Budget battles over bail reform, housing

Daily Point

Budget-time bail battle comes to a head

Gov. Kathy Hochul has insisted for months that the best way to re-reform New York State’s bail laws is to eliminate New York’s “least restrictive means” standard for assuring the return of a criminal defendant to court on the day assigned.

Now sources say legislative leaders in Albany, who resist unraveling the so-called bail reforms enacted in 2019, have in ongoing budget negotiations acceded to Hochul’s demand for modifying that language, seen as a step toward allowing judges more discretion when setting bail terms during arraignments. And it allows her to notch a political win.

But with the exact terms of that deal yet to be disclosed, it remains to be seen exactly what wording will be used to amend that statute. While the discretion may apply to more people whose cases involve violence, the sources say that “least restrictive means”may not entirely be removed for all purposes.

Judging by the buzz at the Capitol, the potential impact of what’s negotiated might remain foggy even after the deal is revealed.

The lobbying divide has been sharp and strident between public defenders and civil liberties advocates in one camp and prosecutors and law-and-order advocates in the other. Crime has spiked, as has turnstile justice, but Democrats who rule the roost in Albany fear a return to headlines about defendants languishing in bad jails awaiting trial because they couldn’t raise bail money.

As a result, broad outlines of the budget compromise from official sources do not make it sound as if the deal will end the bail debate or the problems involved.

A spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams, who’s been the most amplified voice for further bail-related changes, told The Point Thursday afternoon that the former police captain now in Gracie Mansion has not seen the text and could not comment. Team Hochul would like to have his imprimatur.

The Adams camp, however, does defer to his past statements on bail.

In those remarks, Adams matches what prosecutors such as Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney have been saying – that a defendant's violence itself is wrongly barred as a factor in a judge's decision on release. The law enforcement side wants a “dangerousness standard” that allows judges to set tougher release conditions for those they believe pose a threat.

There are reportedly no “dangerousness” criteria in the current Albany deal – a partial win for those who attacked Hochul’s latest bail proposal as illogical and unsubstantiated.

So we can already expect the reactions once the deal is revealed to range from “too much” to “not enough.”

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Pencil Point

No life

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Final Point

Will a housing deal stop housing?

Housing is the last big policy issue to resolve in the ongoing state budget negotiations, sources tell The Point.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are now attempting to hammer out a final deal on Hochul’s proposed Housing Compact, which, she argues, could add 800,000 housing units over the next decade.

While everyone agrees the state, including Long Island, needs more housing, there’s debate and disagreement about how to get there – and that’s intensified in recent days.

On one end, progressive lawmakers have pushed to include good cause eviction, which would add new protections for tenants and provide guidelines to prevent rent increases that lawmakers considered “unreasonable.” The push broadened this week when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rallied with other elected officials in Queens on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, suburban lawmakers want to move away from the mandates in Hochul’s original housing compact, which include specific changes for transit-oriented development zoning as well as a state board that ultimately would have the power to override local decisions on zoning and specific housing proposals. But Hochul, sources say, seems very unwilling to shift away from including mandates in the law.

Local developers are deeply concerned about the specifics of the good cause eviction legislation, saying it would hurt their ability to build and, in particular, to finance any developments they propose. Lenders would consider limits on the ability to raise rents as a risk to the repayment of loans, builders said.

“Any progress or advancement that’s being made to produce additional units of new housing will be decimated if good cause eviction in any form is included as part of the budget,” said Long Island Builders Institute chief Mike Florio. “Builders will not build. Period. Stop. The lack of funding and financing will force them to seek projects in other states.”

Association for a Better Long Island’s Kyle Strober called good-cause “an existential threat to housing on Long Island.”

And some builders warned that jobs – and businesses – were at stake.

“It will force our organization and our multifamily development colleagues to exit the state,” Anthony Bartone, a managing partner with Terwilliger Bartone in Farmingdale, told The Point. “Investors and developers will simply make the investment elsewhere, not by choice, by necessity.”

State Sen. Monica Martinez said she’s pushing to remove good cause eviction from the budget altogether.

“Good-cause should be negotiated outside the budget, as it will have a negative impact on small landlords,” Martinez said. “While we need to protect tenants, we must be conscientious of unintended consequences.”

Florio noted that adding good cause eviction to any housing plan would defeat the purpose of the plan itself.

“By doing good-cause, you’re not going to build housing,” Florio said. “You can’t do both.”

What’s more, Long Island builders, elected officials and some housing advocates said, any plan has to take into account the impact on infrastructure, particularly in terms of water and sewer, the desire to maintain local control, and individual communities’ needs.

The concern, they said, is whether Hochul is so committed to the mandates in her original plan that she might end up with a housing compact that doesn’t achieve the goal of building any housing.

“Any housing plan that’s drafted in Albany will only be successful if the folks in Albany are listening to and being responsive to the local communities being affected by it,” said Long Island Association chief executive Matt Cohen.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall