NY Legislative Session Pauses, but Action on Budget, Cannabis, Bail Reform May Still Happen

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, speaks to reporters outside the Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol in Albany on Wednesday.

The New York State Legislature closed session Monday as the state government stepped up its response to a growing COVID-19 outbreak, one of the latest developments amid uncertainty over how or if lawmakers will tackle big-ticket items like legalizing marijuana and amending last year's bail reform law.

Officials say the Legislature is set to return later this week, with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, specifying that lawmakers could be back as soon as Wednesday.

Lawmakers face an April 1 budget deadline and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he still wants to legalize marijuana and make changes to last year's bail law. The law did away with pretrial detention for the vast majority of misdemeanor and nonviolent felony cases.

"I want to see as much as we can get done," Cuomo said, but hedged the comment by saying the dynamics might shift if policy changes have not been thought through.

State Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Queens, deputy majority leader, signaled that lawmakers are working toward approving the budget on an accelerated time frame and said wrapping up the state's budget early would be ideal.

Gianaris did not specify whether legalizing marijuana or changes to the bail law will be in the budget, saying lawmakers are "trying to get as much done as we can."

Democrats failed to legalize the drug last session for various reasons, including differences over where the revenue from marijuana sales should be funneled.

The coronavirus pandemic will be the priority for lawmakers, he said, and the outbreak will bring a "severe economic consequence" as businesses close to stop the virus' spread.

"We're trying to figure out the best way to make sure we survive the crisis initially and then get businesses back on their feet as soon as possible thereafter," he said.

The session postponement comes a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people cancel or postpone events of 50 or more people. A floor session in either chamber would congregate more than 50 people.

Two members of the New York Assembly, Helene Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, and Charles Barron, D-Brooklyn, have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The state Capitol is also closed to visitors.

An overhaul to the state's bail law, passed by lawmakers last year, grew into perhaps the most heated debate this legislative session.

Cuomo has said he would not approve the state budget without changes to the bail reform law, which went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Supporters of bail reform say the changes help prevent poor defendants from spending long stretches in pretrial detention for low-level crimes. The changes still kept bail in place for certain crimes.

But law enforcement authorities and prosecutors lambasted the changes, arguing it jeopardized public safety and did not give judges enough say over who remained in jail pretrial.

Earlier this year, Democrats in the state Senate floated a proposal that would eliminate cash bail in total but give judges more discretion over who stays in jail pretrial. Advocates panned the proposal and argued it would lead to racial disparities.

Any compromise over bail reform would have to receive the approval of Heastie, who has resisted calls to change the law.

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