Gov. Cuomo and other state leaders (photo: Darren McGee, Governor's Office)

In the opening days of the 2020 state legislative session, debate continues to rage over whether to revisit major changes to the bail system made last year and key Albany policy-makers have been staking out initial positions in a reignited conversation that could lead to revising the reforms.

The three top decision-makers -- Governor Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, all Democrats -- have each taken a different position on a criminal justice response to recent anti-Semitic and other hate-motivated crimes, in the process giving a glimpse of how far they may go in attempting to alter the newly reformed bail system in the coming months.

While Heastie has said it’s too soon to judge the new system, which has only been fully in effect since January 1, Stewart-Cousins has said her conference is open to considering changes, and Cuomo has said he believes some adjustment is needed, while expressing support for adding hate crimes to the list of bailable offenses.

At question since the law was passed last year are which crimes are on that list, and whether judges are to be given the discretion to assess a suspect’s potential dangerousness to society in a new process to determine who may be ordered jailed.

Last session, state lawmakers eliminated cash bail for all but the most serious and violent crimes. The changes were intended to bring a greater degree of fairness to the criminal legal system by removing ability to pay as a reason for pretrial incarceration in most cases, correcting an imbalance that had disproportionately imprisoned black and Hispanic suspects.

Supporters of the reforms noted not only that racism and classism are endemic to the old system and the fact that suspects are, by law, innocent until proven guilty, but also that many cases of all kinds are ultimately dismissed. Less than a week after a machete attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey in which multiple people were hospitalized, Assembly Member Simcha Eichentsein, a Brooklyn Democrat who represents Orthodox Jewish communities, introduced legislation that would add hate crimes to the list of bail-eligible offenses.

While New York State law authorizes bail as a method to compel accused lawbreakers to return to court, judges have used it to remand people they believe would be a threat to public safety if released. Throughout 2019, many Republican and some Democratic officials, prosecutors, and members of law enforcement statewide sounded the alarm about the dangers of limiting judges’ discretion, making it easier for people to avoid jail pre-trial, and not incentivizing court compliance via bail.

Since the law went into effect and in the wake of a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in the final weeks of last year, a number of them violent, opponents of the bail changes have renewed calls for expanding the list of bail-eligible offenses, perhaps most notably by adding hate crimes. Some have renewed calls for giving judges explicit discretion to consider public safety risks in determining whether a person can be released pre-trial.

Though he did sign off on the compromise reached with the two Democratic legislative majorities in last year’s state budget deal, Cuomo has included judicial discretion for public safety in his bail reform proposals since 2016. He is now part of a group Democratic officials that also includes Mayor Bill de Blasio and moderates throughout the state, responding to recent hate crimes and other reported incidents with calls to revisit last year’s bail changes. (De Blasio has backed bail reform including expanded judicial discretion since 2015.)

“Changing the system, as we started to do, is complicated and then has a number of ramifications,” Cuomo said at during audience question-and-answer at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York on January 6, where he gave remarks just ahead of the start of the legislative session. “There’s no doubt this is still a work in progress and there are other changes that have to be made.”

“The legislature comes back...and we’re going to work on it because there are consequences that we have to adjust for,” he added, responding to a question connecting anti-Semitic hate crimes and bail reform, without going into specifics.

On Thursday in Albany, Stewart-Cousins said her conference was open to considering changes to the reforms, but would not respond to "fear-mongering."

"We’re on day nine [of implementation]...We listen, we are interested in making the justice system just, and we are paying attention as it continues to see if there any necessary tweaks; but, again, we are not responding right now,” she told reporters.

But Stewart-Cousins said, if her conference does decide tweaks are needed, especially with regard to reclassifying hate crimes, it will make them.

“Personally, I think that hate crimes sometimes strike at the core of entire communities, and so on, so I want to look at it to see if we are appropriately classifying this,” she said.

A number of Senate Democrats from Long Island, some of whom represent districts recently held by Republicans, are carrying legislation that would expand the list of bail-eligible offenses and grant judicial discretion for public safety risks.

But for Heastie, who has made criminal justice reform a major focus in his years as Assembly speaker, conversations to revisit bail reform are a non-starter. He told reporters Thursday he did not have plans for his conference to reexamine the 2019 changes and urged letting the new system play out before discussing revamping it.

"It's day nine and I think we should let the law take effect," he said. "We want our communities to be safe but the conference believes in what we did."

Heastie staunchly defended the Legislature’s steps to remove most cash bail without substituting judicial discretion, which he said contributes to inequities in the justice system.

“I think judges have had judicial discretion...When two people who are charged with the same crime end up with different bails that gives me pause on judicial discretion,” he said. “Judicial discretion invites back in bias.”

New York is the only state in the nation that does not allow judges to consider public safety when making custody decisions before trial, according to a report by the Vera Institute of Justice.

“We have no tolerance whatsoever for hate. But hate crimes have been on the rise for the past year, way before the bail bill was implemented,” Heastie said.

Citing the likes of powerful media mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was able to post bail while awaiting trial on charges of on multiple counts of sexual assault, he added, “We have to get out of this idea that bail equates safety.”

The governor appears adamant that changes should be explored. In an interview on NY1 Wednesday following Cuomo's State of the State speech, top aide Melissa DeRosa also warned against the dangers of fear-mongering but said, "At the same time, I think it is wholly legitimate -- and the Governor has said this -- that we look at the law. We have to make sure that public safety comes first. We look at the law, we look what it is that we enacted and ask ourselves and ask our partners in the Legislature, are there ways to improve upon that?...We are going to sit with them and have these conversations."

Attorney General Letitia James has also said she believes changes to the bail law are warranted, and that her office is studying what those should look like. In the meantime, she said during a Thursday interview on the Capitol Pressroom that judges should be given more discretion in hate crimes cases, and, generally, that “it’s important we come up with an objective proposal so it does not result in racial disparities and that all individuals are treated fairly. But at the same time, at the end of the day, it’s all about public safety. That should be their priority.”

Many reformers, including elected officials like Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, public defenders, and decarceral activists have vigorously pushed back against the notion that changes are needed, holding various press conferences and rallies, and writing op-eds. A group of Jewish state legislators -- Assemblymembers Dan Quart, Harvey Epstein, and Linda Rosenthal, all Manhattan Democrats -- penned an op-ed in the Daily News Wednesday warning against using anti-Semitism as a reason for pulling back bail reform.

Republican leaders are seizing on the attacks and some reported cases of people re-offending while at-large awaiting trial to undo the changes completely.

“I can’t think of an issue that is more germaine to the first day of this legislative session than criminal justice reform -- we are advocating for repeal,” Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan of Long Island said on the Senate floor Thursday after describing the state as in “crisis.” 

“Every Democrat in this house voted for that legislation, and now a number of them are walking it back,” Flanagan noted, in reference to the bail changes that were voted through April 1 as part of the massive budget deal.

“Let me be clear, we believe there are opportunities for reform done the right way, under the right circumstances, by listening to people who are hired and elected to protect us and the public,” he said.

Newly-selected Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay, an upstate Republican, gave similar remarks in his opening floor statement of the Assembly’s session. He listed a litany of recent violent or anti-Semitic crimes where the suspect was released without bail, and said to his colleagues, “This isn’t fear-mongering, so don’t take my word for it, I’m not trying to grind the political axe...we need to listen to the people out there. The professionals, the law enforcement officials, judges, district attorneys all have sounded the alarm.”

(photo: Darren McGee/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo presented his annual State of the State address from Albany. He opened by highlighting the challenges faced by Americans, and New Yorkers, over recent weeks and years, including earthquakes in Puerto Rico, escalating tensions with Iran, and the surge in hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers.

Cuomo gave highlights of New York successes over the course of his now nine-plus years as governor, then launched into his policy priorities for 2020, positioning New York State as the “progressive capital of the nation.”

Cuomo hit on a myriad of policy proposals during his speech, from the importance of combating climate change through a new $3 billion Restore Mother Nature Bond Act and banning styrofoam to continued tax cuts for the middle class and a new tax cut for small businesses.

Among many other proposals, Cuomo called for legalizing adult use of marijuana, ensuring a fair trial for rape victims, banning sex offenders from the MTA, and funding more affordable housing units to reduce homelessness. He took early but vague positions on altering how the state provides local education funding, how Medicaid is paid for, and regulating the gig economy. 

After the address, responses came flooding in from stakeholders across the state. The New York Republican Party released a statement from Chair Nick Langworthy condemning Cuomo’s remarks and stressing the state’s ongoing population loss, blaming it on high taxes and too much business regulation, among other things.

“As our residents and jobs leave, so does our tax revenue. So does our talent. We are yet again facing the loss of one or two congressional seats after the next census, giving us less representation in our federal government,” Langworthy says in the video response to Cuomo’s speech.

Whereas Republicans tweak Cuomo from the right, the Working Families Party typically critiques him from the left. In response to Cuomo’s agenda, the WFP criticized him for putting the interest of wealthy New Yorkers first at the expense of others. WFP State Director Sophie Nnaemeka said in a statement, “it is shameful that Governor Cuomo thinks the best way to fix the deficit is to cut state funding for Medicaid — a move that will cost lives.”

It likely won’t be clear until Cuomo releases his executive budget for the next fiscal year, a plan due out by January 21, how the third term Democratic governor plans to close the looming $6.1 billion budget gap that Nnaemeka and other critics referenced in their State of the State responses. Cuomo briefly mentioned the budget gap during his State of the State when talking about the need for reforms to Medicaid, which is the leading driver of the deficit.

In a statement released by the The Conservative Party of New York State, Chair Gerard Kassar also emphasized the exodus of people to other states, and disconnect between having a $6 billion deficit and “proposed billions in new spending.”

When his remarks turned to forward-looking proposals, Cuomo first talked about combatting climate change, urging his audience to “think globally, act locally.” He focused on restoring the state’s natural environment through the bond act he said he would seek to put on the ballot this November, investing in renewables by connecting the offshore wind program to upstate, investing in electric vehicles, and banning styrofoam statewide. His proposals for the environment drew a variety of responses.

NY Renews said the funding towards renewables was not clear or specific enough, and expressed frustration that Cuomo didn’t outline plans to fund ambitious climate legislation passed last year, though those intended allocations are more likely to be found during the governor’s budget presentation.

In its State of the State statement, NY Renews urged the governor to “put money directly into New York State communities, laser-focused on the interrelated goals of a just society and a renewable economy. NY Renews is demanding this funding in the 2020 budget.” The statement went on to read: “we have the resources to build a just transition to a renewable economy; what we lack is the political will.”

Melissa Iachan, Senior Staff Attorney in the environmental justice program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, said in a statement that NYLPI is encouraged by the governor’s styrofoam ban proposal and that it will help to protect wildlife and reduce pollution, especially in low-income neighborhoods where significant waste infrastructure is located.

On the other side of that issue, Mike Durant, President & CEO of the Food Industry Alliance of NYS, Inc., emphasized that the styrofoam ban could “prove costly to an industry that is currently reeling from the lack of finality to the single-use plastic bag ban.”

During his address, Cuomo touched on the state’s homelessness crisis, proposing the “largest amount of funding in the history of the State of New York to help the homeless and build affordable housing,” and “demand a higher level of competence and skill and professionalism” form local elected officials across the state to address homelessness.

In response to the governor’s comments, The Family Homelessness Coalition released a statement urging further action, specifically asking for the state to “expand rental assistance and transitional housing supports for families experiencing homelessness, and ensure that survivors of domestic violence, the leading cause of family homelessness, have access to critical preventive and permanent housing services.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attended Cuomo’s speech and held a media availability afterward. Asked about Cuomo’s homelessness comments, de Blasio said that he is glad the governor raised the topic, but would like more information, which he hopes becomes clearer when the executive budget is released. De Blasio said it would be “tremendous” to have more state support and is going to work with the Legislature to pass the Home Stability Support Act (HSS), a housing subsidy program that Cuomo has opposed in recent years.

In her reaction to Cuomo’s speech and outline of her priorities for 2020, Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Senate finance committee, also cited HSS, which she sponsors in her chamber, as a top priority.

Cuomo brought back up an issue he had said he would work on in 2019 but did not, and proposed protections for gig economy workers, saying that “corporations are increasing their profits at the expense of the employee and the taxpayer” and that it must stop. He said workers for many businesses are in fact employees and not contractors as the corporations like to say.

In a written response, the New York State AFL-CIO applauded the governor’s comments and said its members “look forward to working with the governor and legislature to pass legislation that guarantees these workers will no longer be denied the rights and protections all other working men and women enjoy."

The Food Industry Alliance also highlighted in its statement that the food industry is evolving and a part of the gig economy and that it is a “complicated issue.” The statement suggested that any legislation pushed through too quickly and without thorough consultation with stakeholders could be detrimental.

Amid ongoing debate over bail reforms passed last year that went into effect on January 1, the audience may have been expecting more attention paid to criminal justice during Cuomo’s speech, including, perhaps, the governor’s preferred changes to the law. But while he has said he thinks changes are warranted, Cuomo has not outlined specifics and did not do so during his State of the State. Rather, he mentioned last year’s effort to decriminalize marijuana possession, and proposed “creating the first of its kind global cannabis and hemp research center for science and education” while legalizing adult use.

In response, the Drug Policy Alliance released a statement praising the governor’s “renewed ambition to get legalization done this year” and urging him to make New York a leader in social justice by “ensur[ing] any bill legalizing and regulating marijuana includes opportunities for New Yorkers who have been directly impacted by decades of prohibition to excel in the new market and must also dedicate significant funds to those communities most impacted by the war on drugs.”

The coalition NYC Defenders of the city’s public defender organizations put out a statement praising bail reform and emphasizing the need for the state to “progress and prioritize and pass urgent reforms to other aspects of the system, including marijuana legalization, policing, due process, prison and jail conditions, and parole.”

The defenders went on to highlight New York Senate and Assembly measures that they support, such as ending the lifetime felony ban on jury duty service, which “prevents people from serving their communities as full-fledged and equal citizens.”

One of the more staggering numbers presented during the address is the disparity in funding among New York schools. Cuomo said it is “shameful that we do not distribute funding in the most progressive way.” Adding that wealthier schools spend as much as $36,000 per student while poorer schools spend as little as $13,000 per student, he urged legislators to use state funds to reduce the funding disparities.

In response to Cuomo’s remarks, the Alliance for Quality Education said that while he rightly pointed out the lack of equity, the governor should “join his colleagues in the Assembly and Senate to support a multi-year commitment to phase-in the $3.8 billion in Foundation Aid owed to public schools.” The statement highlighted that in 2019 while the Assembly and Senate committed to the funding, the governor, who has disputed that characterization of “owed” funds, did not.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who challenged Cuomo’ lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, in the 2018 Democratic primary, was also in attendance on Wednesday. In a statement released after Cuomo’s speech, Williams said he is taking a wait-and-see approach, especially as the governor prepares his executive budget.

“Advocates from across the state, and the Public Advocate's office itself, will be watching and working to ensure that Governor Cuomo does not attempt a retreat from the progress we have already fought for and won,” Williams said in the statement. “This is even more critical as budgetary constraints loom - it's easy to be progressive when there's an abundance of funding, but essential to define and champion progressive priorities in any environment. Fiscal responsibility is very important, and so too is human responsibility”

(photo: Governor's office)

Governor Andrew Cuomo detailed much of his legislative agenda for the year at his State of the State speech on Wednesday in Albany, outlining various measures that, if enacted, could have wide-ranging impacts on New Yorkers. He gave only a nod, however, to the state’s fiscal picture, including an expected $6.1 billion budget gap for next fiscal year, which he’ll have to address in more detail when he presents his budget plan later this month.

The governor spoke of his top-line priorities – gun control, health care, workers protections, tax cuts and credits, and more – some of which he had already publicly released in the lead-up to the speech. But also notable are various proposals that he did not mention but are included in the 320-page policy book that accompanied his speech.

Below are 15 topics with proposals from the governor that he did not mention in his remarks:

Tax Relief Benefits
The state Earned Income Tax Credit can be worth as much as $8,682 for a family of two with three or more children and a combined annual income of $54,884. But filers often do not claim the benefit, which provides more than $1 billion each year to low-income taxpayers. Cuomo has proposed legislation to allow the state Department of Taxation and Finance to issue EITC checks to taxpayers even if they do not claim it. It would also not require them to amend their tax returns.

Assisting Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses
In the 2018-19 fiscal year, 29.13% of state contracts went to minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs), falling just short of a 30% goal set by the governor in 2014.

MWBEs often face administrative hurdles in obtaining business from the state and, as the policy book notes, there are several state entities with MWBE program and each has its own application and certification requirements. According to the policy book, the governor will direct Empire State Development’s Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development to create a centralized application portal as well as undertake other measures to ease the burden on MWBEs.

Targeting Robocalls
Robocalls can be a nuisance and also a tool for fraud and scams with elderly New Yorkers often falling prey to them. In response, the governor has proposed a three-part plan to end the menace by requiring telecom companies to block them, mandating that the companies implement additional call authentication mechanisms and imposing steep fines on companies that do not comply, as much as $100,000 a day.

Net Neutrality Protections
Under the Trump administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled back net neutrality policies that had been in place since 2015. Those policies had prevented internet service providers (ISPs) from throttling access or charging additional rates for online content.

In 2018, Cuomo signed an executive order to mandate that state agencies only contract with ISPs that follow net neutrality principles. In his policy book, he proposed codifying that executive order as well as legislation to “prevent the blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of online content — practices that undermine a free and open internet.”

The legislation would allow the Department of Public Service to investigate and fine ISPs that do not follow net neutrality rules. It would also allow consumers to pursue legal action against a company on those grounds.

Targeting Predatory Debt Collectors
Taking aim at deceptive actions, harassment, and wrongdoing in the debt collection industry, Cuomo proposed a license requirement for debt collectors, implemented and overseen by the Department of Financial Services.

Consumer Protections
Cuomo proposed a multi-pronged consumer protection agenda though he did not reference it in his speech. The proposals include giving state authorities additional enforcement powers in line with federal law; eliminating oversight exemptions for consumer financial products and services; changing the Financial Services Law to place oversight mandates on entities (such as virtual currency issuers) licensed under the law, similar to mandates on banks and insurance companies; and increasing fines under the state Insurance Law and Financial Services Law.

Women’s Equity
In his speech, Cuomo spoke of ending the so-called “pink tax,” a form of gender-based pricing discrimination that hurts women, and also pushed for ending the rape intoxication loophole. The policy book, however, contains a raft of other proposals aimed at promoting women’s equity.

-To address the abysmally low rate of women in corporate governance positions, Cuomo will instruct SUNY Empire State College to create a Women’s Corporate Leadership Academy, to both prepare women for executive and board positions as well as work with organizations to improve their gender representation.

-This year, according to the policy book, the governor’s Council on Women and Girls, Department of Financial Service, and Essence Communications Inc. will together organize a statewide program to examine how the student debt crisis particularly impacts women of color.

-In order to ensure that state and local authorities are complying with the state’s recently passed pay equity law, the state Authorities Budget Office will conduct a survey of all authorities to collect information on pay scales broken down by gender. Authorities where pay gaps exist will have six months to produce a plan to fix them.

-Cuomo also proposed requiring companies that are seeking state contracts to report on settlements, court judgements, and administrative rulings related to sexual harassment within the previous year.

Women’s Health
The policy book contains several announcements and proposals aimed at improving women’s reproductive health and choice:

-New York will launch a family planning program funded only by the state owing to changes to federal rules by the Trump administration that prevent federal funds from being used to aid organizations that provide abortions and other services.

-The governor proposed creating a Women’s Health Research Consortium to study conditions that disproportionately affect women, health care issues specific to women and to prioritize research into maternal mortality and infertility.

-The state will invest $8 million over two years to continue combating maternal mortality and implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Maternal Mortality and Disparate Racial Outcomes.

Tackling Gender-Based Violence
The governor put forward a host of measures to reduce gender-based violence and provide services to survivors:

-Cuomo proposed a uniform standard of care for all hospitals when treating sexual assault survivors.

-The “Enough is Enough” law was passed in 2015 to prevent sexual violence on college campuses. Cuomo has proposed amending it to institute trainings “on healthy nightlife in college communities.” He will also direct the State Liquor Authority to include sexual violence prevention in its Alcohol Awareness Training Program curriculum.

-The governor proposed a pilot program to provide flexible funding that would allow non-profit organizations to provide a continuum of services to domestic violence survivors. He also proposed instituting Domestic Violence Regional Councils to work with the state Domestic Violence Advisory Council on the needs of survivors.

-Cuomo also intends to put forward a bill that would require courts to take into consideration the effect of domestic violence when deciding on the distribution of assets in a divorce.
-Cuomo proposed allowing family courts to issue restraining orders without the petitioner having to prove that a family offense was committed.

-The governor made several proposals that specifically deal with gun violence, including allowing law enforcement to confiscate firearms from alleged abusers while they await prosecution and from the subject of a restraining order based on a domestic dispute. He also proposed creating a new category of domestic violence misdemeanor.

Immigrant Protections and Rights
The policy book notes that many New York statutes require individuals applying for occupational licenses to be citizens or green card holders, which excludes several categories of immigrants that are legally allowed to live and work in the country. Cuomo proposed removing that requirement by amending the Executive Law, General Business Law, and Real Property Law.

Cuomo also intends to move a bill that would codify an executive order he signed in 2011 that requires state agencies that interact with the public to provide interpretation and translation services to those with limited English proficiency.

Preventing Exploitation by Sexual Predators
Cuomo will introduce legislation that would update current law to require sex offenders to disclose all their social media accounts to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The amendment is aimed at closing a loophole and preventing predators from targeting people through dating apps, video game chats, and social media.

Police Surveillance
Touting License Plate Readers as an “invaluable tool” for the state police, Cuomo’s policy book said he will expand the current program and update it with the latest technology. It particularly cites the success of LPRs in catching the alleged suspect in the stabbing attack at a Hanukkah gathering in Monsey last month.

Students and Education
Cuomo proposed a new program that would allow school districts to apply for grants to provide mental health services to students and for schools with programs already operational to expand them.

The governor also proposed new legislation to make for-profit colleges more transparent in how they spend public funds. It would mandate them to report on, among other things, the salaries and bonuses paid to owners and executives.

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance will also expand eligibility criteria for community college students to obtain Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

The governor also proposed legislation to set standards for the student loan debt relief industry.

Health Care Protections
A number of proposals in the policy book would reform access to health care and how the industry operates.

-Cuomo will order the Department of Health, the Department of Financial Services, and the state Digital and Media Services Center to build an online portal that allows individuals to access information on the cost of health care services and to educate them on their rights as a patient.

-The governor included several measures to curb the practice of surprise billing including expanding the current out of network billing law to prevent hospitals from directly charging patients for emergency services; requiring medical facilities to disclose their fees that are not covered by insurance; and shortening the statute of limitations for collecting unpaid medical debt from six years to three years.

-Cuomo also aims to reform physician accountability, introducing bills to establish periodic renewal requirements for licensed physicians and increase oversight under the DOH Office of Professional Medical Conduct.

Veterans Benefits
The governor made several commitments to veteran benefits in his policy book, including a $5 million investment in permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans; $1 million for veteran suicide prevention; a partnership between SUNY and ModernStates.org, a philanthropic organization, to pay the costs of exams for veterans and members of active-duty military families.

Cuomo also intends to propose legislation that would make it easier for New York State to build a State Veterans Cemetery.

Election Security
Cuomo proposed several election security measures recommended by the Cyber Security Advisory Board, which he convened in November. Among the measures he intends to advance is the creation of a Cyber Swat Team to work with local boards of elections. He will also direct the state and local BOEs to work with state agencies to prepare an emergency response plan for potential cyber attacks that may affect the 2020 elections.

(photo: Darren McGee/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

In his annual State of the State speech on Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo was at times somber and sobering and, at others, impassioned and defiant as he laid out his legislative agenda for the 2020 session in Albany.

Speaking before elected and appointed officials, labor leaders, and others who gathered from across the state at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, Cuomo admitted, “It is going to be a challenging year.” He took stock of the “frightening times” for the country and the world, pointing to the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico, the devastation of wildfires in Australia, and the United States’ tense standoff with Iran.

But it was the situation at home in New York State that most troubled him, he said, as he bluntly addressed the increased divisiveness and hatred infecting politics, marked by a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes that have gripped the state in recent months. He paid special tribute to the victims of an incident in Rockland County in December, where five Jewish people were attacked by a man with a machete at a Hanukkah gathering.

Prompted by the troubling trend, Cuomo reiterated his proposal for a new domestic terrorism law that would cover hate-motivated violence, while outlining additional measures of a multi-pronged response.

“Our ship of state is stronger than it has been in decades, but the ocean we navigate is as tempest tossed as we have seen,” Cuomo said. “Waves of anxiety, injustice and frustration are being fanned by winds of anger and division, creating a political and social superstorm, but these are the times when New York is called upon to show leadership and set a course for a troubled nation.”

Cuomo repeated some of the same beats from previous State of the State speeches as he took a victory lap over the sweeping progressive legislation passed last year under a Democrat-led Legislature for the first time during his now nine-plus years as governor. As he’s done before, he embraced the label of “pragmatic progressive” as he critiqued those who he said cannot back rhetoric with action, continuing his attempt to set himself apart from his ardent critics on the left.

“Progressive government by definition must be functional...Progressive government does not make promises it cannot fulfil,” he said, as he went on to detail broad progressive proposals of economic, racial, and social justice, along with his trademark commitments to fiscal moderation and his signature economic development programs, which have been the source of criticism from the left and the right.

Early in his speech, he said the state would launch a “nation-leading response to the transcendent threat” of climate change, as he proposed that New York would make major new commitments to improve the environment and bolster emergency response capacity. He announced the proposal of a $3 billion Restore Mother Nature bond act to fund preservation and resiliency efforts across the state, and made additional commitments to promote green energy infrastructure and the electric vehicle industry, as well as a proposed ban on single-use styrofoam products. The bond plan must be approved by voters this November in order to move ahead.

Along with new plans to tackle climate change, the governor went through a wide variety of proposals, some returning from last year, like the legalization of adult-use marijuana. He also made provocative comments about the two largest areas of state spending -- education aid and Medicaid -- that appear to set the table for intense negotiations as the governor prepares his executive budget, due by January 21.

It wasn’t until nearly an hour into his speech that Cuomo spoke of the especially pressing challenge facing the state budget: a $6.1 billion projected budget gap, largely stemming from an increase in Medicaid costs. But he said little about how he would tackle it other than providing a few initial breadcrumbs.

Cuomo said he would reconvene the Medicaid Redesign Team, which he first created in 2011 to control costs and restructure the state’s Medicaid program. But, as expected, he did not announce plans for new taxes or other measures to raise revenue. His executive budget will tell much more of the story about how the governor plans to close the gap. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking to reporters after the speech, expressed some concern about how those health care savings would be achieved but said he would reserve final judgement until the governor releases a detailed proposal. "I am certain the state has some fiscal challenges. I respect that, but my first response is,  okay let’s all sit at the table and figure out how we can save money together and make sure that the common goal is to not take health services away from New Yorkers who need them," he said.  

Cuomo did, on the other hand, propose cutting the corporate tax rate for small businesses from 6.5% to 4% and also touted the lowering of tax cuts for middle class families that had been enacted in 2016 and are continuing to go into effect this year. “Our middle class is our backbone. We have to keep working with them to keep them strong and this tax cut will do just that,” he said, seemingly promoting the cut as a new initiative as he has done each year.

In recent weeks, Cuomo had already unveiled more than 30 proposals, many of which he reiterated in his speech including new gun control bills, ending gender-based pricing discrimination, and closing the rape intoxication loophole, to name a few. He also revived unfinished business from last year’s session including legalizing recreational marijuana and ending the ban on gestational surrogacy.

The speech included several proposals geared towards improving the lives of working and low-income New Yorkers. He pledged to pursue new protections for workers in the gig economy, an issue he ignored last year after promising action in late 2018, but has become far more pertinent with about 40% of the state’s workforce employed in various relevant fields. “Too many corporations are increasing their profits at the expense of the employee and the taxpayer. That must end,” he said.

He also proposed expanding the state’s child tax credit, which he said would provide a $400 annual credit to about 400,000 families with children under the age of four. Additionally, he pushed an expansion of the Excelsior Scholarship that would provide free college tuition to families earning up to $150,000, from the current threshold of $125,000.

On K-12 local education funding, the governor seemed to suggest sweeping changes in how the state distributes aid to school districts, insisting that the current formula is severely flawed and not truly progressive in its approach to funding schools in lower-income communities. Pointing to a massive funding gap – on average, the richest district spend about $36,588 per student while the poorest district spend as little as $13,033, he said – he indicated pending action.

“The progressive path is clear: our state funds should be used to reduce funding disparities,” he said, potentially starting to set up a major debate in the coming months.

Cuomo made no mention of the bail reform debate that has been raging in recent months, with critics arguing the state must toughen sweeping changes made last year and Cuomo himself indicating earlier this week that changes need to be made.

Taking stock of the homelessness crisis across the state, Cuomo vowed to “take a giant step this year” to tackle the problem and build large swathes of affordable housing. “There is no policy or political debate to be had...We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We just have to turn it. We know what works and we know what doesn’t work from experience,” he said, during his tenth State of the State speech and with reference to his decades working on the issue, from the nonprofit sector to his time as the federal housing secretary under President Bill Clinton.

In promising a massive infusion of funds to address the crisis he seemed to take a dig at New York City and Mayor de Blasio, as he insisted that investment must come with competent management by localities that receive it. The city accounts for nearly half the state’s population and has long been unable to significantly reduce homelessness despite varying attempts, though help from the state has been extremely limited, with Cuomo himself ending a state rental subsidy program early in his tenure and, more recently, opposing a bill, popular in both houses of the Legislature, called the Home Stability Support Act that would create a new state housing subsidy program to prevent homelessness or quickly end it for those receiving the benefit. 

Responding to the governor's speech, de Blasio touted his administration's efforts and again noted that the governor offered no details. "I honestly want to understand the vision because I am glad he raised it but I didn’t hear a specific plan," the mayor told reporters. Instead, he said he was focused on advocating for the passage of the HSS Act, which "would have an immediate positive impact" on homelessness.

Building on the state’s heralded Paid Family Leave law, the governor advanced a paid sick leave proposal that would provide five days of paid leave for employees of small businesses and seven days for large businesses. New York City already has its own paid sick leave law, but Cuomo’s proposal would bring the benefit across the state.

He proposed several public health-related measures as well, including a crackdown on the sale of illegal cigarettes, new restrictions on vaping products and related advertisements, a ban on analogs of fentanyl, expanded access to Medication Assisted Treatment for those suffering from addiction, and drastically lowering prescription drug prices.

The governor also announced continuing economic development investments, a practice that he said have been successful, especially in saving the upstate economy, but fiscal watchdogs have criticized in the past for showing little return on investment. And he touted major infrastructure project proposals including the expansion of Penn Station in New York City and hundreds of millions for the redevelopment of the Erie Canal alongside the many ongoing projects that he has made a signature focus. He also touted the recently-passed $51 billion MTA capital plan.

Noting that New York passed a law to obtain President Donald Trump’s state tax returns, Cuomo also proposed the “Nothing to Hide” law, lest New York legislators be accused of being hypocrites. The bill would mandate that every elected official and state commissioner earning more than $100,000 a year would have to make their tax returns public. “Let New Yorkers know who is paying their officials, and who their representatives actually work for, because you can't serve two masters,” he said in the lone government ethics proposal of his remarks.

Cuomo ended his speech as he began it, with a passionate call to end the scourge of racism and tackle hate. He pledged increased resources to the state’s Hate Crimes Task Force, additional grants for security at schools and places of worship, and announced a plan to expand New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage on the Holocaust. He also called for the state schools curriculum to include lessons on civic values and religious diversity.

“New York can stem this ugly tide and calm the sea of division,” he said, unveiling a new state seal that would add the words, “E pluribus Unum,” out of many one.

“The ugly violence did not start in New York, but it must end in New York,” he said. “We know that unity is the only path forward.”

Ben Max contributed to this article.

Note - this article has been updated with comments from Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

Seantor Liz Krueger, center (photo: New York State Senate)

January 8, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Cuomo's State of the State & What's Next, with Senator Liz Krueger

State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the Senate finance committee, joined the show to give her reactions to Governor Cuomo's State of the State speech, discuss Senate Democrats' priorities for 2020, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.

(photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

State lawmakers are poised to make a second attempt at launching the process to legalize automatic voter registration for eligible New Yorkers who interact with certain government agencies.

Mirroring the auspicious beginning of the 2019 session, which in the first weeks saw a historic spate of voting reforms passed by the new two-house Democratic majority, lawmakers say another package of election bills, including automatic voter registration (AVR), is likely to pass the State Senate as soon as Thursday, with an Assembly companion in the near future.

“We’re starting [Thursday] with a package of bills expanding on voter rights,” Senator Liz Krueger said Wednesday afternoon on the Max & Murphy podcast. “We did a whole package on improving access to voting and voter rights last year...we have more bills that we intend to pass relating to expanded access to voting and improvements in early voting.”

“We’ll be passing 9 or 10 bills,” Krueger said, “making sure that we have a system for automatic voter registration” and a variety of changes to early voting laws, including “exempting public schools from being early voting locations” given the burdens it can place on school facilities.

A press release from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office outlining his 2020 agenda, sent just after his State of the State speech Wednesday, expressed support for automatic voter registration, claiming that it will improve registration and turnout rates and making additional commitments to make the program accessible through the internet. “We will ensure that all automatic voter registration opportunities are available online and we will enable New Yorkers to simply apply to register to vote on the State Board of Elections website if they choose to do so,” the press release said.

Voting reformers in New York have sought some form of automated voter registration for years but were stymied by a divided Legislature, particularly the Republican-controlled Senate majority. The Democratic takeover of the Senate won in 2019 allowed the chamber to pass an “opt-out” AVR system, where applications for services at designated state and local agencies -- like the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Department of Health -- would be integrated with voter registration forms, unless the service-seeker affirmatively declines to register.

Days before the end of the 2019 session, the Assembly, also controlled by Democrats, pulled its version of the bill due to an error in the language that meant people attempting to opt-out might be inadvertently opting in. In a joint statement in June, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, promised to revisit the legislation in the next session.

“Due to a significant technical issue with the Automatic Voter Registration Act (S6457A /A8280A) that would have impacted the intent of the legislation, the Senate Majority will recall the bill and introduce a corrected version. We will pass this updated bill at the next available opportunity when we are in legislative session,” the statement read.

“It’s very simple. It was just a typographical error that provided the opposite instruction of what should have been in terms of how a form should have been filled out,” explained Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat and the bill’s Senate sponsor, in an interview Tuesday.

“We did make a commitment to pass it at the first available opportunity in the next session, this upcoming session,” he added. “Now you are hearing that we are true to our word and are, in fact, passing it.”

Legislative leaders were quick to tell the public that postponing the legislation until 2020 would not have an effect on its implementation date. “This action will not impact the implementation of this corrected legislation because, like the original legislation, it does not go into effect until 2021,” wrote Stewart-Cousins and Heastie in the June statement. However, the language of the bill provides a range of when it can go into effect, depending on when the State Board of Elections establishes the infrastructure to implement it, with a deadline of two years after it becomes law. If the bill passes both houses of the Legislature this year and is not signed by the governor until the end-of-the-year deadline, AVR may not be implemented until December 2022, after the next statewide election.

Reformers believe automating registration and other voting changes will make it easier to participate in elections, especially for people who have been historically disengaged from the democratic process. Combining agency service applications with voter registration forms means individuals will have to provide the necessary personal information -- like name and address -- only once. Under an “opt-out” system, service recipients have to take affirmative action only when they are choosing not to register to vote or when they want to be affiliated with a particular political party for the purposes of voting in a primary -- all of which will be possible on the integrated form.

The government agency that interfaces with a potential voter is responsible for submitting the registration form to the State Board of Elections, which then transmits the form to local election administrators.

During debates over the bill, immigration advocates and critics alike expressed concern that an AVR system would capture people ineligible to vote, endangering people with precarious immigration statuses and enabling voter fraud. Those concerns were compounded when the state passed the Green Light law, which allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses and took effect toward the end of last year.

Lawmakers responded to those concerns in the original legislation by including safe harbor language that outlines a presumption of innocence for someone who fails to opt-out, even if they are ineligible to vote. The legislation also affirms that registering to vote automatically does not constitute a claim to citizenship, which could otherwise jeopardize an immigrant’s legal status.

“People who are not citizens should not be registering to vote, and we want to make sure the law does not accidentally create that scenario,” Gianaris said.

As Krueger said, the State Senate plans to pass a host of other voting reforms Thursday, a number of which build on the state’s new early voting system established in 2019, as first reported by NY1’s Zack Fink and the New York Daily News. The Assembly is expected to consider the package in the near future, according to the Daily News.

“The Senate Democratic Majority will rollout legislation empowering more New Yorkers to take advantage of early voting opportunities and exercise their Constitutional right to vote,” reads a Wednesday advisory, previewing a Thursday morning press conference to be led by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, just before the Senate holds its second day of 2020 session. “These bills build on the historic voting reforms passed under the Senate Democratic Majority during the 2019 Legislative Session.”

A spokesperson for the Assembly sponsor of AVR said discussions in that chamber are happening. “Assemblywoman Walker is meeting with Assembly leadership regarding AVR and we are eagerly awaiting [its] passage,” wrote a spokesperson for Assembly Member Latrice Walker, a Brooklyn Democrat who is carrying the bill in the Assembly, in an email. Speaker Carl Heastie’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The package the Senate appears poised to pass, possibly with the Assembly following suit, also includes changes to authorize counties to set up portable early voting sites, meaning local boards of elections may set up additional polling locations to serve hard-to-reach areas for a shorter span within the early voting period. Other bills expected to pass the Senate Thursday deal with the criteria for siting early voting locations, including one that bars the use of public schools -- a source of conflict during the first year of implementation. Others would require more public notice about elections and college campuses to have designated polling places.

“New York ranks among the bottom states in voter participation and our majority has made a concerted effort to go from among the worst to among the first in the country,” said Gianaris. “That’s why we did early voting, we’re moving towards same-day registration, we’re moving towards making it easier to vote by mail, and AVR is an important plank in a democracy agenda that is going to make it easier for more people to participate in the process.”

Ben Max contributed to this story.

(photo: Governor's Office)

In the final weeks of 2019, Governor Andrew Cuomo quietly signed a bill changing the way affidavit ballots are counted, an issue that roiled New York City last summer during the controversial recount in the Queens District Attorney Democractic primary. Borough President Melinda Katz, who had Cuomo’s endorsement, eventually prevailed over public defender Tiffany Cabán by just 60 votes, with hundreds of potential votes not counted -- votes that may have been counted had the governor signed the affidavit ballot bill into law then.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Kevin Cahill and State Senator Leroy Comrie, would allow election administrators to count affidavit ballots when they “substantially comply” with the requirements for filling them out. The law is intended to make it harder to throw out the provisional ballots when the intent of a voter is clear, even if they contain minor errors -- a death sentence for many of the roughly 350 uncounted affidavits in the incredibly close Queens District Attorney primary.

The legislation passed both chambers of the State Legislature in June but went unsigned by the governor until December 20, just ahead of the year-end deadline for taking action. The law takes effect immediately, in time for the March special election to replace Katz, who was sworn in as the borough’s top prosecutor at the beginning of this year.

“When a person clearly evinces their intention on the ballot and they are verifiably qualified to vote, nothing should stand in the way of counting their choices,” Cahill, an Ulster County Democrat, wrote in an email to Gotham Gazette. “Over the last several years, the courts of our state have been inching toward that simple concept and now it is the law of our land.”

Affidavit ballots are provisionally provided to voters who believe they are registered but are not listed in the voter rolls when they show up at a poll site, which could result from a number of factors like when a voter has recently changed addresses. If a local board of elections determines the voter to be legitimately registered, the ballot will be counted.

Among the most common errors during the Queens DA primary were incomplete information on the envelope containing the ballot, including flaws like a voter failing to list an address where they were previously registered.

The new law loosens the criteria for counting a ballot by emphasizing the voter’s intent and explicitly removing failure to list a previous address from the list of disqualifying factors.

Good government groups are pleased the bill has finally been signed.

“We think all votes should be counted, and missing information on an affidavit form should not be disqualifying when a voter's identity and eligibility to cast a ballot can otherwise be determined,” said Alex Camarda, senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany, a government watchdog.

During the contentious recount in the close race between Katz and Cabán, many people wanted to see the bill signed to allow more affidavits to be counted, while others were concerned about changing the laws under which voters and election administrators were operating in the middle of an election. Between the conclusion of the recount and Cuomo signing the bill last month, a general election passed with little controversy around affidavit ballots.

“There were more than 900 bills that passed both houses at the end of the 2019 session and had to be reviewed by the Counsel’s Office and the Division of the Budget. It is our responsibility to ensure that the bills, as written, are responsible, enforceable and accomplish their intended purpose,” wrote Caitlin Girouard, a spokesperson for Cuomo, in an email.

The governor’s approval memo, accompanying the legislation, states that before giving his signature he had to secure an agreement with the Legislature to clarify the meaning of “substantially comply” in order to ensure ballots “are not unjustly cast aside.”

During the Queens DA recount in July, Cuomo said, “it’s absurd to say you would apply anything retroactively,” according to a tweet by reporter Emma Whitford, apparently referring to changing the canvassing rules after ballots had been cast. “So it’s really about the [November] election now,” he added when asked about signing the bill, which he did not sign until after that election.

Other Voting and Election Reforms Signed, Take Effect
Cuomo’s signature on the affidavit bill came days after he signed two other voting measures related to absentee voting. The new provisions require absentee ballots to align with the ballots used by voters in-district on election day and for absentee applications for school district elections to be simplified in line with other absentee applications already in use.

Earlier in December, the governor signed legislation passed in June that requires SUNY and CUNY to offer voter registration forms and absentee ballots to students each September and in January of presidential election years.

The affidavit and absentee ballot legislation are among a slew of election reforms passed in 2019 by the State Legislature, newly under Democratic control of both houses. The changes, some of which have already gone into effect and others of which are just being implemented now, include several that election reformers had long sought to make voting easier.

Establishing a statewide nine-day early voting period and authorizing local elections boards to use electronic poll books were in effect for the first time ahead of the November general election. Lawmakers also unified federal and local primaries in June, in an effort to consolidate the many elections New Yorkers may participate in every other year. This year is set to see three statewide election days (presidential primary in April, congressional and state legislative primaries in June, general election in November), but not the four that occurred in 2016.

The reforms also included a change in the party enrollment deadline to within five months of the June primary and having voter registration automatically transfer when moving residences within the state.

Beginning January 1, 16- and 17-year-olds are now allowed to pre-register to vote if they are otherwise eligible, with the registration going into effect when they reach voting age. In October, Cuomo signed the Voter Friendly Ballot Act, which changes the way ballots are designed to improve readability.

In January 2019, the Legislature also secured the first passage of two state constitutional amendments that, if ratified, will allow New Yorkers to register to vote on election day (same-day registration) and apply for absentee ballots without providing a reason for needing one. State constitutional amendments must pass in two consecutive legislatures and be approved by voters in a ballot referendum, so the earliest these would become law is late 2021, if they are passed by the 2021 Legislature followed by voters that fall.

Gov. Cuomo (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

Having already released more than 30 proposals, Governor Andrew Cuomo will unveil his full 2020 agenda for this year’s legislative session on Wednesday as he delivers his annual State of the State address in Albany. Unlike last year and several others during his prior nine years as governor, Cuomo’s speech won’t be accompanied with the release of his executive budget proposal, which is expected soon and must address a $6.1 billion projected deficit for the next fiscal year.

Cuomo’s 2020 agenda will include several elements of unfinished business from last year that he’s likely to revive with tweaks and modifications, including elements he was not able to get to the finish line with the Legislature, such as legalization of adult-use marijuana, or related to pieces of legislation he has vetoed in recent weeks but wants to find agreement on, such as legalization of e-bikes and e-scooters.

After what was a highly prolific and historic 2019, the first of Cuomo’s tenure with both legislative houses controlled by fellow Democrats, the governor has made “making progress happen” his theme for this year. Last year, when he called it his “justice agenda,” included a few scrapes between the governor and a Legislature, emboldened by new progressive members, that at times proceeded without Cuomo’s full approval.

"Last year we laid out the most aggressive agenda in modern political history and we got it done," Cuomo said in a December 13 announcement of his annual State of the State. “This year we'll build on that record of accomplishment and continue restoring confidence in government as a force for good. We're going to set the bar even higher, making progress happen for the people of this great state and sending a signal to a weary country to follow New York as we lead the way upwards.”

The proposals he has unveiled thus far include new gun control measures, bills to combat the opioid epidemic, modified election regulations, environmental protection bills, prescription drug price reductions, net neutrality protections, new rules for the debt collection industry, penalties for illegal cigarette sales, a ban on gender pricing differences called the “pink tax,” transparency in health care costs, restrictions on vaping products and related advertisements, legalizing gestational surrogacy, studying high speed rail, regulating robo calls, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, and major infrastructure investments.

If Cuomo’s agenda from prior years is any indication, his State of the State policy book will contain hundreds more proposals, only some of which make it into the governor’s speech. It remains to be seen how ambitious Cuomo will be this year considering how much was done last year, the state budget gap, and that it’s an election year with every state legislator on the ballot (the new June primary elections for state legislative seats, moved to match congressional primaries, will slightly truncate the post-budget session).

Several questions await answers during Cuomo’s speech and release of his full policy book.

How does the state budget hole impact Cuomo’s policy agenda, and vice versa?
Before he puts forth any big ideas, the governor must of course figure out if he can pay for them. Cuomo will soon have to explain how he plans to fill the worrying $6.1 billion budget gap the state faces for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, that has gotten larger than previously projected because of an increase in Medicaid spending.

Many of the proposals Cuomo has already put forth will require no new spending, and Cuomo has indicated that he will not advance or support new and increased taxes, though Albany lawmakers have often found new fees and other revenue-raisers that are not income taxes.

Cuomo prides himself on passing on-time budgets and keeping state spending growth under 2% annual increases – though he has only accomplished this some years, while claiming it in others by using tricks and gimmicks, such as moving spending off the state budget to authorities or delaying it to the next fiscal year, practices that fiscal watchdogs have criticized.

Though he won’t release detailed budget plans on Wednesday, the governor may give some indication of how the state will rein in spending or raise new funds. Following a speech before the Association for a Better New York on Monday, Cuomo said outright that he will not raise taxes and instead will look to control Medicaid costs. “The health costs have to be addressed structurally and a one-shot dose to the system of sugar to give us a short high with revenue is not the answer,” he said in response to an audience question.

His budget director, Robert Mujica, has also tried to make assurances that the budget gap is not a cause for worry. “There is no doubt it will be a challenge, but it is a challenge that is manageable. The Governor has closed gaps much larger than this,” Mujica wrote in a Medium post last month.

While the state faces a crunch, New York City on the other hand is expecting a surplus by the end of its own fiscal year in June, which might prompt Cuomo to propose cuts and cost shifts away from the state budget to the city as he has done several times in recent years. Mayor Bill de Blasio and his allies in the Legislature have been mostly successful in beating these efforts back but the city has nonetheless had to swallow several reductions in funding, unfunded mandates, and new costs imposed by the state. The mayor also said Monday during a press conference that he expects to see a similar attempt this year. 

The New York Daily News reported Monday that several Democratic legislators are planning to introduce new tax measures and propose eliminating certain exemptions for the wealthy that could raise as much as $30 billion each year, which the governor is all but assured to declare dead on arrival.

How much of Cuomo’s State of the State speech dwells on fiscal matters is an open question heading into Wednesday.

Will Cuomo outline his preferred changes to controversial new bail reforms? What will his larger criminal justice agenda be?
A transformative bail reform measure passed last year that eliminates cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies has just taken effect across the state. But the reform has been met by widespread criticism and some fearmongering about public safety from prosecutors and other law enforcement leaders, Republican officials, and some Democrats.

Cuomo has not said exactly how he believes bail reform should be changed but has stated that it requires some modification. “[C]hanging the system, which we started to do, is complicated and then has a number of ramifications,” he said on Monday, again when answering an audience question after his ABNY speech in Manhattan. “There's no doubt this is still a work in progress and there are other changes that have to be made.”

Amid a rash of hate crimes, especially anti-Semitic ones, Cuomo’s office has said the govenror supports adding hate crimes to the list of offenses subject to bail being set by judges, which has in the past functioned as a way to lock defendents up pre-trial, in lieu of the “dangerousness” assessments that many states allow but New York has not for decades. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, among others, have favored allowing judges to use their discretion in pre-trial remand, but many Democratic legislators and advocates have opposed the change, arguing that it leads to bias against poor people and people of color, while feeding mass incarceration and the ill-effects of criminal legal system involvement.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has also indicated an openness to revisiting the bail laws, also citing concerns about the recent spike in hate crimes.

Cuomo hasn’t signalled whether he will propose any further criminal justice reforms or if he supports several proposals being championed by advocates to reform solitary confinement procedures in prisons, to loosen rules for paroling elderly inmates or change what constitutes jailable parole violations, and to decriminalize sex work, to name a few.

Will he advance legislation for regulating the gig economy?
In his “first 100 days agenda” for 2019, the governor said he would pursue protections for workers in the on-demand or so-called gig economy, a fast growing sector in New York. According to Census data analyzed by freelance online platform Fiverr and Rockbridge Associates, New York City alone had more than 519,000 freelance workers in 2016 generating $23 billion in economic activity (projected to have grown to more than 559,000 by 2018), the most of any city across the country.

But Cuomo did not introduce any real legislation last year to back up his words, seemingly the only policy issue from his 100 days speech to receive that treatment. Since then, several state legislators have begun to raise the issue and introduce bills to regulate the gig economy, including protections for freelancers, particularly taking note of California’s recent groundbreaking legislation to reclassify workers in the on-demand economy. Cuomo himself expressed similar sentiments, which could mean he may follow suit with new proposals of his own. New York City presented something of an initial possible model for the state a few years ago, with protections for some freelance workers, and has since added laws related to for-hire vehicle drivers in the five boroughs, including a minimum wage.

Will Cuomo revive vetoed bills?
Cuomo has signed 751 bills and vetoed 169 bills from the 2019 legislative session, while another 11 await his signature or rejection, as of Monday. Of the measures he struck down, many in recent weeks, were several that advocates and elected officials have continued to push and even included bills that the governor himself has said he supports but with modifications.

His speech on Wednesday provides him the opportunity to publicly present his revised versions of what many saw as progressive, common-sense measures approved by both Democratic legislative majorities.

Among those bills was the legalization of e-bikes and e-scooters, which the governor said he favored but refused to allow without additional safety rules, including a helmet requirement that transit advocates have opposed. He’s pledged his own proposal again this year, though the details remain to be seen and it is unknown whether compromise with legislators can be found.

Cuomo has also promised to introduce a new version of the Securing Wages Earned Against Theft (SWEAT) Act, which he vetoed. The bill would have given workers the ability to place a lien on an employer’s assets to ensure they are paid for their work. The governor raised technical concerns that would likely be addressed in the modified version.

While he has supported some new measures to reduce opioid addiction and overdose deaths, the governor also vetoed a bill that would have eased access to medication-assisted addiction treatment for Medicaid recipients. On the other hand, he signed a bill that did the same for those enrolled in private insurance plans, raising the ire of advocates. He also vetoed a bill that would have required insurance companies to provide expanded coverage for eating disorders.

Cuomo also vetoed legislation to impose new rules on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), which was expected to reduce prescription drug prices, despite having called for such regulation in the past.

Citing the recent bail reform measure, Cuomo also nixed a bill that would have expanded charitable bail funds in the state, arguing that the move was redundant without first assessing the new system. “Any amendments involving charitable bail organizations that might be needed should be considered after this year’s bail reforms have had an opportunity to be fully implemented and the specific needs are identified,” he wrote in his veto message, according to New York Law Journal. The Journal noted that the veto was accompanied by another which struck down a bill to give public defenders easier access to their clients’ criminal histories.

Through another veto, Cuomo halted plans for the redevelopment of Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 into commercial office space and has instead said it should be preserved for community use. He may propose a project as a replacement; on Monday in Manhattan he said he would be introducing related legislation that would give the NYPD, which currently operates a tow pound on the pier, until the end of the year to vacate.

The governor also rejected a bill that would have mandated that state agencies, boards, and commissions gather certain demographic information on Asian-Americans, separating the data rather than lumping together communities from different countries of origin. Cuomo cited the costs the bill would impose on state agencies when he vetoed it, according to NBC News.

Will he address ethics and campaign finance reforms?
The state’s campaign finance system is set to undergo an overhaul following a slate of new regulations made by a state-created commission that became law in December. The central reform the commission made is creating a public campaign finance matching program for statewide and state legislative election campaigns, a system that won’t go into effect till after the next gubernatorial election in November 2022.

But other changes the commission made to party ballot qualification thresholds and petition signature requirements will be enforced this year beginning with the presidential election. To receive an automatic spot on the ballot, parties will have to obtain 2% or 130,000 votes (up from 50,000 votes), whichever is more, for their candidate in the presidential election. They will also need 45,000 ballot petition signatures for their candidate, up from 15,000.

Those new thresholds risk the status of minor parties in the state, including the Working Families, Conservative, Libertarian, Independence, and Green Parties. The WFP and Conservative Party have both filed lawsuits that could potentially see those regulations undone. Failing that, the Legislature does not seem likely to reexamine the regulations and the governor has expressed satisfaction with the final product.

What remains to be seen is if the governor will propose any other bills regarding the state’s campaign finance system. Though in past rhetoric he has railed against the scourge of big money and wealthy donors in state elections, he has also largely benefited from them and has been less than strident in action about reforming the system. The campaign finance commission significantly lowered individual campaign contribution limits but they remain quite high; and it did not touch limits on donations to political party accounts, though its members have said those should be pursued by lawmakers this year, as well as limits on donations from those doing business with the state (commission counsel said the two issues were not part of its legal purview).

While the campaign finance system is changing amid some criticism of the commission’s final product, the state’s government ethics enforcement has also been the source of ongoing frustration for many.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) is less than a decade old and has largely failed to carry out its mandate of scrutinizing the behavior of elected officials and state employees. Its work is mired in secrecy and, to its critics, ineptitude. It has failed to catch repeated ethical and criminal violations by legislators, which are often revealed by the press or other law enforcement agencies. Some legislators, like State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, have suggested dissolving the agency and replacing it with a new, more independent ethics body.

It’s unclear whether the governor will support any effort to revamp ethics enforcement in the state. Cuomo has repeatedly made a show of supporting ethics reforms but has often taken a step back when it comes time to push them across the finish line, or he has moved watered down reforms and ensured his office has a significant degree of control.

JCOPE’s commissioners are appointed by the legislature and the governor, who also nominates the chair. To critics, that structure is fundamentally flawed and creates an obvious conflict for the agency’s duties. This issue was particularly highlighted in recent months after reports from the Times Union on an alleged leak about a confidential vote by JCOPE to the governor and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

The week begins just after a very well-attended solidarity march against anti-Semitism over the Brooklyn Bridge, with participation from Governor Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Hochul, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Attorney General James, Mayor de Blasio, and many other elected officials, Jewish leaders and leaders of other faiths, and other New Yorkers. The march was in response to a major spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York over the last few years, with an especially high number in 2019, including the slashing of several victims celebrating Hanukkah in Monsey.

The governor announced at the march the availability of $45 million in state funds, allocated in this year’s budget, for religious institutions to apply for to enhance their security.

Many eyes are on Cuomo this week: he’ll deliver his 2020 State of the State speech on Wednesday in Albany. The third-term Democrat has already laid out more than 20 of his 2020 policy proposals that form the start of his agenda for the year, but he will also make new announcements at the start of the week, including at a Monday event in Manhattan, and he always saves some big ideas for the speech itself.

Cuomo’s policy agenda will stretch many dozens of planks when the annual booklet is released. The governor will soon follow his big speech with a presentation of his executive budget for next fiscal year, which must be crafted to solve a $6.1 billion deficit that recently came to light and presents major challenges for the governor and the Legislature. The date of that budget presentation has not yet been announced.

As legislators return to Albany for the start of the 2020 session this week there is also the new question of who will be the Assembly minority leader after Republican Brian Kolb just stepped down from the post after his arrest for driving while intoxicated, an incident during which he crashed his state-issued vehicle. Assemblymember Will Barclay appears to be the frontrunner heading into the conference’s vote this week.

The State Legislature is in session on Wednesday and Thursday this week in Albany. Many members will begin the legislative year by attending Cuomo’s State of the State speech.

This week will also include the inauguration of Melinda Katz as Queens District Attorney; continued discussion of how the city and state are responding to hate crimes, especially anti-Semitic ones; the implementation of new bail reforms; and much more -- see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday, January 6
“On Monday, Mayor de Blasio and FDNY Commissioner Nigro will deliver remarks at a plaque dedication ceremony to honor Firefighter Steven H. Pollard” at 11 a.m. in Brooklyn. At 1 p.m., “the Mayor and Police Commissioner Shea will deliver remarks at an NYPD recruit swearing-in ceremony...Following, the Mayor and Police Commissioner Shea will hold a media availability on crime statistics.” In the evening, “the Mayor will deliver remarks at the inauguration of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.” In the 7 and 11 p.m. hours, de Blasio “will appear on NY1’s Inside City Hall with Errol Louis.” And also in the evening, “the Mayor will deliver remarks at the AIPAC Northeast Gala. This event is closed press.”

Monday is Three Kings Day and will feature the 43rd annual celebratory parade, preceded by a kickoff breakfast in East Harlem. Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer are among many who will participate.

At 11 a.m. Monday, “Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will host a media preview of the 9th Annual “Savor the Bronx” Restaurant Week at Seis Vecinos, a Central American restaurant that is featured in the 2020 Michelin Guide and is located in the Longwood neighborhood of The Bronx. “Savor the Bronx” Restaurant Week is produced by the Bronx Tourism Council and this year takes place from January 6 through January 17, 2020.”

At 11:30 a.m. Monday, Governor Cuomo will deliver remarks at a lunch hosted by the Association for a Better New York in Manhattan to outline his 2020 transit and infrastructure agenda.

At 1 p.m. Monday in the Bronx, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams “will join Council Member Vanessa Gibson, anti-violence advocates and community leaders to denounce the recent attack on Juan Fresnada and his partner in the Morrisania area.”

At 1:45 p.m. Monday, “Chancellor Carranza will attend SoapboxNYC, a public speaking showcase for NYC public school students as part of Civics for All, and deliver brief remarks.”

At 5:30 p.m. Monday, Melinda Katz will be inaugurated as Queens District Attorney, in a ceremony at St. John’s University. Mayor de Blasio and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will be among those who deliver remarks. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will be among those in attendance.

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Attends the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Northeast Gala" at Lincoln Center.

Tuesday, January 7
No events as of now.

Wednesday, January 8
At noon on Wednesday, the City Council will hold its initial full-body Stated Meeting of the year at City Hall.

The State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.

At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Governor Cuomo will deliver his 2020 State of the State address at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show on WBAI radio (listen at 99.5FM or wbai.org) will feature summary and analysis of Governor Cuomo’s State of the State speech and agenda.

Thursday, January 9
The State Legislature will be in session on Thursday in Albany.

At 1 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, the City Council Committee on Immigration will meet to consider several bills related to the Office of Immigrant Affairs, including one to turn the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs into a full-fledged Department of Immigrant Affairs.

Friday, January 10 and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show Friday at 10 a.m. 

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Max
@GothamGazette

(photo: William Alatriste/City Council)

January 1, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: 2020 Vision - Previewing the Year Ahead in New York Politics

Jeff Mays of the New York Times, Dana Rubinstein of Politico New York, and Brendan Lyons of the Albany Times Union joined the show to preview 2020 in New York politics, with the first segment focused on New York City politics, Mayor de Blasio, and more, and the second segment focused on state government, Governor Cuomo, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.