ALBANY – State budget talks are now hung up on how to curb an onslaught of illicit weed joints, although lawmakers say they still hope to have a final deal on the governor’s proposed $227 billion spending plan by Friday.
“The illegal pot shops are hurting the ability for the cannabis industry to begin and grow,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) told reporters at the Capitol on Monday, as New York entered its 24th day past its April 1 budget deadline.
“I want to be able to shut them down,” Heastie said of the roughly 1,500 black market shops operating in plain view across New York City’s five boroughs.
Both he and other key pols said Monday that arriving at an overall budget agreement by Friday’s extension deadline was not out of the question even with the outstanding pot problem — and the thornier issue of whether to expand charter schools.
In terms of the illicit weed shops, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed legislation weeks ago to empower state agencies to increase fines on illegal sites from a paltry $250 to as much as $10,000 per day, while allowing state agencies to shutter them for good.
But those proposed moves appear potentially too heavy-handed for Heastie, who declined to comment specifically on the gubernatorial proposal Monday as he, Hochul, and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) hash out their differences on the matter.
“You want the cannabis industry to thrive, so trying to come up with a mechanism that allows for that to happen without overreach is I think the biggest issue,” he said.
State senators showed they are devoting more legislative energy to the topic by commemorating the so-called “4/20” pot holiday April 20 with the establishment of a new subcommittee focused on cannabis issues.
The emergence of the topic in budget negotiations comes as the three leaders push to finalize a new spending plan, which had been held up for weeks by their outstanding differences on such issues as overhauling the state’s cash bail laws and promoting affordable housing without undermining local zoning rules.
The state’s final new spending plan will not include any of the controversial housing proposals Hochul wanted.
But Heastie and Stewart-Cousins have at least signed off on making it easier for judges to impose bail, a hotly controversial issue fueled by an existing law requiring them to use the “least restrictive” conditions to ensure criminal defendants show up in court.
“I still don’t think this is necessary,” Heastie said Monday of the bail changes. “But in this world, you have to compromise. The Assembly is only one leg of the stool. The Senate is a second leg, and the governor is the third leg.”
Funding for state government expires Friday, and if lawmakers don’t come to an overall budget agreement, they would need to vote themselves another extension on negotiations.
Another outstanding issue involves charter schools. State law currently limits city charters to just 275 out of the 460 allowed statewide, a regional cap that Hochul has proposed to eliminate.
She is also calling for the reissuance of licenses currently held by so-called “zombie” charters that no longer operate.
Progressives are fighting both of those ideas with the help of organized-labor groups such as like New York State United Teachers, whose members include the United Federation of Teachers in the city.
“The governor wants [the moves]. Most people in the legislature don’t want them. [We have to] see if there’s a compromise,” Heastie told reporters Monday.
State lawmakers just agreed to Hochul’s request to provide $1 billion to New York City to help the Big Apple cope with the staggering costs tied to the ongoing flood of southern-border migrants into the Big Apple.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has estimated that the total cost for the migrants for this fiscal year through June 2024 will top $4.3 billion.
Spectrum News also reported Monday that New York City will only have to fork over $150 million out of the $500 million that Hochul demanded the city provide to the MTA – a top issue for Adams.
More than three weeks after the original state budget deadline, Heastie said the “environment, charters schools” are among the issues that still have to be worked out, while adding his optimism that the three sides will come together by Friday.
“I think we’re getting closer,” Heastie said. “Still have a few things that have to be worked out.”
