on state government. 

Dan Clark: Before we let you go, an update on access to abortion in New York. 

First off, nothing has changed there because of state law. Last year, the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade didn't impact access to abortion here, but a ruling last week from a federal judge could make certain abortion medication illegal nationwide, including in New York.

That drug called mifepristone is used to induce abortion in the early stages of pregnancy without surgery. The judge from Texas ruled that it wasn't approved the right way by the FDA when the agency cleared for sale two decades ago.

On the same day, another judge from Washington State made a different ruling, saying it could remain in several states where it's legal.

Neither ruling has changed access to mifepristone in New York, at least for right now. But the state is preparing for that possibility. Governor Kathy Hochul said this week that New York is building a stockpile of a different abortion medication that would remain legal even if mifepristone illegal.

Kathy Hochul: Once again, states have become the battleground on these fights and one of the latest steps to tear down these rights have only strengthened our resolve. So, I'm proud to announce that New York State will create a stockpile of misoprostol, another form of medication abortion.

Extremist judges have made it clear that they won't stop at any one particular drug or service. So we’re going to ensure that New Yorkers will continue to have access to medication abortion, no matter what.

DC: The governor's office says New York has purchased 150,000 doses of misoprostol, which they say is a five-year supply for the state. 

Catch this week's show on your local PBS member station, or watch on YouTube, Facebook, or using the free PBS app anytime after Friday.

On This Week's Edition of New York NOW:

• It's been two weeks since the state budget in New York was due, and we still don't have a final spending plan. We'll explain.
• Gov. Hochul announces a new nominee for chief judge. We'll tell you what we know.
• Zach Williams from the New York Post and Josh Solomon from the Times Union join us with more analysis.
• The internet is full of disinformation. How can you tell fact from fiction? We show you in the first part of our new series: NY& Media Literacy.