Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday defended her handling of the key sticking points of the late state budget — declaring she “got the sweet spot” on bail reform changes and that the publicly funded new stadium for the Buffalo Bills was justified because other cities were “very interested” in hosting the NFL franchise.
During a pair of TV appearances, Hochul insisted she struck the right balance between maintaining equity and public safety with the agreement she and state lawmakers reached last week to tweak controversial progressive criminal justice policies enacted in 2019.
“We took on the criminal justice issues and [made] sure that the bail reform was revised in a way that was smart. These were tough battles, because there’s a lot of passion on both sides of the debate,” she told the hosts of Fox 5’s “Good Day New York.”
“There are many approaches to deal with here. We had to make sure that more gun, violent crimes were covered under the bail laws. We got that done,” Hochul added. “Repeat offenders – the insanity of seeing people go into drugstores and grocery stores and rob them blind and take things out of there day after day and be able to go back on the street – we stopped that.”
After the state legislature and Hochul passed the spending package, Mayor Eric Adams said there’s “more to be done” before the end of the legislative session in June on roll backs to to the bail reform law — which prevented judges from setting bail in misdemeanors and most non-violent felonies — as the head of the largest NYPD union labeled the changes “window dressing.”
On Tuesday morning, Hochul insisted she and state lawmakers “got the job done” while leaving the door open to further changes to pre-trial policies.
“So we got the job done. And I feel that we are going to be in a better place,” she said. “But truly, until no mother ever has to, the mothers stop burying their children, there’s always gonna be more to do. But when we have the far left and the far right unhappy with it, I know I got the sweet spot. We did the right thing for the people of New York.”
Left out of the reforms enacted as part of the state budget was a so-called “dangerousness standard” — a measure vocally and repeatedly sought by Adams that allows judges to remand those accused of crime they deem a threat to others.
“The word dangerousness is not in there, but that is actually racially latent. … Someone looks at a person’s skin color and they might think someone looks more dangerous than another person. We put in other criteria they have to look at — is there a prior offense, their history of offenses, whether or not there’s an order of protection,” Hochul said on PIX 11.
“So we put in factors to look at that were not there before. We’re accomplishing the same result but making it more objective metrics, instead of one that causes concern in communities of color, and I understand that concern.”
During her TV appearances, Hochul also defended the new Bills stadium deal that threw a wrench in the finals days of the budget process — claiming the region was “at risk” of losing the team to another state due to the Bills’ “crumbling” decades-old venue.
“This is part of the identity of Western New York, just as Broadway helps define New York City,” she added. “This is part of the identity of this area. We were in danger of losing them and I was not going to let that happen.”
“This is the team that plays in New York. I heard a lot about this, but this is a big regional asset for Western New York, as are many projects for other areas,” she added. “We also knew that there are other cities very interested in the Buffalo Bills.”
Additionally, Hochul again defended the public subsidies set aside in the spending plan for the stadium’s construction. Under the agreement, taxpayers are on the hook for a combined 60 percent of the finances, including $600 million from state funds and $250 million from Erie County while NFL and the Bills owners cover $550 million of the $1.4 billion stadium deal.
“[The owner] put in a lot more than they expected. They thought that it should be 100% publicly financed. The state share is 43 percent. But the good news is that with the way it’s structured, we have them here for 30 years,” she said on Fox 5.
“After the first 20-some years, 22 years, it’s paid for by the income tax we’re deriving from the salaries of the players. so we will not be on the hook after 22 years. It’s completely financed, fully covered. So that is what I knew I could talk to the New Yorkers about.”
Hochul also attempted to justify the timing of the deal announcement, which came just four days before the April budget deadline and caught even State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D- Westchester) by surprise.
“And I understand the concern about it, but the reason it waited so long is I had to wait [for] the NFL players meeting – the annual meeting was March 28. I can’t control the timing. I had to make sure they are coming up with their share,” she explained. “And I did not know that, unfortunately, it coincided with the budget negotiations. So on that day when I knew they locked in their share, that we could go forth with ours. So we got the deal done there.
Later Tuesday morning, when asked on PIX 11 if she had any thoughts about disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently taking steps toward a comeback attempt, Hochul replied, “No.”
“I’m running my own race. I have a record to run on,” she continued. “New Yorkers are getting to know me even better, and I get a lot of high-fives when I’m walking the streets of New York.”
And despite the budget being finalized Saturday — nine days past the April 1 deadline — Hochul insisted she had improved Albany’s historically opaque way of doing business for the better.
“They know I’ve changed the whole culture of state government, even our budget process, it didn’t have to be a knock-down, brutal battle like it’s been in the past. There’s more respect for each other. People want to see their leaders getting along. They don’t want to go back to the battles of the mayor of New York and the governor of New York and one-upmanship and all this,” Hochul said, referring to disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo constant frequent antagonism of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“They’re tired of that. They don’t want any more drama,” she added “They want us to stop fighting each other and start fighting for them. That’s what I’ve promised and that’s what I’m going to deliver.”
Hochul’s morning media appearances came before her No. 2, Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, turned himself in to face federal bribery charges tied to fundraising for his unsuccessful 2021 city comptroller campaign.
Additional reporting by Maggie Hicks
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